During the 194th episode of “Marketing Today” I interview Kevin Frisch, who was recently the CMO of Wag and before that the head of performance marketing and CRM for Uber. Before Uber, Frisch served as chief marketing officer of GSN Games and Snapfish. Frisch was named to Forbes’ CMO Next List 2019: 50 Game-Changing Marketing Leaders.
Frisch discusses the largest ever fraud case, a case between Uber and its suppliers of performance marketing and advertising. Frisch shares what happened, what was the trigger that launched the investigation, how they diagnosed what was going on, and several measurement challenges along the way.
Frisch shares the revelations on ad fraud and the difficulty of finding it only after you have the detailed data, “Until you do that, if you’re just relying on the higher-level reporting, you just don’t catch it.” He advises that “you should start by assuming that half of what’s on the display channels is fraud.” “You can’t sort of out-source, and say, here’s an anti-fraud tool, let me just run it through that.” There is still so much to learn about fraud. Frisch shares a much-needed perspective on how to approach and avoid issues.
Highlights from this week’s “Marketing Today”:
- Kevin Frisch’s background and pivotal twists along the way. (01:46)
- Kevin’s path with a series of B2C companies. (04:10)
- The culture within Uber during the controversy. (06:17)
- The role of “Head of Performance Marketing.” (07:30)
- The intriguing story surrounding the fraud case between Uber and advertising providers. (08:13)
- The discovery and definition of “Attribution Fraud.” (11:37)
- Actions every marketer should be taking right now, to avoid ad fraud. (16:36)
- Should you be using programmatic? (18:06) Advice on picking better partners and people to help along the way. (19:49)
- Uber’s purpose and approach to the “Moving Forward” campaign. (20:49)
- Defining “Addressable TV” and its usage at Uber. (23:00)
- The Results and reactions for “addressable tv.” (27:59)
- Unique challenges for marketing towards driver-partners. (29:20)
- What performance marketers should be doing differently in 2020. (35:45)
- An experience of Kevin’s past that makes up who he is today. (38:06)
- Advice Kevin would give his younger self. (41:19)
- What drives Kevin and keeps him going daily. (42:44)
- Brands, Companies, or Causes to take notice of. (44:06)
- Kevin’s vision for the future of marketing. (46:01)
Alan B. Hart is the creator and host of “Marketing Today with Alan Hart,” a weekly podcast where he interviews leading global marketing professionals and business leaders. Alan advises leading executives and marketing teams on opportunities around brand, customer experience, innovation and growth. He has consulted with Fortune 100 companies, but he is an entrepreneur at his core, having founded or served as an executive for nine startups.