The Marketing Millennials What Marketers Get Wrong About Measurement with James Connelly, CEO of Charlie Oscar | Ep. 401
Mar 18, 2026
James Connolly, CEO of Charlie Oscar and mobile-marketing pioneer, explains why most spend is lost to poor measurement. He covers creative as the new targeting, building creator-driven content engines, and practical signals that actually predict growth. Short, tactical takes on timing, testing, and fixing measurement without chasing every shiny trend.
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Timing Matters More Than Hype With New Tech
- Timing is critical: being too early or too late with new tech like AI can kill businesses, so watch user behaviour rather than hype.
- LLM search is growing incrementally alongside Google, so experiment but don't assume immediate displacement.
Branded Search Dominance Often Hides Bad Measurement
- A media plan heavy on branded search and bottom-funnel channels signals a measurement problem, not necessarily correct performance.
- Use multi-model approaches (MMM, incrementality) to triangulate where real incremental opportunity sits in the marketing mix.
Align Leadership And Use FIELDS Before Budget Moves
- Align CFO, CEO and marketing on one source of truth and use models (MMM, holdouts) to form hypotheses about causation before shifting budget.
- Track forward indicators (FIELDS) like branded search lifts and owned-channel intent while waiting for sales signals.