Blog

I realize women are expected to hem and haw about their age, but I’m 50 years old and not at all bummed about it. Frankly, being of a certain age has tangible benefits. I’m tempted to plagiarize Farmers Insurance and say something about resilience and “having seen a thing or two,” but I won’t (asRead more

Last month, Barron’s published an editorial by Alex Friedman and Larry Hatheway on the need for the U.S. to move toward more sustainable capitalism. They were right. For the longest time, Wall Street has been rewarding companies that put shareholder value and profits first, often at the expense of their own employees, suppliers and partners.Read more

The 1987 sleeper hit turned cult classic, The Princess Bride, is a fairy tale about true love, replete with pirates and sword fights, a damsel in distress, and the delight of unexpected friendship. It’s also a master class on high tech marketing strategy.  Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.Read more

There are times to pitch reporters during a crisis and then there are times to stay far, far away. As the world copes with the coronavirus outbreak and its social, business and policy impacts, there are very few “other” stories for the time being. Reporters don’t want to hear about whizzbang new widgets or version 3.X of your SaaSRead more

I’ve met with a bunch of startups and larger companies recently that say they need “messaging” help. They typically have some core messaging developed as part of a pitch deck, web site or marketing collateral, but it wasn’t developed in a structured way to guide a broader set of communications across various channels and disciplines.Read more

Why Do So Few Break Through? When I started out in tech in the Valley, we were still producing physical clip reports using x-acto knives and Elmer’s paste. The office memo was far more commonplace than a relatively new innovation called email. There were dozens of industry publications dedicated to the burgeoning PC revolution, withRead more

Welcome to Dave Reddy, Marianna Vyridi and Charlie Cooper, bolstering our team of experts to build the “new playbook” for technology marketers.

To my ear, tone-deaf communications reached new decibel levels in 2018, with the tech world contributing mightily to the noise. It was a shrieking cacophony of a year, brimming with inept statements, videos, tweets and posts that offended, hurt, angered or baffled the intended audience—inevitably, to the utter amazement of the tone-challenged communicators. “Tone-deaf” inRead more

I love it when a plan comes together. While any day is a good day to quote “The A-Team,” Hannibal Smith’s catch phrase feels particularly appropriate as we announce our newest A-Team member – and as I reflect on Big Valley’s journey over the past four and a half years. As most of you know,Read more

Misalignment is the scourge of the modern marketing department, and it’s no surprise why: So many channels to manage with no way to predict the customer journey. Highly fragmented roles and teams executing on compressed time cycles. Intense pressure to drive business impact, while staff are drowning in disconnected data and unclear strategy. The problemRead more