Projects That Changed Marketing

The following are my major projects that have dramatically, in some cases, changed marketing forever. It was a privilege to be early and in a position of influence to impact the business I happened to love.

2001

Turnaround of IAB — Interactive Advertising Bureau

In 2001, the Chair of the IAB, Shelby Bonnie (co-founder and CEO of CNET), asked if I, as a board member, would step in to run the IAB until the board figured out what to do with a then failing trade association.

"I told him I would step in for 3-6 months, but that's it. I didn't want to run a non-profit— as I said at that time, 'that would be the dumbest f'ing thing I could do.' So much for knowing what is best for me."

Four months later, I agreed to assume longer-term leadership. At the time, the IAB had only 29 members and $1 million in revenue. Today it's approximately 650 members with $25M in revenue.

Key Milestones Achieved

Secured Financial Support for Turnaround: In an exceptionally unusual move for a non-profit, we raised $5.8 million in funding to accelerate the growth of online advertising, which was around $8B total in 2001.
Developed and Validated Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA): Through the Cross Media Optimization Study (XMOS) project, we developed MTA to accurately measure the effectiveness of internet advertising within the broader marketing mix.
Set Optimal Digital Ad Spend for Marketers: Via MTA powered XMOS series we proved that internet advertising should constitute over 25% of marketing budgets (vs. the 5% marketers were spending).
Established Standardized Ad Formats: Within 18 months, we moved the whole industry from a painful 900 disparate ad sizes to four standardized IAB ad units accounting for 85% of inventory.
Developed Technical Standard for Ad Impression Measurement: Wrote the technical specs that removed the insane and untrusted flux in the industry 'currency' for ad impressions, now known as viewability.
Strengthened Financial Foundation: Annual membership dues from Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL moved from $50,000 to $500,000 in just five years.
Developed Licensing Framework for Global Expansion: Now supports IABs in 42 countries.

I left in 2006 to go back to my Silicon Valley roots and invest in, join boards, work with Sand Hill Road VCs, and guide early-stage businesses. It was a bet innovation would continue— I was right as the businesses I supported eventually transacted for $5.5 billion.

Current

Turnaround of MMA Global as CEO

When I assumed leadership as CEO, MMA had $4.7 million in annual revenue and focused on Mobile. Today, we are approaching $20 million, reflecting significant growth and impact for CMOs in adapting to the future.

MMA Global is a worldwide trade association empowering Chief Marketing Officers from large enterprises such as GM, AT&T, Uber, Kellanova, Novartis, AB InBev, and many more. Representing over 800 corporate members, MMA unites leading brands, tech platforms, data providers, social media companies, and agencies to transform modern marketing (including Meta, Google, Amazon, Snap, X, etc.).

800+Corporate Members

16Countries

4xRevenue Growth

Mission: "Make marketing matter, much more."

MMA operates in 16 countries, with a team spread across key regional global hubs, including Singapore, London, São Paulo, and Istanbul.

2000-2005

Co-Founder of Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA)

In 2000, Microsoft approached Rex Briggs, a leading expert and inventor in marketing measurement, with a question: could the internet be accurately measured as part of the overall marketing mix? At the time, no such method existed.

Rex initially requested $50,000 to explore the concept and later returned with a revolutionary new approach to marketing mix measurement, estimating that each study would require collecting over 10,000 consumer responses and cost $125,000.

Unilever and Toyota became the first brands to commit to this groundbreaking effort. Their involvement laid the foundation for what would later be known as Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA).

The Ford F-150 Study

The Ford study, centered on the F-150, revolutionized our understanding of the internet's role in the marketing mix. It demonstrated that including internet advertising in the mix increased F-150 sales by approximately 25%.

Key finding: Ads running on the homepages of platforms like Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft produced more reach in a single day than television could.

Between 2002 and 2005, several major brands participated in XMOS (Cross-Media Optimization Studies), including Colgate-Palmolive, ING, Universal, Philips, and Ford. These studies provided groundbreaking insights into how to optimize the media mix for maximum marketing effectiveness.

While Rex is clearly the technical wizard behind MTA, he has pointed out that without my support in resources, solicitation of marketers, garnering industry adoption, and leveraging the IAB's event platform, MTA would not have achieved the impact it has today.

As of 2024, MTA is used by 52% of major marketers and is the only approach that allows marketers to "find veins of gold" in their go-to-market campaigns. The culmination of this effort was captured in the book "What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Fails and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds", based on over $1 billion in advertising research.

2004

Developed Digital Ad Impression Standard

In May 2004, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), in collaboration with the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), introduced the first standardized guidelines for measuring online advertising impressions. These guidelines aimed to establish a consistent framework for counting online ad impressions, thereby enhancing trust and transparency between advertisers and publishers.

Prior to these guidelines, ad impression counts could swing from –50% to +100% on the same campaign, leaving buyers with no idea what they actually bought. It was a mess and denigrated internet advertising.

Industry Collaboration

Todd Teresi, then at Yahoo, was instrumental in getting this done and accepted by the world. It was said this required the install of 1,000s of new servers, would cost $5M in cap ex and might lower Yahoo revenue by $30-50M. To his and Wenda Harris Millard's foresight, they knew it was the right thing to do.

The development of these standards involved collaboration among key industry bodies, including the MRC and the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF). In Europe, ESOMAR supported the initiative, contributing to a unified approach to online ad measurement.

The adoption was widespread, with support from major online publishers and approximately 29 major online advertising server technologies worldwide, simplifying the buying and selling process for advertisers, marketers, and publishers.

In 2014, the standard was updated to include viewability metrics, further refining the measurement of ad impressions by assessing whether an ad was actually in view, thereby improving the accuracy and effectiveness of digital advertising measurements.

8 Years Ago

Led Development of MarCaps Framework

As CEO of MMA Global, I have had the privilege of collaborating with MarCaps LLC, led by esteemed marketing professors Dr. Omar Rodríguez Vilá, Dr. Neil Morgan, and Dr. Sundar Bharadwaj, to advance the effectiveness of marketing organizations conducted under the MMA's Marketing Organization Strategy Think Tank (MOSTT).

This initiative, launched at the behest of The Coca-Cola Company, focuses on aligning marketing capabilities with a firm's growth strategy to enhance performance and drive business success.

6 Value Areas

Customer Value: Exchange, Experience, Engagement
Company Value: Strategic, Operational, Knowledge

90 Capabilities

Specific marketing capabilities mapped to guide organizations in capability development

Proven Impact

Firms with high alignment between their marketing capabilities and growth strategies report significantly higher satisfaction with growth and superior financial outcomes. Companies with high marketing-capability fit have reported 3x the level of growth satisfaction compared to those with low fit.

This line of work, initiated by me based on a request by The Coca-Cola Company, is considered among the most important in my career.

Recent

Led Development of Brand as Performance (BaP)

The Brand as Performance (BaP) Research Initiative by MMA Global addresses the critical challenge of balancing long-term brand-building with short-term performance marketing—a top concern for Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) over the past five years. Developed by Joel Rubinson, BaP introduces a novel methodology to provide scientific evidence guiding marketers in optimizing this balance.

Participating Brands

Ally FinancialKrogerCampbell'sAT&T

Research Methodology

Extensive Consumer Tracking: Monitoring media exposure, brand attitudes, and sales data of approximately 600,000 consumers over a 12-month period.
Brand Favorability Analysis: Assessing how consumers with high brand favorability are more likely to convert, and determining the longevity of this effect.
Media Tactic Evaluation: Creating leaderboards of media tactics based on their short-term and long-term contributions to brand-building and performance outcomes.
Targeting Strategies: Identifying optimal consumer segments for media targeting to enhance both immediate returns and sustained growth.

Key Findings

Consumers with high brand favorability are significantly more likely to convert, with this effect persisting over time, indicating a long-term annuity rather than a short-lived impact. The "Movable Middle" consumer segments show higher responsiveness to targeted media efforts, offering opportunities for enhanced return on ad spend.

The BaP initiative provides marketers with a data-driven framework to effectively balance brand-building and performance marketing. This comprehensive approach may contribute to the development of a new growth framework for brands, maximizing multi-year returns.