Has AI finally killed search? Does Google even matter anymore? Must we now build our content on rented land? The boys go through each of these questions and talk about if "do not build your house on rented land" is still a thing. In other news, the TikTok deal is delayed (again). In marketing winners and losers, Joe takes on the Catholic church while Robert gushes over Duolingo. Rants and raves includes London's takedown of Leon, while the Shopify CEO tells employees to do an AI check. This week...
Apr 11, 2025•1 hr 13 min
Possibly our dumbest episode yet. Joe and Robert go deep into the dumbery to try to make sense of an incredibly weird (and dumb) week. TikTok is for sale. No it's not. Maybe it is. Will we know this week? Elon Musk merges his two companies into one, creating the dumbest valuation in the history of corporate mergers. And META's AI steals a bunch of copyrighted books. Heck, they've probably already stolen this podcast. Marketing losers include vibe marketing and Hooters. Raves and commentary inclu...
Apr 04, 2025•1 hr 9 min
A very special episode on what makes a successful content marketer or content creator. Robert and Joe talk about what works today to successfully build and monetize an audience with these five keys. 1. For marketers, setting a clear goal up front - sales, savings or sunshine and then find a measurement tool that aligns with current corporate measurement. From the creator side, what's my goal? You exit at the beginning. 2. What's the show for your particular audience AND is it consistent AND is i...
Mar 28, 2025•49 min
New data suggests that advertising growth is slowing. Overall marketing is soon to follow. Will the current political environment drive us into a marketing recession? Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei proclaims that AI will take over all coding in the next year. Robert takes offense and the boys talk about the reasons these types of proclamations are made. And is AI slop a brute force attack on the major platforms? The point? AI content is taking over YouTube, TikTok and Facebook and the platforms simp...
Mar 21, 2025•1 hr 11 min
The boys are back and the buys are heating up. Food-delivery startup Wonder purchased Tastemade, now boasting content creation to meal preparation to delivery all in one. Is more on the way? We think so. Spotify paid $5 billion dollars to indie creators last year. Is it better to go outside the labels than sign with a big agency? And Unilever ups their social media budget to 30 to 50 percent of total marketing budget...all for targeted local influencers. But did they forget about employees? Mark...
Mar 14, 2025•1 hr 10 min
The boys are back with commentary on the death of media. It's a sad case on both political spectrum. And the opportunity in the future belongs to non-media brands. Let's see what happens. In other news, more and more creators are going full AI. How close is it to real, or does that even matter? Marketing winners and losers include Disney and Trump's Gold card. Rants and raves include travel within the US and Meta testing out agents in advertising. This week's links: The Media's Credibility Has B...
Mar 07, 2025•1 hr 6 min
The boys kick off the show with Dow Jones news and their AI content marketplace of 5,000 publishers. The real news? Vertical content opportunities using proprietary LLMs may ultimately steal the show for B2B content creators. Differentiation is the key coming from B2B speakers at a recent marketing event. The move from company creators to individuals is in full force. And is Substack the new Instagram for smaller creators? Winners and losers include bars in Key West, Levi's and UTC. Rants and ra...
Feb 28, 2025•1 hr 11 min
Reddit announced quarterly results and the stock got hammered. Is Google's changing algorithm to blame? And, if it is, could Google be primed to acquire the 9th largest website on the planet? In other news, episodic video programs and shows are getting more opportunities for syndication. But with so many shows out there, should brands look at partnering with a creator before creating their own content? Winners and losers include Allstate and Kai Cenat. Rants and raves include the Associated Pres...
Feb 21, 2025•58 min
Our Super Bowl predictions were dead on, as Joe predicted an Eagles win and Robert predicted a Kendrick Lamar controversy. But more importantly, who were the advertising winners and losers? And...is the Super Bowl the last remaining moment where everyone comes together to watch television at the same time? In other news, BuzzFeed launches a social media network called BF Island. We already predict extinction. And do paywalls work? They do...sort of. Marketing winners include partnerships and Cha...
Feb 14, 2025•1 hr 7 min
It's Super Bowl week and the boys make their predictions. Speaking of the Super Bowl, the boys talk about the ads, the value, and what a Super Bowl ad truly costs. And...will there be any winners? Robert does a comparison between OpenAI's deep research and the corresponding Google product. Which one is better and what should marketers do? Winners and losers include Nielsen and Hertz communications. Rants and raves include AMO and Trump Coin. ----- This week's news links: Super Bowl Winners Deep ...
Feb 07, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Man you cappin'. This week, DeepSeek shocks the AI industry (and the world) with its cheaper more efficient model. What comes next for the industry? The buyers line up for TikTok, but is the US Government playing favorites? And Substack is paying cash for TikTok creators to make the switch. Marketing winners include Timothee Chalamet and the TGL golf league. Rants and raves include Chris Sacca (on the Tim Ferriss pod), creating moments, and the return of Nike. ----- This week's news links: The R...
Jan 31, 2025•1 hr 10 min
The boys return with a cornucopia of news. TikTok returns (or did it?). We discuss what is really going on with the Chinese-owned app, whether a US company will buy them, and which one actually will. In other news, Instagram is throwing money at creators (but needs a real model), while META goes from moderated news to community news (but not for ads). In winners and losers, Edelman is out with their Trust Barometer, and Andrew Ross Sorkin has tomorrow's media model. In rants and raves, Anthropic...
Jan 24, 2025•1 hr 22 min
The boys go through six different ways that content marketing professionals can be "content marketing meh" in 2025. They include: Create content on more than three platforms Create content in a highly competitive area Lean heavily into AI tools to create content Put all your influence efforts into finding external influencers and none on building internal influence Focus on making sure your tech stack is bulletproof and pour more time and effort into making things automated Brand Schmand you sho...
Jan 17, 2025•34 min
META's plan to unleash AI Bots onto their social media sites is just a first step into the majority of the content we engage with being synthetic. The boys have more thoughts on this. How involved will Elon be with TikTok's future? More works are headed to the public domain, including Popeye and TinTin. Is there an opportunity for brands here? Finally, the boys discuss the fastest growing marketing roles. Winners and losers include AI-free and NFL red zone. Rants and raves include the Michael Le...
Jan 10, 2025•1 hr 2 min
A very special This Old Marketing Predictions' episode. Not only do we cover our 2025 predictions of: Where will Bluesky Be? The Future of X X Buys Truth Social GENAI Stumbles Four (4) Trillion Dollars Companies in 2025 The 2025 Disease We All Saw Coming TikTok Will Not Be Banned The Donald Trump Presidency The Failure of Podcasts But we review our 2024 predictions as well as our NFL season-review predictions. How did we score? Listen to find out. ----- This week's sponsor: With smaller budgets ...
Jan 03, 2025•57 min
As we head into 2025, we look back on the crazy year that was 2024. What did we learn? What were the major marketing and life trends? Topics include: Going after that shiny (AI) object. Podcasts and can they even be successful anymore. Forgiveness in 2024 Forget influencers. Invest in your creators. And many more. You don't want to miss this special episode. ----- This week's sponsor: With smaller budgets and sky-high expectations — growth is feeling pretty painful right now. But HubSpot just an...
Dec 27, 2024•53 min
This week we break down Pew research on the Big Four in social media as it pertains to the youth of America. You may be surprised which four platforms they are...and...are you there? We look at the opportunities and challenges ahead. What are the most overhyped marketing strategies for 2024? I bet you can guess number one. Winners and losers include the Pivot podcast and McKinsey. Rants and raves include the OpenAI Santa and Sesame Street. ------ This week's links: Teen Social Media Research fro...
Dec 20, 2024•1 hr 7 min
The first ever This Old Marketing where both Robert and Joe are NOT recording at the same time. If anything, you'll get a kick out of this episode for that reason. TikTok is in the news again. Does the impending ban and their emergency motion mean anything at all? Ad giant Omnicom merges with Interpublic in a $13 billion dollar deal. And OpenAI releases Sora, increasing the fight over generative AI video. Winners and losers include print catalogs and the Starbucks origin story. Rants and raves i...
Dec 13, 2024•47 min
The boys are back with a regular episode this week! In big social media news, the Australian government plans to ban social media for children 16 or under. Could this actually work or is this a bluff? Black Friday is bigger than ever, with TikTok showing its retail teeth. Could TikTok actually be Amazon's biggest competitor? And Bluesky continues to hit on all cylinders. But will it last? Marketing winners include direct book sales and Jaguar. Rants and raves include ChatGPT for travel and the E...
Dec 06, 2024•1 hr 16 min
Another very special episode of This Old Marketing...this time, without Robert Rose. Yes...this episode features Joe Pulizzi talking about unconventional content marketing strategies for 2025. Joe discusses how to leverage ChatGPT for persona building, treating employees as creators, leveraging more email and physical events, a big yes to print and much, much more. ----- This week's sponsor: With smaller budgets and sky-high expectations — growth is feeling pretty painful right now. But HubSpot ...
Nov 29, 2024•43 min
A special This Old Marketing podcast episode featuring the one and only Robert Rose (with no Joe Pulizzi). In this special solo episode, Robert takes a deep dive into the state of marketing as we approach the end of 2024. As marketers, we’ve spent the last 25 years adapting to paradigm-shifting technologies — from the internet and social media to mobile computing. But now, we’re navigating the latest disruptor: Generative AI. Robert explores the concept of "Valuable Friction," the deliberate res...
Nov 22, 2024•44 min
In this special episode Robert and Joe ask each other four secret questions. The answers will surprise you. The boys cover investing, travel, biggest regrets, bigger dreams and what's next in marketing and beyond. ----- This week's sponsor: With smaller budgets and sky-high expectations — growth is feeling pretty painful right now. But HubSpot just announced more than 200 major product updates to make impossible growth feel impossibly easy. Like Breeze — a suite of new AI-powered tools that help...
Nov 15, 2024•57 min
The boys do a debrief of why Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris in the 2024 Presidential election. We can talk policies and character, but it's possible the Trump campaign outmarketed Harris. Winners and losers include Goldfish Crackers and the Nomad Capitalist. Rants and raves include ChatGPT Search and the Content Creator/Influencer. ------ This week's links: A Trump Second Term Will Trump Ban TikTok? Goldfish Crackers and Marketing The Nomad Capitalist ChatGPT Search ----- This week's sponsor: W...
Nov 08, 2024•43 min
A continuing story on the content gaps available in local news. With more people trusting businesses than ever before, could this be the biggest content marketing opportunity in history? In other news, The Washington Post makes a horrible strategic decision to kill endorsements, costing them over 200,000 subscribers. Microsoft, Google and Apple report incredible earnings on the back of AI. And young TikTok influencers are finding it hard to maintain a real life while being an online content crea...
Nov 01, 2024•1 hr 8 min
The boys go deep into CMI's 2025 content marketing research report. While the results look pretty similar to last year's report, Joe and Robert offer some prescriptions for 2025 content marketing strategies, including: Think more local in 2025 Who's your "with"? Paid promotion of content for the win Less is more Time to kill some things Let's get risky in 2025 See the full research here. ----- This week's sponsor: With smaller budgets and sky-high expectations — growth is feeling pretty painful ...
Oct 25, 2024•49 min
The boys are back with breaking news. Semrush, the online visibility company, purchases Search Engine Land and MarTech (plus all the conferences). Is this the start of acquisition season? Americans' trust in media sinks to an all-time low. Or did it? Actually, there's a big opportunity for content marketers here. TikTok's own research reveals it's hurting kids. What are we going to do about it? And author James Patterson launches a new channel on, of all places, Substack. Winners and losers incl...
Oct 18, 2024•1 hr 13 min
Joe and Robert unpack Google's NotebookLM and how the AI audio machine has taken over the internet. Listen to the sample and see if you think it's usable. In other Google news, the DOJ is trying to break up Google into smaller pieces for better competition. This happens at the same time Google is losing its strength in the search market. And someone used Meta's glasses to instantly dox strangers. Should we be scared? Yes...yes we should. Winners and losers include Mountain Dew and Wordpress. Ran...
Oct 11, 2024•1 hr 11 min
A special episode of This Old Marketing where Joe and Robert answer AI and content marketing questions from some of the world leaders of marketing. Find your answers to content marketing spending, how AI is affecting content marketing, advice for new marketers, how to handle a personal brand in a business, how much to invest into internal content creators and much, much more. Special thanks to our marketing experts: Drew Davis Katie Brinkley Mark Schaefer Rob LaLacheur Ann Handley Brian Piper Mi...
Oct 04, 2024•55 min
Our old friend Leon rolls back another X feature and the haters go crazy. At the same time, X releases their Global Transparency Report (which is anything but transparent). The New York Times unveils a plan to sell audio subscriptions via Apple Music and Spotify. The boys aren't sure the plan has merit (uh, data concerns anyone?). And The Onion creates a membership program with a print newspaper at the center. Joe is very happy about this. Winners and losers include Tim Walz and LinkedIn's AI ro...
Sep 27, 2024•1 hr 11 min
OpenAI launches the "Strawberry" version within ChatGPT claiming better reasoning and complex thinking. Joe and Robert take it to the test. TikTok heads back to court with a January 19th ban date looming. Joe predicts what will happen. And Instagram launches a version for teens only. Is it enough? Finally, MrBeast "leaks" his personal YouTube production manual. Is there gold within? Winners and losers include Sun Studio and the 2024 Content Marketing Award winner. Rants and raves include MAICON'...
Sep 20, 2024•1 hr 16 min
