Last week I was interviewed by Steve McClellan of Adweek to discuss the media auction process that I spoke about during the ANA TV meeting in spring of 2005. It was fun to look at what has happened, or hasn’t in the past five years. I still believe that there is a great deal of opportunity to reformulate the buying and selling process even if it is not exactly what we proposed in 2005. Read below for the article and others POV’s. Upfront Preview: Behind the Bust Auction-based systems to buy TV time were supposed to kill the upfront. What went wrong? And is there still something to...

Over the past week I have been asked numerous times about my thoughts on Toyota and its recall woes. This past Thursday, I spoke live with Brian Sullivan and Dagen McDowell on Fox Business News on this topic as well. There is no shortage of opinion and while I am not a fan of Monday morning quarterbacking, I do think that there are steps that should be taken to mitigate the damage. Click to read the full post

I have been asked to write for AOL Autos as a blog contributor. The section is called Slash Marketing by Julie Roehm. I write at least once a week and will keep this link up on my homepage here so that you can easily connect to it and comment.  This week I have an entry on Chevy dropping its tagline as well as an entry on what to expect from the autos in the Superbowl. Feel free to comment either here or there.  I hope you enjoy!

No one can dispute the power of the Cadillac brand. Its identity is so strong that it lingers in our cultural consciousness — and that’s precisely the problem. First, Cadillac couldn’t shake the decades-old association with drivers “between the age of 80 and deceased,” as former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca said. Then a half a dozen years ago, the brand acquired new status among the hip-hop crowd, which enthroned the $60,000 Cadillac Escalade as the ride of choice. It’s not that General Motors hasn’t been trying to change Cadillac’s image and broaden the cars’ appeal. The embattled...

Instead of commenting on the retail sectors ups and downs for this past weekend (looks like shopping was up but basket size was down), I thought I would write about my favorite apps for the holiday shopping season. I spent about two hours online last night searching for gifts for the kids on my Christmas list and did manage to find some great deals.  But now that the deals have expired and I still have some shopping to do, I am tapping, literally, into some retail apps to help me find the best deals. *RedLaser*:  I like this one a lot.  I was at Target this morning and scanned a toy with my...

What changes are coming? Roehm: With the further development of video on demand, IPTV, mobile, and many other emerging media opportunities, we have seen several “bad” user experiences. All too often, the focus is on “if we build it they will come” or “technology for the sake of technology.” Finally, we are seeing more and more content distribution companies match the channel and devices to the message or content; thus, creating a positive user experience. However, we need to keep in mind that sometimes everyone just wants to sloth on the sofa and not have to “work” to consume media...

I am going to be attending the iMedia conference in October in Nevada and plan to host a round table where I would like to discuss the fact that the digital spend of advertisers continues to either stay flat or grow very little while the consumers usage of digital mediums grows and is WELL beyond the 5% digital budget allocation. My point is that we go to these conferences and here the positive spin on this and I think it is time we speak more frankly about what the hell is going on! When I was at Chrysler, we had our digital budgets near 10% and that was 5 years ago. (see http://adage.com/article?article_id=105108)...

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Last week, Shelly Palmer wrote an article regarding the definition of broadband and some of the issues facing us as a nation as our government seeks to make new laws that will have an impact on our future for a very long time. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this article. Last week, Shelly Palmer wrote an article regarding the definition of broadband and some of the issues facing us as a nation as our government seeks to make new laws that will have an impact on our future for a very long time. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this article. Over the next few weeks, the FCC is going...

Interview with Jane Genova: THE NEW YORK TIMES puts the question out there: Can GM make it back?  I would reframe the issue as: What kinds of odds are the smart-money folks giving to a GM reset? To answer this question, I caught up with Julie Roehm who has down cold the auto industry. Roehm is a marketing guru known for creativity and the know-how/courage to implement ideas.  She was able to do just that in the car world of Detroit, both at Ford and Chrysler.  Among her homeruns was making the Ford Focus cool.  Currently, she travels the globe doing marketing for a range of industries. Here...