Advance Praise
David is a digital marketing pioneer and highly successful entrepreneur whom I have had the privilege of getting to know personally. His subject matter expertise and real - life experience as a successful founder make Unfair Marketing an extremely valuable resource for any business lead er.
Penny Pritzker, Chairman and Founder, PSP Partners; former US Secretary of Commerce
David Rodnitzky is a genius. Not because hes more complex than the rest of us (although he probably is), but because he thinks more clearly and simply about marketing than the rest of us! His book just makes perfect sense. Nothing is more useful than th at.
Bob Guccione Jr., Founder, Wonderlust, Spin, and Gear
David Rodnitzky is a recognized leader in digital marketing. Through his work with the worlds most innovative and demanding companies, he has pioneered many of the ROI - boosting best practices that savvy marketers worldwide use for their own campaig ns.
Frederick Vallaeys, CEO, Optmyzr; former Google AdWords Evangelist
Ive worked with David Rodnitzky for more than 15 years. He is an amazing digital marketer who is highly respected for his ability to deliver outstanding performance across all marketing channe ls.
Saar Gur, Partner, Charles River Ventures
In the wild and ever - changing world of digital marketing, its difficult for marketing leaders to constantly keep pace with new techniques and strategies. The expectations for ROI are constant, and savvy marketers need a digital marketing partner that they can trust. David knows his stuff and provides practical and relevant advice to keep marketers on the top of their ga me.
Tami Bhaumik, Vice President of Marketing, Roblox
David was the first person I met in the digital marketing industry, and seeing his passion for work is what got me excited to also build a career in marketing. When I met him, he was one of the earliest SEM experts in the world, and over the years, Ive seen him conquer marketing on every channel better than others. I consider him a friend and mentor, and his notes on digital marketing should be as insightful as you could ever re ad.
Adam Foroughi, CEO and Founder, AppLovin
Full of best practices based on actual client experience, this book can immediately help your business grow. David Rodnitzky and 3Q are synonymous with cutting - edge digital marketing and delivering performance. This is the one book on digital marketing you have to read for 20
Chris Lien, CEO, Marin Software
Every entrepreneur will benefit from reading David Rodnitzkys book on digital marketinga powerful framework for growing your business with strategies straight from 3Q Digital, one of the most well - respected agencies in Silicon Vall ey.
David Baga, CEO, Even
David Rodnitzky is my go - to guy in Silicon Valley for digital marketing. He always seems to be a few years ahead of the competition and, as a result, is able to consistently produce superior marketing outcom es.
David Yuan, General Partner, Technology Crossover Ventures
Ive been in online marketing for most of my career, and Ive always had tremendous respect for David Rodnitzky and 3Q Digital. I wish this book had been around a few years soonerit would have saved me a lot of time and a ton of mon ey!
Larry Kim, CEO, MobileMonkey
3Q Digital is the most well - respected digital agency in Silicon Valley, if not the United States. 3Q has worked with the worlds most innovative and demanding companies and consistently delivers massive ROI to their clien ts.
Meagen Eisenberg, CMO, TripActions
If you read one book on digital marketing this year, read this one. David Rodnitzky and his crew at 3Q are synonymous with cutting - edge digital marketing. This book is full of best practices and insider secrets that will immediately improve your marketing ga me.
Ron Schneiderman, CEO, AllTrails
David and 3Q have always been leaders in digital and growth marketing. In Unfair Marketing , David shares some of the best practices he and his team have honed over the years and implemented for well - known clients. Every digital marketer could learn from his experien ce.
Robert Glazer, CEO, Acceleration Partners
Introduction
My 10- year - old son is convinced that the world is plotting against him. Every day he comes home from school with a tale of injust ice.
Daddy, today the girls in class were making fun of the boys, and when we tried to tell them to stop, we got in troub le.
The fourth - grade math class got cupcakes yesterday and didnt share them, but today when we got cupcakes, the teacher made us share them with the fourth grade rs!
Hes learning an important lesson: the world isnt fair. Bad things happen to good people. People cheat and get away with it. And yes, sometimes cupcakes are only shared in one direct ion.
When confronted with unfairness, we have a choice. We can loudly protest and hope that the world comes to its senses; we can sit idly, pout, and do nothing; or we can fight b ack.
To be clear, the right response varies based on the situation. Given that this is a business book, were not going to get all philosophical and talk about the times in history when civil disobedience or violent resistance was the only choice. This is not a discourse on Thomas Paines Common Sense or Martin Luther King Jrs Letter from a Birmingham J ail .
From a business perspective, I got a great piece of advice early in my career: You dont get what you deserve; you get what you negotiate. Put another way, business is unfair, so the only way to win in business is to find your own unfair advant age.
And thats what this book is about: unfair marketing advanta ges.
This book is not about doing anything illegal or unethical . You can create an unfair marketing advantage without breaking any laws or even feeling dirty. What I mean by unfair in this context is simple: discover something inside your company that gives you an advantage that the competition simply cant c opy .
Imagine, for example, that you go to a high school, and it just so happens that a kid in your town is over seven feet tall and can jump twice as high as the average person. Is it unethical for your high school basketball team to use this giant to win a lot of games? Of course not! Is it unfair? Well, yes, in the sense that the rival teams that dont have a super - athletic seven - footer dont really stand a chance. Thats what I mean by an unfair advant age.
The challenge for a lot of businesses is that finding their unfair marketing advantage is not as easy as the high school basketball coach who sees the future NBA star walk into the gym. Many companies have powerful unfair marketing advantages that they are either underutilizing or not using at all. So this book has two objectives: first, to identify common unfair marketing advantages that Ive observed over my 20 years in marketing, and second, to give you examples that show you how other companies have driven massive marketing success by using these techniq ues.
My Personal Unfair Advantage Story
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where our pro football team is the 49ers, named after the pioneers who flooded California after the 1849 discovery of gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. I frequently take my family to the area of the gold discovery (known, not surprisingly, as Gold Country). Weve visited a few mine sites and museums dedicated to the gold r ush.
In the very early days of the gold rush, it was relatively easy to find gold. There were literally nuggets lying on the ground that prospectors could just pick up. Once these easy pickings were all scooped up, prospectors had to pan for gold, then dig for gold, and then eventually build mines with hazardous chemicals, high - pressure water cannons, and miles of dangerous tunnels and heavy machin ery.