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We have a winner and a new contest

We have a winner in the first Do It Wrong Quickly contest. It was a far easier decision than I had anticipated, because I got exactly one entrant! So, I think I probably did this contest wrong quickly. Now it’s time for me to dust myself off and try again.


Thanks to all who gave me feedback on my first contest—I hope this new one seems better to you. It focuses on success stories rather than ratting out the boss, which folks said is more likely to generate response. So, have a gander at the newest Do It Wrong Quickly contest.
For those on the edge of their seats, here is the sole (and winning) entry to our first contest:
Just because it’s in the budget doesn’t mean you can spend it
I used to work at a company where although I was the Advertising Director on paper, I was not allowed to direct or otherwise make any decisions. I had to filter through hundreds of vendor calls, proposals, and ideas, choose the ones I thought would give us the best ROI and CPL, and run them through the VP of Ops (when he wasn’t travelling) who had the final say of yes or no. It took me over a year to learn that 1.) if anything had a cost of over $500 he’d veto it, 2.) if it was not a direct lead-generator he’d veto it, 3.) if it wasn’t a “traditional” advertising source (TV, radio, or print) he’d veto it, and 3.) he’d routinely pull advertising in sources with poor conversions, and 4.) was fond of saying “just because it’s in the budget doesn’t mean you can spend it” (WTF?).
In a series of bad decisions over a 60-day period, he had pulled the print lead sources from an entire market for “poor conversions” after 2-week runs without getting any quality feedback from sales, cut spending for the media sources that were converting to save money, and would not entertain any alternative endeavors for indirect lead-generation. Finally, we maxed out our Internet lead-generation quantity because he capped our CPL too low. 2 weeks later, I was the one fired for non-performance and was told I wasn’t doing my job.
To date, this has been the best example of “Do It Wrong Quickly” that I have experienced in my professional life. It certainly taught me a valuable lesson on how NOT to plan, observe, and make decisions based on feedback and data.

Mike Moran

Mike Moran is a Converseon, an AI powered consumer intelligence technology and consulting firm. He is also a senior strategist for SoloSegment, a marketing automation software solutions and services firm. Mike also served as a member of the Board of Directors of SEMPO. Mike spent 30 years at IBM, rising to Distinguished Engineer, an executive-level technical position. Mike held various roles in his IBM career, including eight years at IBM’s customer-facing website, ibm.com, most recently as the Manager of ibm.com Web Experience, where he led 65 information architects, web designers, webmasters, programmers, and technical architects around the world. Mike's newest book is Outside-In Marketing with world-renowned author James Mathewson. He is co-author of the best-selling Search Engine Marketing, Inc. (with fellow search marketing expert Bill Hunt), now in its Third Edition. Mike is also the author of the acclaimed internet marketing book, Do It Wrong Quickly: How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules, named one of best business books of 2007 by the Miami Herald. Mike founded and writes for Biznology® and writes regularly for other blogs. In addition to Mike’s broad technical background, he holds an Advanced Certificate in Market Management Practice from the Royal UK Charter Institute of Marketing and is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He also teaches at Rutgers Business School. He was a Senior Fellow at the Society for New Communications Research and is now a Senior Fellow of The Conference Board. A Certified Speaking Professional, Mike regularly makes speaking appearances. Mike’s previous appearances include keynote speaking appearances worldwide

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