Dax Hamman

✍🏼 Codify your process for nurturing referrals It is a tough climate for agencies across the board right now, but among those that continue to win against the hardest headwinds are those that have a well-oiled referral system. For most agencies this is a critical lead source, yet many have no formalised system. This should include defined and relevant incentives, how to create triggers for referrals, how to nurture referee relationships and how to measure impact. This system should sit at the heart of your growth strategy. #agency #newbusiness #businessdevelopment #growth #NBfirestarters

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In today’s Marketecture newsletter, in the context of the recent attention directed at the business model of Honey, the POS coupon surfacing service, Ari Paparo asks whether CMOs should be intimately familiar with the machinations of their marketing channels. My response is that they absolutely should — that understanding where budget is deployed and how those recipient channels deliver value is the essence of the CMO role. I don’t think there’s any level of altitude, or any scale of operational complexity, that absolves a CMO of that obligation. But this doesn’t necessitate that a CMO fundamentally understand the business model of Honey (or any other affiliate-like channel) specifically. Rather, it entails instilling a culture of disciplined analytical rigor within the organization. A CMO can be completely unaware of Honey’s commercial model while still demanding that the marketing team test it (and every other channel) for incremental impact.

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Life’s too short to introduce shit AI products into your company so you can scale. So often questions are posed on here such as ‘have you considered how AI can influence eVeRyThInG?’ but barely reference a very specific action = outcome. ‼️ Indy agencies & marketers & seed stage founders: got an online demo webinar feat. Upflowy founder Guillaume Ang tmrw, you’re invited to see what good AI looks like. As a marketer, the main constraint often is time. Time to execute. Content doesn’t just *snap fingers, happens* It requires hands, for the most menial and mundane of tasks to do ‘marketing ops’ which to be frank, is a painful and highly bang-head-against-the-wall task for a marketer who is asked to ‘fill the funnel, make it go viral!’ Within marketing agencies who have clients they need to serve with campaigns, but are constrained by being able to provide the actual assets they require to deploy said game-changing campaign. Within seed+ tech companies who have lean marketing teams with marketing operators only able to do so much with the limited time they have in a day while they do 20 other jobs. Within service providers who seek to have an online bespoke presence in geographies and specific positioning Within consumer goods providers who want to ship a landing page for every SKU and inventory item they could possibly think of I am running this demo gathering tomorrow noon (AEDT) with Guillaume, as he showcases ‘Psyke’ - Upflowy’s next play in market; a neuroscience+AI platform helping marketing ship campaign creation at scale, in hours not days/weeks. I cannot reiterate how much Psyke is NOT SHIT. It is a magical beast, and it has been awesome getting involved in this team who are creating something that will redefine marketing ops, and show how every keyword you hold dear, can be turned into something that is on-brand, on-site, shipped, and *doing the SEO thing you need it to do* I barely run events anymore. This one, as we showcase and invite any and all feedback, will be something I believe will be a huge mental unlock for people thinking about how they can scale in 2025 onwards, but just need the top-of-the-funnel aiding tool to get them there. Tagging marketers and founders (most from Tractor days) I think would get a kick out of this- tell someone who gives a shit about knowing what 2025 should look like in growing their challenger brand. And DM me if interested. Don’t love selling, and since this is demo phase, I’m not. But I do love telling a fucking great story, and this is a good one. (*presses post at 2.37*) Adam Grocke, Adrian Edwards, Alexandria Garlan, Ally Watson OAM, Ami Bateman, ⍙ Amy Springer, Annie Liao 🇦🇺, Anthony Curtin, Ash Kirvan, axel sukianto, Ben Colley, Carolyn Stebbing, Chanel Clark, Cherie Clonan, Christopher Bartlett 🔸, Chris Hoffmann, Chris Nasr, Claire B., 🌞 Dan Brockwell, Daniel Lyas, Dan Siepen, Daniel Kagan, Daniel Ouliaris, Daniele Tanner, Danny Phillips, Dave King, David Tu-Hoa cont.

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Turn one event into 2.8+ million impressions? New case study w/ Vin Matano 🐝 and Demandbase out now! - Follow our DICE framework to maximize your event ROI so you don’t have to roll the dice with in-person content. D-esign I-deate C-apture E-dit - DESIGN your event content plan before the event. Factor the RSVP list, influencer partners, and key marketing messaging before the start time. This will inform the topic selection and shot planning during the event. The more homework you do upfront, the easier it is to hit a home run at the event. IDEATE on content topics and thoroughly prepare. Be intentional and formulate a concrete shooting plan. This can include video topics, storyboarding, branding, and questions for the participants. You want to focus primarily on execution during the event, so it’s key to get the preparation in order. CAPTURE your event in a versatile manner. Now that you have your content plan, you can focus on 1) DOCUMENTING the event and 2) CREATING original content at the event. You want a fair balance of both so you can produce versatile videos (short form, interviews, hype video, recap, long form) with original b-roll. EDIT your raw assets into usable content. Think carefully about how you want to distribute the content. Fast-paced short form is great for organic social while more cinematic shots can serve as promotional reel for future events and sponsor activation. DO NOT post anything raw. Create with audience enjoyment top of mind. - Watch the full video for a detailed breakdown. Hosting an event and interested in turning it into a content factory? Hit up EventShark 🦈

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INTERVIEWS OF 2024 SXSW PITCH WINNERS: Dhavel Patel of Lotus Every March in Austin, 50 of the world's most impactful startups showcase their talents at SXSW Pitch. Today we begin a series of short interviews with some of the category winners from the 2024 event. Founder and CEO Dhaval Patel has been growing Lotus for three years. At this year's SXSW Pitch, his San Jose based startup emerged as the winner of the "Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability" category. Patel's short answers to our questions are below. SXSW: What is Lotus?  Patel: A wearable ring that controls objects at home by pointing. See https://www.getlotus.com/ SXSW: What community does Lotus serve? Patel: Folks with limited mobility -- older adults, veteran soldiers, people with disabilities.  SXSW: Who is your all-time favorite entrepreneur? Patel: Warren Buffett. SXSW: Best startup-related advice you have received? Patel: Don't start building first, find the need first. SXSW: Current entrepreneurial trend that excites you the most? Patel: Desire for tech that is intuitive and simple. SXSW: Fail fast or perseverance? Patel: Persevere in failing fast repeatedly. SXSW: Favorite VC? Patel: Andreessen Horowitz. SXSW: Favorite gadget or device? Patel: Apple AirPods. SXSW: Government can best support startups by Patel: Moving faster. SXSW: Most over-hyped technology at present? Patel: AI. SXSW: Most under-hyped technology at present? Patel: Consumer hardware. SXSW: What did you enjoy most about your experience at SXSW? Patel: The people -- each person wanting to make the world a better place. SXSW: What is your best trait as an entrepreneur? Patel: Simplifying complex problems. SXSW: What is your best advice for other startups? Patel: Focus (say "no" to more). Learn more about Dhaval Patel of Lotus plus other 2024 SXSW Pitch winners by listening to the audio of their session at this year's event. See https://lnkd.in/gHtwQB8n Applications for SXSW Pitch 2025 will open in late summer. See https://lnkd.in/gE2hcVPK #sxsw, #sxsw2024, #startups, #founders, Chris Valentine, Dhaval Patel, SXSW, #venturecapital, #entrepreneur, #entrepreneurs, #startup, #founderstories, #sxswpitch, Lotus (Techstars'23), #techstars, #Austin, #ATX, #creativity, #innovation, #hardware, #consumerhardware, #pitch, #accessibility,

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I've spent two weeks testing out the performance of the new Google TV Streamer. A quick take, "The Google TV Streamer is a solid 4K streaming device that’s aiming to do more than just stream Netflix or recommend a free movie. For anyone considering the Google TV Streamer, the decision may come down to a simple choice: do you just want a 4K streaming device, or something that can also serve as a sort of traffic controller for smart home devices around your house?" https://lnkd.in/ezGtdvzV #StreamingTV #Google TV #Google

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A killer blueprint for how to maximize value on premium domains. Friend.com founder @AviSchiffmann recouping his $1.8M investment in less than a week? I’d call that a win! 🏆 #domains #branding #growthhacking

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A marketing measurement perspective that I don't see represented often is that, for a substantial proportion of advertisers, last-click really is optimal. If a fairly new mobile app with low TAM penetration scales exclusively on Facebook, how much actionable insight is gained by introducing complex measurement machinery? While I'm certainly guilty of advocating it, the viewpoint that more sophisticated measurement infrastructure is always better strikes me as overly generalized. In certain contexts, orchestrating experiments or building, tuning, and deploying probabilistic models probably won't meaningfully impact advertising efficiency. And in those specific (again: not all!) contexts, with limited data and a homogenous (possibly, single-channel) channel mix, reducing interpretability and overhead might do more harm than good. Creating complexity where last-click may perform just as well as an ensemble of methodologies doesn't actually optimize the bias/variance tradeoff -- it may not reduce bias sufficiently to compensate for a large increase in variance.

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X’s broken strategy with brand advertising Elon Musk has owned Twitter / X for nearly two years, since October 2022. From my perspective, X has made very few improvements to its direct response advertising tools in that time. That X is still locking horns with brand advertisers and taking increasingly desperate and severe measures to convince them to remain on the platform is proof of this fact. And while some might claim that X is structurally incapable of supporting scaled performance advertising, Reddit’s Q2 2024 earnings results suggest otherwise.

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Agencies shouldn't have advertised minimums. Yet...many do. I hear the following from agencies, often. "If they don't have $X per month, we don't want to chat with them" A better reframe is "most of our clients spend $X per month with us" The reason I think it's worth it to explore, most of the time, is because I see budgets balloon every single day. In 2024 alone, I've seen the following. - Brand came to me with a budget of $20k/mo. Ended up signing a retainer for close to $100k/mo. - Brand came to me with a budget of $7k/mo. Ended up signing a retainer for $15k/mo. - Brand came to me with a budget of $10k/mo. Ended up signing a retainer for $30k/mo. - Brand came to me with a (project) budget of $50k. Ended up with a budget of $200k. Agencies who want to grow, should explore. They have to. You'll potentially waste some time. But, you'll potentially find some great clients. When agencies tell me they have minimums, I joke, that brands don't always walk around with a sign on their forehead with their budget on it. To get to the big budgets, you have to be willing to talk about the small stuff, sometimes. If you do, and you think long term v short, over time, you'll be really really really really really glad you did.

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The C2M model represents what I think is the single largest white space opportunity in the creator economy ShopMy.us, LTK, Shopify Collabs etc have put commerce power in creators' hands, but they're constrained by traditional inventory / wholesale models…. There’s been a 226% increase in people creating videos on #dropshipping in the last 2 months… something I think is worth paying attention to The C2M model could revolutionize the creator economy by: Allowing for hyper-personalized product lines Enabling rapid testing and iteration of product ideas Providing a more authentic connection between creators and their audience through custom products And democratizing product creation and distribution But it's got to be the right product and this is where we have the most work to do We need not only AI-driven trend analysis to inform product decisions but most importantly AI that connects it to community The real power lies in transforming communities from reactive entities into proactive, self-sustaining ecosystems that generate their own demand It shifts power from brands that buy products up to 18 months in advance of any known consumer demand to real time communities of engaged individuals, potentially leading to more diverse, responsive, and innovative products lines that don't create waste because the demand is attached directly to a network of high quality / direct response suppliers capable of all lifestyle categories How can you be consumer centric when your product takes 18 months and your content takes 6 the potential for disruption and value creation is enormous when you attach this model to real time media and entertainment and generative ai capabilities This shift doesn't just change how products are made and sold—it revolutionizes entire industries esp when you apply shared profit models The true C2M model, powered by engaged communities and real-time production capabilities will rewrite not only commerce, but creativity, and community engagement It's not just an evolution of existing models, but a revolution that could reshape our economic landscape We desperately need to do something because fashion is the second-largest CULTURE RELATED industry after film and television And its dominant business model is from last century Design products to sell a year later -> advertise to create demand -> hope for revenue it no longer works in a world of AI-assisted user-generated cinema level content and commerce #thegreatfashionreset #communitytomanufacturer #communitycommerce #contentistheproduct #creatorsarethestore

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Back in 1997, The New York Times highlighted a “Roundtable in Multimedia” attended by senior media executives. They lamented that apart from a few exceptions like pornography websites and Amazon, no one had cracked the code for a viable 'interactive' media business model. Fast forward to 2024, and Fable has launched Showrunner, a revolutionary platform known as the “Netflix of AI" , which allows users to create their own TV shows with just a few prompts. 📺✨ The way we create and consume content has evolved dramatically. But what does "interactive media" really mean today? We break it down, exploring how it intersects with massive shifts in technology, culture, and new media. And how with a growing "Swipe before Type" generation, there is now an ingrained expectation of interactivity in all digital experiences. We dive into the future of interactive media and gaming and see where we're headed next! Link in comments. #InteractiveMedia #Gaming #AI #TechRevolution #ContentCreation #NewMedia

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TL;DR: Keep blasting emails and you’ll find yourself decreasing your database exponentially very soon. 😑 Gmail is at it again! It looks like they are set to release a new "manage subscriptions" on the side menu that will let you easily unsubscribe from bulk mailers. This looks to be another impactful challenge for companies who do not have a strong segmentation strategy and depend on blasting newsletters to everyone instead of targeted lifecycle campaigns. I imagine I’ll hear from quite a few concerned folks on the sending side of this ecosystem when those unsubscribe rates start to skyrocket. Don’t panic! Reach out if you are stuck with this and need some help to improve your email program as remember, an engaged list is a more profitable list. 🤑 #EmailMarketing

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Struggling to scale your ad campaigns? Here’s why. For 12 years I ran an ad agency specializing in profitably scaling ads. Here’s what I learned about why most ad campaigns fail to scale. - *Myth:* You can jump straight from inconsistency to scale. - *Reality:* Consistency is the crucial foundation for scalability. Focus on achieving consistent ad performance before attempting to scale. This creates a solid foundation for growth. Ensure your ads perform consistently over a period (e.g., 3 months) before increasing the budget. Consistency is the stepping stone to scalable success. Want help with your ads for FREE? Join the Flywheel coaching community for our weekly calls and get help with your ads. Join us here: https://lnkd.in/gxJCmfPs Have you faced challenges scaling your ad campaigns? Let’s share our experiences and learn from each other.

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Video put together for Zillow Is AI getting out of hand? Or paying $1,000s for UGC creators + usage rights is out of hand? I think the latter if you want to make videos like this for 2% of the cost Comment UGC and I'll send you the link (must be following)

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Billboards are bigger than ever. "Up until a few years ago, out of home advertising was measured in isolation. It was measured by, ‘We put the billboard up. What was the percentage lift in same-store sales?’” Chris Gadek, CEO of out-of-home advertising platform AdQuick, said. “Now we have the ability to demonstrate that out of home performs better or worse than — in most cases we’re finding better than — TV, radio, paid social, you name it.” Out-of-home budgets, Gadek says, are going to increase because customers can finally quantify its value. Read more of Rani Molla's great piece on Sherwood News with great insights from OAAA's Anna Bager, PJX Media's Rick Robinson, and Shingy >> in the first comment Photo: Colossal Media

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AI-first fatigue is overwhelming us as Mitch Grothaus points out here: https://lnkd.in/g5ryKVq4. It's time we helped buyers understand how products use AI and GenAI. Does a company train its own LLMs or develop its own RAG models or does it just provide a thin veneer over APIs provided by LLM vendors? Would a framework that anyone can use to evaluate vendor claims help? A similar effort in the IT services industry (https://lnkd.in/gf-633dq) years ago helped IT departments understand the capabilities of IT service vendors, morphed into an ISO standard and ultimately created a larger market for IT services. Look for a follow up post that proposes a similar framework for GenAI applications! #AI #GenAI

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Ever thought of having Justin Bieber as your customer? Simon Beard shares how Justin Bieber came in his store and spent $10,000 😮 Full podcast links are in the comments below👇 #theflipside #theflipsidepodcast #podcast #clothingbrand #ceo #clothing #streetwear #justinbieber #sales #store #celebrity #business #fashion

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125 Spam Terms Killing Your Deliverability + The AI Prompt to Fix Them in Clay – (Free for 12 Hours) Most people have no idea why their emails keep getting flagged as spam. They just keep firing off emails, hoping something sticks. And then they wonder why their open rates tank. David Emanuel Moreira and I have spent the time testing, breaking down, and perfecting what words kill your deliverability—and how to fix them. This isn't theory. This is what works. Here’s what you’ll get: ✅ The 125 Spam Words Killing Your Open Rates ✅ The AI Prompts You Can Drop Straight into Clay   ✅ The Process to Remove Spam Terms from Your Email Copy, Step-by-Step For the next 12 hours, it’s free. No strings, no BS. Here’s what you do to get it: 👍 Like this post   💬 Comment "SPAM" below   🔗 Make sure we’re connected Get it, use it, and watch your emails actually make it to where they’re supposed to go.

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