Every two weeks in Zero Clicks, we explore the interplay of AI, media, and commerce. In each edition, we explore…

• The big picture: The new archetypes of marketing leaders

• Job posts: Culture is commerce

• The meme is the message: We’re using AI responsibly, right?

• Cocktail hour: The Cadillac margarita

First, a quick note on an incredible event that my publisher, Martech Record is throwing out in LA on March 13th.

“We are at the beginning of an era where the transaction layer of the Internet will become useful and beautiful.”

On the 13th, an incredible group of publishing execs, newsletter creators and brand marketing leaders will break down the existential implications of the quip above in legitimately the coolest event space in Los Angeles. A handful of tickets remain; grab yours here or drop me a reply if you have any questions and I’ll get you to the right folks. Now, without further ado:

The CMO of Tomorrow

“There’s just no alpha in growth marketing anymore. The platforms do everything now.”

I got this text last month from a friend who has led growth for several buzzy DTC brands over the past decade and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I’ve written thousands of words across 25+ editions of this newsletter to make this point and this guy just….texted a core thesis back to me in 10 words.

Here’s probably the best growth marketer I know and he’s opting out of the game, at least insofar as it pertains to being an in-house marketing leader. Instead, he’s going the fractional path, niching down to focus on his unique esoteric skillsets and rejiggering his toolkit around AI. He’ll do great. And his story is indicative of a much larger trend. 

For the last decade, excellence in finding pockets of proverbial alpha in Google and Meta media buying has been a pre-requisite to marketing success. As a result, the profile of people who have rapidly accelerated their marketing careers over the last decade has been fairly narrow. The who’s who of DTC marketing leaders is folks who came up through search and social agencies or were client success managers at Meta in the mid 2010s.

This is a massive anomaly. Historically, marketing has been the consummate profession for generalists.

The greatest frustration for marketing leaders is that every other executive at the table deep down kinda believes that they can do your job. And technically speaking, they can at the very least mime the function. Marketing is not a licensed or formally accredited profession and has no real barriers to entry. As such, marketing leaders tend to be a beautifully eccentric lot from all walks of life…..that unfortunately have to always be looking over their shoulder because millions of people could theoretically be the next man up.

Those days have returned. The commoditization of media buying essentially means we’re reverting to the historical mean where a massively wide range of eclectic souls can once again become marketing leaders, regardless of formative experience. The silver lining is we’re about to see brands get weird again.

As the great performance marketing arbitrage era ends, there are two archetypes of professionals that will become the great CMOs of tomorrow:
 

The Renegade Raconteur
There’s a painfully midwit and reductionist cliche going around right now that happens to be correct. As the math men become commoditized, the mad men will rise again in a grand resurgence of the raconteur. 

There’s now a second layer to this– as AI eats advertising and we separate into a generation of what Paul Graham calls “writes and write-nots”, the few people who can truly craft narratives will be in higher demand than ever.

The Suave Salesperson 

One of my predictions is that more than ever marketers at all levels will do less and essentially outsource more of their jobs, effectively rendering marketing a BD & partnerships function. The best marketing leaders will be those who can seek out highly esoteric, off the grid experts and negotiate favorable deals where parties share both risk and upside.

Unlike engineering and sales, marketing doesn’t really have a senior individual contributor track. If you want to stay in-house at a brand, you essentially have to become a quarterback. This chases many of the best hands-on-keys operators who don’t necessarily want to lead teams.

Thus, the few domain experts who don’t have commoditized skills will never stay in-house climbing the corporate ladder; they’ll make triple the salary working for themselves as they would as an under-appreciated middle manager. The best CMOs of tomorrow will convince those folks that they are a great client and said experts should take their business on the right terms. 

Negotiating partnership agreements with off the grid experts is a markedly different skill than hiring and developing in-house teams. The latter still has a ton of value but the former is something only a tiny percentage of marketing leaders will do well. There’s a massive opportunity to outflank the competition there. 

Perhaps the only enduring alpha in marketing is to be relentlessly curious. And ultimately, the future of marketing is just a microcosm of a much bigger point about the future of work. The managerial middle is fading and the future belongs to those who get in the mud and make things happen. In the AI era, get busy building or get busy selling.

Chief of Staff to CEO, Passes

Lucy Guo is perhaps the most interesting woman in the world…or at least in the world of the creator economy. Worth ~$500M on paper from her founding stake in Scale AI, she also runs five minute miles on Barry’s treadmills which is….just absolutely chaotic excellent.

Her company Passes, is a rising star in the NIL and broader creator scene and is hiring across the board for non-technical roles, ranging from brand partnerships to sales leadership. But if you want to work directly for the boss, here’s your shot..

Editorial Lead, Clay

“Writing is therapy. You love writing and editing. A perfect day is putting on headphones and writing without distractions – no meetings, Slacks, or emails.”

Props to Clay for writing an absolutely sublime job post and for potentially paying >$200K for a content leader. Go get it wordcels.

Head of eCommerce, MOMA

I know Brian and Phillip at Future Commerce are reading this one and smiling. Commerce is culture paisan’

Head of Product Design, The New York Times

Is it just me or has the general aesthetic of nytimes.com and every other major newspaper’s digital experience kinda stayed the same for more than a decade> The fundamental form factor of the internet will change more in the next 2-3 years than it did in the past fifteen. Go design the future!

The Cadillac Margarita

Of all the classic cocktails, the humble margarita is my favorite canvas. I have a full arsenal of margarita variants that I whip up from watermelon basil to pitaya raspberry to a frozen avocado cilantro number.

But today, I’m offering up my favorite riff on the classic. Let’s do it:

• 1 oz. tequila

• 1 oz. mezcal

• .75 oz. Combier (cheaper than Cointreau and equally good here)

• Tiny squeeze of fresh agave syrup

• Juice of one plump lime

• Floater of Armagnac poured over a spoon

Two notes here— I find the half tequila, half mezcal to be the ideal margarita mix. It still tastes classic but you get a kiss of smoke without overwhelming the expected flavor profile.

The traditional "cadillac” margarita floats with Grand Marnier which I find too sweet and overpowering. That said, the silky richness of a cognac or armagnac on top of the acid of a margarita is absolutely delightful. Is it stupidly indulgent or the mark of an aristocrat who likes to party? Yes.