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Episode 5 – Dan Exter

Introduction

How many Dans is too many Dans? While we don’t necessarily wrestle with this challenge we do address it before introducing the very talented Dan Exter, a consultant who works to help businesses understand their market positions in order become better marketers and advertisers. It’s all very techy stuff, which bodes very well for DSM’s own Dan Reyes – Leon’s co-host for this episode of Thanks for Playing.

Let’s kick it off

Mr. Exter’s typical clients are typically publishers, organizations who serve up ads and it’s his job to help them to improve their efforts through research and software platforms. Oh, before we get too deep – we talk about the game of today’s podcast – 90’s movie quotes, which clearly puts the young Mr Reyes at a disadvantage. We learn that Dan Exter has somehow managed to retain his DVD collection, despite his wife’s rebuttal, and is a 90’s movie quote rockstar. We’ll see Mr. Exter…we’ll see.

Timeout – philanthropy matters

Dan Exter is not only a great dude, a talented consultant, but he’s also a philanthropist who used his own personal experience (Dan is a cancer survivor) to found Layups 4 Life. We talk with Dan about his own experience and this incredible organization that he has created and that we should all support. Layups 4 Life hosts basketball tournaments around the tri-state to raise money for cancer research – and you should register at that link and get involved. While we’re on the subject, Leon talks for a minute about his own involvement in cancer research in his efforts as the co-chair of the committee that hosts the Northern NJ Golf Classic. Again – get involved.

Tough transition…

Leon had the unenviable task of taking things back on track and jumping into the game right after talking about cancer research…ugh. So Dan Exter gets an easy one, dare I say a “layup”, and he absolutely nails it. We also start easy for DSM Dan who crushes his movie quote as well. Dan Exter tries to dumb down what is a relatively complex pitch so that our listeners (no, we’re not saying you’re dumb) can really understand it. The foundation of what Dan does, and what all successful marketers should do, is to leverage the extensive research and data available to us to improve our efforts. The better you understand the marketplace, the economy and the implications of those things no your business…the better you’ll be at marketing. #minimizewaste.

Proprietary Algorithm

Does anyone understand what that shit means?!?! We talk about the tools available and the practices that consultants like Dan Exter leverage for market research. Data has become the great differentiator and the group discusses the difference between raw data, and having a team that can interpret that data and provide real strategies. In a time when many organizations are seeking “vanity” metrics, the boys discuss how granular that we can actually get today which yields real marketing results. Ok, time for another game. Dan Exter has the pleasure of being our first penalty recipient and picks a doozie out of the bag. Poor Dan has to eat a snack size bag of Doritos in 10 seconds….poor guy. It doesn’t really end well, but sort of makes for great podcast content. And then…duh duh duh…Dan Reyes gets possibly the worst penalty of our podcast thus far. Wasabi peas…we’ll leave it at that…

The future is now

We get bleeding edge here kids, and talk about some very forward concepts that layout the future of marketing. Leon proves he’s still sort of a dinosaur, but that’s ok, and no one is even brave enough to take a crack at Blockchain. The net agreement seems to be that people will generally run to the shiny object but the fundamentals haven’t really seemed to change all that much. Ironically, Back to the Future comes into the conversation, and then Jurassic Park – movie quotes are awesome – as Dan Exter and Leon are clearly on the same wavelength. And then boom – Dan to Dan connection on a great parallel to GDPR. The guys have a ton of fun talking about the future of marketing and there’s more than enough for a follow-up podcast so stay tuned. And thanks to Dan Exter for joining us on Thanks for Playing with DSM!

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