Digital pays Direct back

New piece just published in AdAge's CMO Strategy column, "How Digital Marketing Can Help Reinvent Direct Marketing." It talks about digital as good apprentice who has grown up, while direct is a bit stuck in one-to-one of a perfected past. Provides some lessons which we're going to apply at OgilvyOne to direct marketing and unstuck it for the modern era.

I had submitted it with a more provocative title from Bryan: Digital has learned so much from direct. It's time to pay it back.

Instant Gratification Was Fast Enough

I just finished my five-week writing class, "Instant Gratification Isn't Fast Enough."

Let by Susan Shapiro, it was a terrific hands-on, uber-practical, no-nonsense dive into the world of creating and selling your work to publications. She does a great job of demystifying publishing and also fostering a workshop-like environment and giving tough critique to work we bring in based on her curriculum. Excited, too, to have so quickly built up a bit of a better nonfiction portfolio and know better how to creatework that sells and even have started to send out some of the essays, op-eds, and service pieces.

Sue Shapiro, a journalism professor at The New School and NYU, also has a new book Speed Shrinking coming out August 4. Pre-order it here. Sure to be hilarious.

Where is my bus?

I was so excited to see how Chicago bus systems let you track your bus from your phone, so you know how long you have to wait for the next bus. Especially helpful if you're in the cold or in a rush and debating between bus, walking or cab. Apparently, Portland and a few other cities are also already doing smart stuff like this.

New York's MTA was planning on rolling out something like it and started with a test starting in 2006, but in February, the MTA pulled the plug on the pilot for GPS for NYC Buses. So disappointed about this, especially now that I'm commuting mostly by bus to work on 11th Avenue.

New York should be on the forefront of innovation. Will research the excuses.