Michael Farmer

Author, Madison Avenue Manslaughter

Madison

Media

As seen in: The Telegraph, PLOS ONE, NBA.com, Substack, BioRxiv, Media Village, loveEXPLORING, HispanicAd.com

Covers: The effect of strategic changes on marketing organizations. The need for CEOs and CMOs to adjust their operations and expectations in light of strategic changes.

Doesn't Cover: The effectiveness of specific advertising executions.

Author of Madison Avenue Manslaughter Author of Madison Avenue Makeover Industry Consultant Professor of Branding & Integrated Communications at CCNY

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Has marketing investment in digital and social been effective?

Major advertisers have shown little growth in sales since 2009 -- even though stock prices have risen.

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CEOs, Shareholder Value and the Decline of Marketing Risk-Taking

Has the pursuit of growing share prices and high C-Suite compensation turned Marketing into a cost-reduction …

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Are Holding Companies Ready for a Phase III Strategy?

Phase I -- 1980s to 2005 -- acquire and squeeze; Phase II -- 2005 to 2022 -- pitch holding company relationsh…

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Complexity is killing marketing relationships

Increased complexity has become the new standard in marketing. Increased complexity has been created in an at…

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GALE, the Business Agency, Reveals its Successful Growth Strategy

GALE's 80% average annual growth rate catches the advertising industry's attention: an interview with Brad Si…

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Hey, Madison Avenue: Buckle your Seatbelts! -- you could have a bumpy ride in 2024

Your growing digital and social Scopes of Work have generated decades of fees -- but failed to deliver reliab…

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CMOs Who Seek Higher Sales Growth Have Three Strategic Options (after abandoning "business as usu...

Neither holding company relationships nor frequent agency reviews nor omnichannel scopes of work have deliver…

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Madison Avenue's Urgent Need: AI Risk / Opportunity Assessments

AI is a two-headed Janus -- one face looking to the future and the other at the past. The AI future is positi…

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The Overwhelming Complexity of Digital / Social Marketing Creates Problems of its Own

Scope of work focus is now needed to simplify decision-making and improve the quality of marketing decisions

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Accelerating Risks for Madison Avenue

The predictability and reliability of client fees has been declining for decades - it is much harder for Madi…

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Transforming the Effectiveness of Madison Avenue's Scope of Work Management -- to Drive Improved ...

Ten Problems and Ten Corrective Steps

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Logic and Data Do Not Convince C-Suite Executives: Transformational Change Remains Difficult for ...

The enduring strength of the industry's creative culture is a formidable barrier, standing in the way of C-Su…

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Madison Avenue Needs a Moneyball Transformation

Needed: Courageous leaders like Oakland's 2002 general manager, Billy Beane; new SOW metrics; and a revised c…

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Madison Avenue Needs a New Business Model. The Need is Urgent.

No one defends the way that advertiser-agency business relationships are currently handled.. Why, then, is it…

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Revisiting the Lessons from "The Innovator's Dilemma" (1997): Companies Facing Disruption Must Di...

CEOs of holding companies and ad agencies must transform themselves -- and suspend the notion that "making ev…

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"Making the Numbers" is not a sign of great CEO Leadership

Shareholder value has corrupted long-term strategic thinking and action-taking

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