“The world of digital has been distracted by what can be done, not what makes sense. In a world where we can see in real-time precisely if people click, we optimize for what we can measure and change most quickly, not what matters most. We endlessly shift money from brand to performance marketing because in a world of shortermism, it’s better to ruthlessly mug people that we’re always going to buy a hotel stay in your hotel, than build long term equity in a brand to exploit for years. It’s better to claim credit with attribution modeling than it is to create success. For the first time ever we assume in the digital mindset that any ad that doesn’t immediately entice me to click or spontaneously buy something has somehow failed. Brand building, it appears, is irrelevant. We can target against intent, but to create it appears inefficient.”