Today's CMO's matter only if they don't behave like yesterday's CMO's.

Editor's note: Yes, I know I just posted a few days ago that I won't have as much time as I used to have to write on my own blog. And here I am, only a few days later with a post. Let's just say that the writing bug hit me after going through a couple of documents in my inbox.

Over the last few months, a couple of reports were released that highlight the challenges the modern CMO faces. Yeah, how is that even news?

The fact that the CMO role is profoundly changing and will continue to change isn't really news. But what these studies provide is a unique multi-faceted prism outlining the kinds of changes and pressures that are pulling the CMO in all kinds of directions.

Let’s review.

I have a new residency!

Further to my previous post about my contributions to Online Spin over at Mediapost, I must have done something right, or Joseph Jaffe must have done something really bad (more likely!) and I am now happy to tell you you can find me there every Monday. Which means I am from now on required to write something controversial, witty and poignant every weekend. Yay for me. Wish me luck!

Given this awesome responsibility, I do not have the time to write many updates here. But if you have subscribed to this blog you will receive updates when I do. In the meantime, sign up for Mediapost's Online Spin (and my weekly contributions) via this link: http://bit.ly/1iTp6JV.

Here is one I made earlier: food for thought from controversy served daily

Some of you may know that I have taken a blog post residency over on Mediapost’s Online Spin. Every other Monday I am sharing my take on “controversy served daily”, alternating with my “Z.E.R.O.” co-author Joseph Jaffe. Other contributors include Max Kalehoff (SVP Marketing at Socialcode), Dave Morgan (CEO, Simulmedia), Joe Marchese (CEO of true[X]), Cory Treffiletti, SVP Marketing BlueKai and others. Yeah, I know, what the heck am I doing in that group, right?

Dear traditional TV broadcasters: don't be Blackberry!

If you go by the numbers, TV is Coca-Cola. It is a massive “brand” with universal awareness, recognition, even love. But at the same time, it is stuck and refuses to grow market share while it is being attacked by newcomers in the category that we could never have imagined when Coke launched. Depending on whose numbers you believe, TV as well as Coke has been delivering flat or marginal market share numbers, and in some target groups delivering even the dreaded “negative growth”.

Google Glass – my first 24 hours

I picked up my Google Glass (glasses?) yesterday at the Google Glass location at the Chelsea Market in NYC. You, my dear readers, expressed a lot of interest in what the experience is like when I posted a few weeks back that I was selected by Google to become a Glass Explorer.

So here we go.

The gap between The Coca-Cola Company and The Gap

Two articles grabbed my attention over the last couple of days. One talked about The Gap suspending advertising in the fourth quarter in the United States. And one talked about The Coca-Cola Company suspending advertising in The Philippines. One company got it absolutely right, and one is stuck in 1995.

Let’s review…

The memo the print media didn't get: increase ad rates with every decrease in readership

As many of you are aware, I have recently become a published author, in collaboration with my good friend Joseph Jaffe (@jaffejuice).

Our book “Z.E.R.O.; zero paid media as the new marketing model” has been out for a few weeks and we are beginning to have truly interesting conversations with readers all over the whole world.

One of our contentions in the book (and one where, according to Joseph, I am more bullish – in a bad way for the industry – than he is), is that “the big one is coming.” Big what?

This: If you look at the sum of current trends, traditional media is incrementalizing itself out of the marketing mix. Permanently. And if you, as an advertiser, are not prepared to evolve into a different mix, you/your brands will likely go the way of Blackberry, Kodak, Pets.Com, print media, the Dodo and the Dinosaur.

So let’s look at the facts.