Advertising Archives - Bob Cargill

08Mar 2026 by Bob Cargill No Comments

Ceding Control of Your Communications

Advertising, Branding, Business, Marketing, Social Media

[embed]https://youtube.com/shorts/g2_1WcFEb0g?si=ztl3g7HKC9kY27wf[/embed] Back in the day, for many years, businesses controlled the message. Top-down. One-way. Interruptive. “We talk. You listen.” Then the internet showed up. Then social media. Now AI. And suddenly? Everyone has a voice. We are all publishers. We are all broadcasters. We are all creators. We all have the opportunity to respond, remix, critique, amplify. For better or worse. That’s not chaos. That’s democratization. And it makes some organizations uncomfortable. “What if someone criticizes us?” “What if we lose control of the narrative?” But here’s the truth. You don’t control the conversation anymore. You can participate in it. You can influence it. You can earn trust within it. But control? That belongs to the community. The brands that thrive today aren’t the ones who hold the mic the…

20Feb 2026 by Bob Cargill No Comments

The Next Bob Cargill’s Marketing Road Show is Coming Soon

Advertising, Boston, Branding, Business, Communications, Direct Marketing, Education, Marketing, networking, Social Media, Special Event

[yotuwp type="videos" id="JxknCAigNVI" ] The next Bob Cargill's Marketing Road Show is in the works. One full day of 20+ speakers on the latest in marketing, social media, AI and business in general. You'll be educated and entertained. You'll learn and you'll laugh. Food and entertainment included. Networking opportunities galore. A conference like no other. Friday, April 10 at Hult International Business School in Cambridge, MA. Tickets available now here.

07Feb 2026 by Bob Cargill No Comments

You Want Your Dreams to Come True

Advertising, Boston, Branding, Education, Marketing, Social Media

[yotuwp type="videos" id="33aslNcoC7I" ] It’s easy to just sit there and do nothing. Because doing something – creating, building, leading, you name it – means you have to make decisions, take risks and work, long hard hours. But you don’t want to live stuck in “analysis paralysis,” overthinking everything until absolutely nothing happens. Right? You want momentum. You want progress. You want purpose. You want results. You want your dreams to come true. That’s what I’ve been reflecting on lately as me and a team of ridiculously awesome colleagues prepare for the next Marketing Road Show on April 10 at Hult International Business School in Cambridge. This event is high-stakes in the best way possible – because it’s about bringing real value to people like you, helping professionals grow and…

11Nov 2025 by Bob Cargill

Be Like Mike’s Pastry

Advertising, Boston, Branding, Business, Marketing, Restaurants

[embed]https://youtube.com/shorts/LA2g1OipyzQ?si=KuZCCL2zkaOSNB4D[/embed] Barbara and I were walking down Hanover Street in the North End of Boston recently when we passed Mike's Pastry. You know the scene... the long line out the door, the white box with the blue lettering and that signature string tied neatly around it. People walk around town carrying those little boxes of delicious Italian pastries and desserts like they just won a prize. Because in a way, well, they did. 😊 That’s branding. That’s marketing. That's sales. That’s a reputation built over years of showing up, delivering high quality, being raved about and becoming a big part of the culture. When you see that box, you don’t even have to open it to know what’s inside. You just know it’s something special, it's something irresistibly good, it's something…

02Feb 2025 by Bob Cargill

The World Revolves Around You – Yes, You!

Advertising, Branding, Inspiration, Marketing, Motivation

I couldn't help but be incredibly intrigued by an ad on TV I saw recently that boldly declared, "The world revolves around you." This ad caught my undivided attention because, growing up, when I was just a kid, I heard something very different: "The world doesn’t revolve around you." Those words that I heard when I was knee high to a grasshopper left a mark - they made me feel small, unimportant, insignificant and disconnected. But these words? This ad? It offers something powerful - a message that speaks to the heart. It reminds us that feeling valued can change everything in our lives. In marketing, in advertising, on social media, in life itself, the greatest gift you can give someone is the belief that they really matter, that they’re…

06Jan 2025 by Bob Cargill

The Audiobook Version of the Book about My Career

Advertising, Branding, Business, Direct Marketing, Marketing, Social Media

In June of 2022, I published my professional autobiography, 20 Jobs, 20 Lessons - a Long, Strange Career in Marketing, from Junk Mail to Social Media. In January of 2025, I'm publishing the audiobook version of this book, recorded by my professional voice clone created by ElevenLabs. I can't tell you how excited I am to put this audiobook out there, which ironically, goes a long way towards reinforcing my point about Lesson 12 in my book, "Embrace Technology Now." When I spent about two years or so writing this book, I never could have imagined I would be able to create a recorded version of it in only about two weeks. But thanks to advances in #AI, specifically ElevenLabs' founding in 2022, here I am able to drop an…

19Dec 2024 by Bob Cargill

Everybody is Putting on a Show Nowadays

Advertising, Content, Marketing, Music, Social Media

Can you believe it? That's an actual headline on musicradar.com on November 14, 2024. And I've seen that same story elsewhere, too. It's making the rounds because it's a very big deal, it's a very significant milestone, a watershed moment. Now, what does that have to do with marketing, advertising, social media and content creation? Plenty. Let me explain. So, for musicians, recording and sharing music is easier. They can put out more of it less expensively, and that's what they're doing. There's a ton of music out there. A surfeit (as opposed to a dearth) of music is out there. But the same goes with content in general. So, marketers, advertisers, social media people, business people in general, we can take advantage of that fact by creating more of…

19Nov 2024 by Bob Cargill

Does Your Business Have Its Own Selfie Station?

Advertising, Boston, Branding, Business, Marketing, Selfies, Social Media

You might call it a chair. Or a bench. In 2024, when it's right in front of a store, I would call it a selfie station. I would call it brilliant. I would call it an opportunity for this store, Rustic Marlin, to attract more prospective customers into their store and perhaps increase their sales. It's a great idea. Especially with all the stickers, in this case, emblazoned on it that say, #Boston. It's something a lot of different brands and businesses could take advantage of themselves. Think about it. This bench is located in a crowded tourist destination in Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Lots of people are walking by on a regular basis. They might want to sit down and relax. They might need to take a break for a…

13Aug 2024 by Bob Cargill

A Great Sign for Lyrik Back Bay in Boston

Advertising, Boston, Branding, Business, Marketing

I have no idea how many new commercial developments are built in Boston every year, and I hardly know the names of any of them, but I know quite a bit about this big, new office, hotel and retail development. Lyrik Back Bay. Sure, it's situated on Massachusetts Avenue between Boylston and Newbury Streets over the Mass Pike in the Back Bay neighborhood, so it's hard to ignore. But it's some of the street-level signage that really caught my eye, not necessarily the unique location punctuated by two tall buildings that will house a citizenM hotel, the LEGO Group's new US headquarters and CarGurus. Seeing a line - er, a lyric, I should say - from the Led Zeppelin classic, Stairway to Heaven, especially caught my attention, admittedly because I'm…

Category: Advertising