PPPPrioritizing What Matters (Four Ps #237)
What Matters -- It's both a question and an answer.
Let’s start with the question: “What matters?”
We're all spread thinner than ever these days — juggling full-time jobs, side hustles, personal lives, and more. It's a recipe for burnout and task saturation.
But are we doing things that matter?
This came up on my visit on Monday a.m. with Mornings in the Lab with Keith and friends.
Now for the answer. (Or answers.)
Professionally, I'm managing several contract and consulting projects, a podcast, this newsletter, and daily social content. They matter to me. Do they matter to you?
Personally, my entire focus is on coaching my daughter's 11-U girls' flag football team to the championship. And teaching them not just the fundamental of the game, but also broader life lessons like sportsmanship, teamwork, and self-confidence. They matter.
These Four Ps matter, for sure.
The Practical: Our Contentment Matters
As an emerging etymology enthusiast, I've learned that the word "suffer" comes from "sub-", meaning "below," and ferre, "to bear." Suffering is something pressing you down that you have to submit to and bear.
Many of us suffer daily.
You know, that lovely state where you're so overwhelmed that you struggle to process anything productively? When your mental and emotional health wreaks havoc on your physical health?
So what's the antidote to this constant state of thinking about what I have to do next?
Learning to prioritize ruthlessly—daily, weekly, monthly—and focusing relentlessly on what actually matters most.
Obvious in theory, hard in practice—which is why I'm sharing my 3-part system to help:
Craft a Personal Mission
This isn't some cheesy corporate vision statement. We're talking about taking the time to really dig into what you want your life to be about across different roles—professional, personal, etc. Get descriptive and emotional about your ideal future self in each area.
Mine is to be "Empowering through Leadership, Effective in Ownership, Engaging in Fellowship, Entertaining in Relationships."
Yours might be simpler: "Be the World's Best Dog Owner," and build it out from there: "I am an engaged, active companion who ensures Koda gets plenty of exercise, playtime, and unlimited treats and belly rubs."
The goal? Defining powerful visions that both inspire and make you a bit uncomfortable (because growth!).
Set Long-Lead and Ongoing Goals
With a mission in place, now set 1-2 measurable, time-bound goals for each role that will help propel you towards those ideals over the next 12 months. Some will tell you to make them SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). Mine are just to make them both quantified and qualified.
Like: "Book trips to the beach every few months to hit "Koda's Best Friend' goal." Or "Block out time to walk Koda twice a day." Or for the work side: "Launch 2 major integrated marketing campaigns for our top clients by Q4."
Plan Your Days & Weeks
This sounds obvious, but I actually use my calendar to plan not just my meetings, but also my solo, heads-down work. This is the final piece—actually scheduling time to tackle those goals. Yup, make appointments with yourself each week to check things off your annual agenda.
Example: "Tuesday at 3 PM—Research and reserve dog parks for when we take Koda on our road trips this summer."
I've actually seen people say that this single habit can boost your productivity by 50-80%! So, actually put it on the calendar.
That's it! Prioritize the big stuff by defining your North Stars, charting the milestones to get there, and proactively making time for meaningful progress every single week.
Does it take work? Sure. Is it worth it to spend more of your days chipping away at what matters versus drowning in the endless whirlpool of reacting to whatever's loudest? Absolutely.
Also: 100% is never really 100%. It's more like 150%.
In the meantime, I'll be over here... probably throwing a tennis ball for a very happy pup.
The Personal: Our Time Matters
But I'm far from perfect at any of this. Even the best plans can get derailed and often come with prioritized sacrifices. Holy macaroni, we're only four weeks away from the Cannes Lions now (less depending on when you read this). While I've been called the "King of Cannes" by one reader, and it's my favorite work week of the year, it also takes a month of planning, a month of recovery, and a month of follow-ups.
(By the way, I would love to speak on your panel or emcee your event, but I'll settle for an invite to your dinner or party. Thanks.)
The downside to this glorious event is a hollow, gut-wrenching week that begins with missing Father's Day with my family. I've missed several graduations, a few of my son's birthdays, and very nearly a departing sleepaway camp bus.
Last year, it required missing the championship game for the aforementioned girls' flag football season, and if all goes according to plan these next four Sundays, it will mean missing this year's championship game as well (I know it's premature, but we are undefeated, have scored the most points, and given up the fewest all season).
These are the sacrifices I make. It's not for everyone, and I've learned not to judge on either side.
I've worked from home for the most part these past four years, spending large quantities of quality time and not-so-quality time with my family. Travel is part of the job, so working around those schedules to be present at other times is both easy and hard.
While I once was among the chorus of those who lamented that the Cannes Lions became the biggest marketing event of the year—with major media, adtech, publisher, entertainment, and celebrity players and brands dropping millions of dollars on activations and parties—at the expense of its original creative celebrations, I have too much fun now to care.
It's the only event I'd feel real FOMO if I missed.
So if you'll be there, now's the time to plan, coordinate, align schedules, and get organized.
Yacht Row is under construction, so most daytime action will be on the beach or at villas. Carlton late night, of course. Otherwise, I look forward to bumping into you in passing along the Croisette. Don't forget your sunscreen and sneakers!
The Professional: Our Future Matters
You KNOW the biggest theme, topic, trend, and talk about town in Cannes will be A.I.
Who would have thunk it? What was once the brightest display of human creative ingenuity will now be dominated by use cases for artificial intelligence...
Yet despite the hype, AI adoption in marketing is surprisingly low, at least with marketers.
Financial institutions are not sold. And overall, companies are using AI for just 7% of marketing activities. While generative AI has boosted sales productivity by 5.1% and customer satisfaction by 6.1%, only 10% of firms actively use it. The potential is there, but challenges like minimizing bias and aligning AI with brand strategy remain hurdles.
The latest CMO Survey from Deloitte, Duke, and the AMA is a treasure trove of insights, revealing intriguing trends in the marketing world. With 292 U.S. marketing leaders weighing in, the survey uncovers how budgets are growing, AI's surprising lag, and sustainability's rise.
Budget Barriers: While marketing spend jumped by 2.5% last year and is set to grow by another 4.7%, marketing budgets now make up 7.7% of total company revenue this year versus 9.1% in 2023 and a major decline from pre-pandemic averages of 11%. CMO spending power is slipping, according to new research from Gartner.
Digital Marketing Growth Slows: It's now at 8%, down from 8.9%. Despite this, social media spending is poised for a comeback, predicted to surpass its previous 16% high in the next five years.
Martech Mania: Martech is a significant focus, with companies spending 19.9% of their marketing budgets here. This is expected to soar to 30.9% in five years. However, only 56.4% of purchased Martech tools are actually being used, highlighting a gap between investment and utilization.
Sustainability Surge: Spending on sustainability initiatives has increased to 1.9% of marketing budgets and is projected to hit 4.5% in five years. Yet, nearly a third of companies aren't taking any marketing actions on climate change, showcasing a significant area for growth.
Growth Galore: Marketing leaders report robust revenue growth, particularly in service markets. B2B companies are outpacing B2C firms, growing at 19.1% compared to 11.5%.
So basically while marketing budgets are expanding and sustainability is climbing the priority ladder, AI is still more "hype and hope" than "hit."
High hopes for A.I.-informed search are driving Google's healthy paranoia, that's for sure. But they also may have unknowingly provided a trove of inputs for OpenAI's Sora build. Speaking of OpenAI, does anyone work there anymore?
But maybe (some) humans are better than (some) A.I. tools for (some) tasks. In other cases, the shitty quality of input is driving mediocre output for generative AI.
On that note, Meta's Chief Product Officer, Chris Cox, recently admitted that our Instagram feeds (ours meaning yours and mine) are the secret sauce behind Meta’s AI image generation. According to Cox, the vast and varied tapestry of public images on Instagram — from your dog in a bowtie to that latte art — gives Meta's AI a leg up in generating picture-perfect imagery.
But let’s not get too comfortable. While Meta insists it's only playing with the public stuff, there's a foggy gray area around what counts as "public."
And as usual, they’re mum on whether private snaps get swept up in the data dragnet. It's a classic case of bait and switch: we click "agree" to enjoy the internet’s delights, only to find our content feeding the AI beast.
Though I'll also admit that Meta's call for more transparency feels like a belated apology — after all, who really reads the fine print on Instagram’s privacy policy anyway?
The Promotional: Language Matters
Curious why "𝐟*𝐜𝐤" and "𝐬𝐡*𝐭" are the most versatile, powerful words in language?
What about the darker origin of "luxury" & other marketing-related words?
In this episode of the Snarketing Podcast, we answer those questions (and more) with Jess Zafarris, Director of Content at Ragan Communications and PR Daily and author of "𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒍: 𝑼𝒏𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒆𝒕𝒚𝒎𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒚."🌟 📌🔍
The Political: Supporting *Quality* Journalism Matters
Look, I get it. Advertising next to news stories about wars, shootings, and other heavy topics doesn't exactly scream "brand-safe environment." But hear me out, because the health of our entire society is at stake here.
Quality journalism is essential for preserving democracy, holding power accountable, and keeping us all informed about major issues impacting our world.
Unfortunately, newsrooms are struggling as too many brands have pulled ad spend, creating a vicious cycle where news outlets have less revenue to invest in hard-hitting journalism. Instead, we need to create a virtuous cycle where ad dollars fund robust news coverage that benefits everyone.
Contrary to popular belief, research shows consumers don't judge brands more negatively when their ads appear next to controversial news stories. We're smarter than marketers give us credit for—we can distinguish between an ad and the adjacent editorial content.
According to a new report from the good folks at Stagwell, in anticipation of a contentious U.S. presidential election, the concern is that brands will avoid advertising with news publishers.
However, the average purchase intent among consumers for ads placed near news on Trump and Biden was 62% and 61%, respectively; this is consistent with the figures for entertainment (62%) and sports (64%) news.
The study revealed no brand safety concerns among Democrat and Independent respondents. However, there was some impact on Republicans, who viewed ads next to stories about Biden less favorably than those next to other topics.
Additionally, the report indicated no brand safety concerns among other key demographics. For example, Gen Z's response to ads adjacent to a story about Trump was similar to their response to ads next to a story about the Oscars.
The news audience is incredibly valuable from a marketing perspective. One in four Americans are self-professed "news junkies" who voraciously consume journalism multiple times per day.
They tend to be affluent with significant purchasing power. Ignoring this passionate, influential segment is leaving money on the table.
So marketers, it's time to stop using flimsy "brand safety" excuses to bypass the news. Get over your irrational fears and recognize the tremendous upside.
Funding quality journalism isn't just good ethics—it's good business too. Sports and entertainment have been ad darlings for too long. The real opportunity is in news.
Also in newsletters. So thanks for reading and subscribing to this one.
