Vol. 2, Issue 11: That's What Christmas Means to Me
Top 3 Christmas songs (in order):
“Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)”* - Darlene Love
“That’s What Christmas Means to Me” - Stevie Wonder
“All I Want For Christmas is You” - Mariah Carey
* Pros about Phil Spector: the “Wall of Sound” is perhaps the greatest musical innovation to come out of the 1960s; Cons about Phil Spector: literally everything else
You’ve got a bunch of other songs that sit in here: “Jingle Bell Rock,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “Holly Jolly Christmas,” etc. There are an immense amount of more Bing Crosby-ish/classic ones also: “White Christmas,” etc. But before we continue and to be clear, these are *my* top 3 Christmas songs and this is all a matter of taste. If you prefer “Good King Wenceslas,” I’m all for that. And if you’d like to send me mail about your Christmas song of choice, I’m all for that too. But it’s unlikely to change my opinion. I put at least 3 minutes of thought into this.
And also, before I move on, it’s not lost on my how impressive a song “All I Want For Christmas is You” is. It’s a brand new, modern day classic in a genre where most of the classics had been written at least 30 years prior (in many cases 50 or 60 years prior) and in the 30 years since, no one has come close to producing another one. Mariah Carey is, in every sense of the word, a powerhouse songwriter and performer*. She’s still 3rd on my list, though.
*In an era where like 50% of songs are collabs of some kind, it doesn’t seem remarkable, but Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey collaborating on “One Sweet Day” in 1995 was a massive deal. These were effectively the top 2 R&B acts of the middle ‘90s coming together on a song that was probably #1 for 80 weeks or something. It’s hard to overstate how big a deal this was.
While I’ve got you, Darlene Love has a really strong argument to be considered the Queen of Christmas. She has a version of “It’s a Marshmallow World”* that, while not a Christmas song per se, people consider a Christmas song and it slaps like hell. AND she performed the single most underrated TV Funhouse skit on SNL - “Christmastime For The Jews,” which resonates strongly with me for obvious reasons.
*Please click this link to go watch Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra perform this song on the old Dean Martin Show. You will not be the same person after watching it. Incidentally, my wife and I performed this song at the P.S. 9 Holiday show in 2017. Reception from the 3rd grade classes was mixed
OK, look, I didn’t come here to talk about Christmas music, at least not intentionally. Apparently, I had more opinions on this than I thought. I actually came here to wind down the year officially and thank you all for reading. The winter holidays are a nice time for reflection. I don’t buy too much into New Year’s resolutions because I find that I’m invariably way too ambitious and can’t possibly meet the lofty expectations, but it is important for me to pull together my thoughts on how I did in 2023 and how I want to be in 2024.
This is mostly a vehicle for me to dump the unformed things that I have in my head out onto paper and you’re all either a) nice enough or b) pity me enough to send me notes about how much you enjoy reading it. That’s meaningful for me, and not just because my ego couldn’t bear the alternative, but also because there’s conversations that we all need to be having about the future of this industry (and why children’s books, time travel movies and 1990s power pop songs are important analogies for that future).
2023 was a wild ride - the ad market wasn’t great. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. And there stands to be a lot of change in 2024 as things shake out and that will only be the beginning. There’s the big rocks: regulatory matters to deal with and 3PCD (both Google) and the implications of those things to how we deliver advertising on behalf of those who buy. There’s also the matter of a small national election to deal with and the implications of the money that pumps through the ecosystem*. There’s the smaller, but still important rocks that I natter on about all the time: how we deal with the ad frequency and targeting issues that may only get worse as a result of the cookie going away, how we consume that media and how those shifts will change the way we advertise. Hell, it might make everything better.
*Somehow, the most recent projection that I’ve seen is $16B in political money (that’s all in for all elections and advocacy). That’s a staggering figure and has wild implications about which I don’t really have the room or the general expertise to wax philosophic right now, but suffice it to say we could buy me a lot of ice cream with that money
If I had to make some bets sitting here right now, I’d put my chips on:
3rd party cookies disappear in Chrome in the back half of 2024
CTV ad revenue will approach, but still be shy of TV ad revenue (though consumption will remain higher on CTV). And I think 2025 may be the same. If I were actually betting, I’d say 2026 is the year that CTV ad dollars are greater than linear ad dollars
The ad market in general rebounds on the strength of CTV growth - I think most large companies will see growth that’s higher than this year
There are probably other things that I’m thinking of that I just can’t pull out of my head right now.* I’ll wind it down here by saying that gratitude is an important part of my journey and who I am and I have sincere gratitude for the community that we’ve built here in the ad tech and media space. Whether you celebrate with family, friends or whomever, I wish you a happy, restful holidays.
*I’m fighting a cold and this displeases me
I will be at CES. Will you be at CES? If you will, let’s please meet up. I want to hear all about your life and world.
This will be the last newsletter until the week of Jan. 15, when we turn the page to Volume 3 for the new year and aim to push out more than 11 of them.
Until next time (and next year), friends