The Rise of the Platform Marketer: Performance Marketing with Google, Facebook, and Twitter, Plus the Latest High-Growth Digital Advertising Platforms

As marketers we all want to deliver these things the entire industry is telling us is critical to staying effective and relevant (and rightly so) - seamless customer experiences as customers move across channels, personalization and advanced targeting. I have heard the "why" many times, but until this book I never heard the "how". If you want to not only understand the possibilities of marketing, but also how to turn those possibilities into a reality, this book is for you. It dives into the technology, analytics, creative, organizational construct necessary for what I often felt like is the "unicorn" of marketing – customer centricity. I have a fairly strong digital background, but have historically relied heavily on my team and vendors for analytics and technology expertise. This book gave me a deeper look at the opportunities in digital and enough education and insight to begin conversations with my team on the subject.

This book clearly sums up the future of marketing. A must read for anybody looking to wrap their head around the possibilities that exist in marketing today, with the proper approach, to no longer "market" to segments, but to have conversations with individuals, across all channels.

However, there were a lot of times I could have used more examples to illustrate or validate the concepts and assertions.

If you have trouble sleeping and can't find a solution consider this book. I would literally rather sit in a dark room watching static on a TV than read this book. I would ask for my 23 bucks back but these authors are going to need the money more than me because this book is going nowhere fast.

Dempster and Lee work for a fast growing private company that a few years back made a turn from being a database marketing agency to a digital marketing agency that leverages data for decision making. This provides them insights into a variety of experts in the field, a disparate group of companies that in many cases are clients of theirs, and have seen what works and what doesn't work. Neither Dempster nor Lee started in the digital arena - so they've learned in mid-career. This make the book an easier read, for those of us in similar situations, namely we haven't moved into digital until recently. Each chapter is a separate article outlining some part of the marketing digital ecosystem from analytics, to database platforms, to the media ecosystem, to focusing on the customer experience vs. the campaign. Dempster and Lee and their colleagues could have easily used this book to pitch the merits of the company they work for, yet they didn't. They kept it basically educational. For those who started in the digital world, and don't need to convert, they'll find this book a very easy, quick read - and maybe feel they know it all. For those of us in marketing to the consumer without such a solid grounding, the book provides a great introduction to what works, what doesn't work, and predictions on where we are going.

The Rise of the Platform Marketer cuts through the clutter and outlines a clear "How To" guide for any marketer looking to secure a competitive advantage in today's complex and fierce business environment.While I expected this to be a challenging read, I was pleasantly surprised on how Craig Dempster and John Lee broke down the marketing ecosystem; taking the time not only to explain the definition of what a marketing technology is (Ie DSP- Demand Side Platform), but how that technology fits within the marketing ecosystem and where the marketer needs to use it.Through their 8 steps, Craig and John have outlined how a marketer should approach the digital landscape, emphasizing the need to integrate online with offline through a unified identity.A must read for any executive looking to understand this ever changing landscape.