🔥 Why Carl Fremont is the Marketing Mensch We All Need
Carl Fremont has been in the marketing trenches longer than most of today’s “growth hackers” have been alive. He’s seen every adtech revolution, every acronym trend, every Silicon Valley fever dream that promised to “disrupt everything” before quietly fading into the void. Now, as CEO of Quigley-Simpson, he’s leading the charge with something that has become terrifyingly rare in this industry: actual perspective.
So why does his take matter in 2025?
Because marketing today is basically a chaotic mess of AI-generated nonsense, infinite dashboards, and marketers chasing short-term wins like they’re playing a slot machine. Carl, on the other hand, believes in a radical concept: Keeping marketing simple. 🤯
“Marketing principles have been around for decades and decades. It’s about sales, revenue, and profit,” Carl reminded me. “That’s what it’s always been about.” But instead of sticking to that, we’ve layered on so much jargon and overcomplicated tech that most executives can’t even explain what they’re spending money on anymore. “I love the acronym soup,” he admitted. “And I’m guilty of playing that game too.” But at the end of the day? “It’s about the consumer. Their wants. Their needs. Their desires.”
⚠️ Which, in case anyone needs a reminder, is not the same as stuffing their feeds with creepy, over-personalized ads just because some AI thought they might want socks after buying shoelaces.
And let’s talk about AI for a second, because—shockingly—Carl isn’t panicking about Skynet taking over marketing. Instead, he’s looking at it for what it is: a tool that, when used correctly, can process massive amounts of data to make human decisions better. But, as he put it: “Thou shall not use AI alone.” If you’re letting AI decide your marketing strategy from start to finish, congratulations, you’ve officially outsourced your thinking.
But here’s the real reason Carl’s POV is crucial right now: Brand loyalty is dying, and most marketers don’t seem to care. We live in a world where TikTok—the platform that made short attention spans profitable—might be banned, and nobody’s even protesting. Think about that. If you’re still clinging to the idea that your brand has a deep, emotional connection with consumers, Carl’s here to gently (or not so gently) tell you: Get over yourself.
So, let’s break it down:
🚨 If you think AI is a magic bullet, you’re wrong.
🚨 If you think short-term ROAS is all that matters, you’re wrong.
🚨 If you think marketing today is so much more sophisticated than it was 30 years ago, you’re really, really wrong.
Carl isn’t here to sell you some buzzword-laden fantasy. He’s here to remind you that the fundamentals still matter. And if you’re not paying attention? Well, enjoy watching future marketers laugh at your strategies like we now laugh at MySpace.
