Why Marketing Sucks Right Now, Underground Robot Fights, Free Waffles Worth $50, and +++ [link blog]
Summer is for reading.
Every marketing channel sucks right now [Andrew Chen/a16z] — A guy who made his career in growth marketing surmises that, yeah, it’s not just you, it’s everyone
Unfortunately this is the state of growth marketing. A lot of channels are not working, or are slow, expensive, or one-time only. This is the natural end state for things, and maybe we’re in a bit of a lull due to the technology super cycle as we’re 15+ years into the mobile wave, we’ve had various kinds of paid ads for 20+ years, and so on.
Andrew does provide advice though on how to navigate this stage but be forewarned, in his eyes a great product is necessary but not sufficient.
What was Quartz [Zach Seward/fmr Quartz CEO/owner] and Fell in a hole, got out [Tony Stubblebine/CEO Medium] — Pairing these because they’re both pretty honest looks at content businesses, the former a media company of some sort, the latter a publishing company of some sort. I append ‘of some sort’ not to degrade or minimize, but because the struggles and journeys they describe involved straying from, examining, and trying to return to, the mission and structure which made sense for the company. Quartz is largely a story told, while Medium is a story ongoing.
The most San Francisco sport ever? Underground robot boxing enters the arena [Zara Stone/The San Francisco Standard] — Please don’t turn this into a startup, a sponsored recruiting event, or #content. Against the backdrop of AI boom, our national government, and polarization generally, it’s fun to have something that’s just Keep San Francisco Weird.
Why Hampton Inn is the Hotel Brand to Beat [Patricia Clark/Businessweek] — Free breakfast is all it takes.
It costs a US Hampton franchisee less than $5 per occupied room to furnish this cornucopia, but to a family of four, the perceived value is closer to $50, or roughly one-third of the average cost of a nightly stay. That math has helped power Hampton Inn’s unlikely rise to become the world’s largest lodging brand, with almost 350,000 rooms spread across 43 countries.
Obviously that’s not the entirety of the strategy — and you should read the whole piece — but I love the 10x ROI on waffles anecdote.
Have a great August weekend!
Bluesky has the JUICE -> https://bsky.app/profile/hunterwalk.com
Originally published at https://hunterwalk.com on August 15, 2025.
