THE 30-SECOND TAKE AI is entering the physical world, and the race isn’t for the smartest model anymore. It’s for who owns your context. Apple just signed a multi-year deal to power Siri with Google’s Gemini while simultaneously racing to put AI in a wearable pin. The shift is clear: competitive advantage has moved from… Read More
What “Self-Service” Really Means
Marketing promises: “No technical resources needed!” Marketing reality: “Let me Slack the data team again.” Every “self-service” CDP still routes through IT. The only question is how many tickets. The bottleneck isn’t the tool. It’s the org chart. The market reality in 2026 makes this paradox even more stark. While vendors continue positioning their platforms… Read More
The 22% Problem
Only 22% of marketers actually use their CDP. Not “use it a little.” Use it at all. The other 78% have a very expensive database they occasionally log into. Technology doesn’t solve utilisation problems. Strategy does. The data quality crisis has only intensified since this post. Recent industry benchmarks from Forrester’s 2025 Customer Data Platform… Read More
What “Real-Time” Actually Costs
Real-time sounds impressive in the demo. Then you see the invoice. Refreshing 100 segments hourly instead of daily: 25x the compute cost. Every 5 minutes? 50x. The math doesn’t lie. Neither does your budget. Most of what we call “urgent” can wait until tomorrow. The economics of real-time data have shifted dramatically as cloud costs… Read More
The Future of Data-Driven Marketing: Server-Side Tracking and First-Party Data
Data-driven marketing is a marketing approach where decisions, targeting, and creative are guided by customer data rather than assumptions. As third-party cookies disappear due to privacy regulations like GDPR and changes such as Apple’s iOS 14 update, the industry is shifting to server-side tagging, Conversions API (CAPI), and first-party data collection through loyalty programs and… Read More
The Orchestration Imperative: Mastering First-Party Data for a Transformative Future
In today’s ever-evolving digital landscape, first-party data has emerged as both a challenge and an opportunity. The privacy tide is rising. Traditional tools like third-party cookies are fading. As a result, businesses are re-evaluating their approach to understanding and engaging with customers. Yet, midst this complexity, one principle stands out: orchestration. Orchestration isn’t just about… Read More
How deep work is relevant for your career
I originally posted this article to LinkedIn. Deep work! It’s been called the No 1 job skill that will never become obsolete. But it’s become even more difficult as email notifications have developed a COVID-driven twin in the form of Teams/Slack/Skype messages, doubling the number of distractions. Firstly, if you don’t know what deep work… Read More
Time management for digital marketers
Have you found yourself overwhelmed by your responsibilities? Are you stuck executing sub-optimal tasks and tactics because you haven’t had time to develop the strategy to the level you want it? Time management is a buzzword, but there is a good reason for that. Digital marketers are more and more busy. And if you have… Read More
The Role of Emotions and Influencing in Marketing
Marketing that makes people buy is almost always emotionally driven. There is research out there that concludes that people are more likely to make an emotional judgment over a rational judgment when making buying decisions. Cialdini’s six principles of persuasion are a masterpiece of research, and most of the important tricks we marketers use, or… Read More
Pal Erik Waagbo 