TMS: Too Much Smoke
This is not a Tag Management 101, or a set of golden rules, or even a new revolution…again kind of post. This is a cut through the smoke and mirrors to get down to the fundamentals of what the various Tag Management Systems in the market today can provide to your business.
We have worked with our clients to implement a variety of tag management systems in both simple and extremely complex environments, and as part of every engagement we spend the time to make sure that the introduction of a TMS into their digital ecosystem is part of a larger governance plan. But before we start doing any work on the planning and implementation we take the time to make sure the client understands exactly what it is they have purchased.
If you just read the marketing propaganda you will get the impression that the TMS you signed signed the contract is the greatest thing since…
We’re not in Kansas anymo….. oh wait.
Over the past few years I have done a fair amount of travel to some cool places. Today....I embarked on a trip to Bloomington, Il. Why? Because I just fly to where Chris Olenik tells me to go. After a 2 hour flight delay my colleague, Mark Miller, and I were in the air headed to the midwest. I was able to catch an upgrade to ride in first class while Mark was openly mocked by the flight attendant when he tried to plead his way into one of the 6 empty seats in first, but I digress.
The decent into Bloomington was nice enough. The city is surrounded by farm lands, windmills, and not much else. I have not been to an airport that had all of 3 gates to choose from when we pulled up to the Terminal/largest building around for miles. Then the real fun began. We were on a smaller regional jet so to get to the jetway to de-board the plane they lowered a gang-plank to walk across. (pirate plank picture) All carry-ons were checked plane side and as we were waiting on the folks to retrieve the bags the passengers were entertained by Mark attempting to rescue a small bird that had become trapped in the area. There were shrieks and laughter, yet no one clapped when he was successful. With our bags in hand we took the 100 foot walk to the rental cars to find that our rental company was the only one that did not have a counter at the airport and we would need to call for a shuttle to come get us and get the car. However ,we were not to be defeated and the kind lady at the Alamo/National desk had one car left, a mini-van. Mark scoffed at the van, despite my expert rendition of the great line from "Get Shorty". "It's an Oldsmobile Silhouette, that's the Cadillac of mini-vans." At least the lady at the rental place laughed.
Keys in hand we walk another 100 feet to the lot right outside the door and climbed into the van.
The trusty GPS on my iphone took us the 2.9 miles to our hotel where the next adventure began.
We will leave the light on for you.
Ok ok... maybe the hotel was not that bad but the first impression was not good and Mark went inside to scope it out. He came out with a key to check out the room so we could decide to sleep in the van or look for something else, but he was very excited as the clerk had told him about the homemade breakfast that they have every morning.
We checked out the rooms and perhaps in spite our better judgement we decided that this place would be fine and went back so I could check in too. I gave the clerk my id and credit card and was not prepared for what came next. She looked at my license and said....
Clerk: Welcome Robert. Or do you like Rob.?
Me: Rudi
Clerk: Really? Never would have guess that.
Me: ( as she holds my id with my full name printed on it) It's Robert Rudolph Shumpert, I use my middle name.
Clerk: That is sooooooo cool. Can I tell you a funny story?
Me: Sure... ( This is getting a bit odd)
Clerk: I used to be ditzy when I was little and I used to think that the leader of the Nazi's ...you know...um.... Adolf Hitler was named Rudolph and that the Reindeer in the Christmas songs was names after him, so I never liked that song, and then one time when I was in eighth grade and we were studying the constitution and stuff we started talking about Hitler and I told the class that I did not like him or his Reindeer songs... then the teachers was like..no dear.... but isn't that a funny thing.
Me : (I wish I had recorded this...) Wow.... ( I had to bite my lip to not laugh)
You can't make up stuff like this. All of this "adventure" within the first 2 hours of landing....I can't wait for the next few days!
Are you the rabbit or the coyote?
There is a cycle that I have been witness to for the past decade or so in the woods outside my house. We begin to see an increase in rabbits for a while. They are cute and nibble on the plants and weeds scurry off whenever you scare them. This goes on for a bit and then we hear the coyotes.....they howl and make their presence known and the rabbits are not seen anymore. Circle of life...hakuna matata... survival of the fittest....supply and demand. Pick which ever one makes you feel better about it. Point is this cycle has been going on in some form for thousands of years and it will continue to go on for thousands more.
So which are you? The rabbit? Cute, cuddly, content to munch on the plants and hop around? Or the coyote? An adept hunter that eats the rabbits. You do not get to be both. You do not get to hop around in life and do just all the fun things in life without having any risk. You do not get to be the hunter without getting some blood on your teeth.
Not so random thoughts Adobe (Omniture) Summit – Day 2
UnSummit – David McBride has managed to put on what is now going to become a must do/must see event leading up to Summit, Un-Summit. Just a few miles down the road from the Salt Palace on the campus of the University of Utah, Un-SUmmit pulled in a crowd of vendors, practitioners, students all in the same room to share with each other in 6-12 minutes chunks nuggets of wisdom and then engage in Q&A with the group and presenter. I was lucky enough to be asked to speak and I had a great time putting together a talk on the cold hard truths of Tag Management Systems.
Web Analytics Wednesday (On a Tuesday) – For years now, the unofficial start to Summit has been the event put on by ObservePoint and of course, Rob Seolas. I look forward to this every year and I was not let down. They had over 300 people registered and it seemed as if most of them showed up based on the crowd. It’s a great time to network and socialize with friends and colleagues outside of the formality of the conference.
Adobe’s Opening night reception in the Partner Showcase – The showcase this year is really taking advantage of t... Read the rest of this post
Not so random thoughts Adobe (Omniture) Summit – Day 1 CAB
1) If you are not on a Customer Advisory Board (CAB) you need to nag, beg, plead with your account manager, account executive, favorite product manager until they cave in and get you on a CAB. For me the CAB sessions are the most valuable part of the whole Summit experience. You get two full days of direct access to not only the product managers of the products with the suite that you use the most and other customers that are in the trenches sharing their expertise and experiences with you. And since all of the conversations during the CAB sessions are under NDA there is a better flow of information from the Adobe folks and the other CAB members.
2) Innovation is alive and well at Adobe. I can not go into the details because of the NDA, but I was blown away with the special projects that the developers and product managers are working on. I for one hope that all of the sneak peeks I saw make it to the market in the very near future. But almost more important that the new projects was the fact that the company seems to be more committed to working on the projects and continuing to innovate at a rate that seems to have be... Read the rest of this post
