Published January 20, 2025
1
The Opportunity
In an ideal marketing world, brands would acquire customers exactly once through paid channels, then focus their energy and resources on nurturing these relationships to maximise lifetime value. Yet our reality is starkly different. Brands find themselves trapped in an endless cycle of paying to reach the same customers repeatedly, while chronically underinvesting in customer relationship management (CRM). The numbers tell a stark story: annual global spending on Google, Meta, and other adtech platforms has ballooned to $700 billion, while investment in martech—the technology needed to build lasting customer relationships—remains a mere fraction, likely less than 10% across both B2B and B2C brands.
Adtech has evolved into an increasingly opaque machine—a black box that consumes marketing budgets and spits out clicks, offering marketers diminishing control over targeting and outcomes. While this automation promises simplicity, it has effectively reduced marketers to digital sharecroppers, perpetually indebted to Big Adtech’s platforms. Like borrowers trapped in a cycle of taking new loans just to service existing debt, marketers find themselves caught in a customer acquisition cost (CAC) spiral that drains resources that could be invested in nurturing existing customer relationships.
The cost of this dependency extends beyond immediate financial impact. As acquisition costs continue to rise, brands are forced to prioritise immediate conversions over building sustainable customer relationships. This creates a vicious cycle where poor retention necessitates more acquisition spending, feeding the very platforms that are eroding marketing profitability.
Over the past few years, I’ve explored various solutions to this challenge, primarily focusing on retention strategies. However, a new perspective has emerged: what if we could create alternative attention platforms that enable brands to run precisely targeted, PII-based (Personally Identifiable Information) advertising? Such a platform could help brands bypass the expensive “Google/Meta tax” on acquisition while simultaneously transforming them from mere advertisers into publishers—creating new revenue streams through their own media properties.
The key lies in reimagining how brands capture and monetise attention. Instead of bombarding customers with promotional content masquerading as valuable communication, what if we could make the advertisements themselves genuinely enriching content? This transformation requires two critical elements: scale in reach and N=1 personalisation in customer communications (what I call “hotlines”). Built correctly, such a platform could emerge as a formidable challenger to traditional adtech, redirecting billions in AdWaste—money currently spent on wrong acquisition and unnecessary reacquisition—back to brands themselves.
In this series, I’ll explore how the combination of NeoMails and AI Twins can create this alternative future. These innovations can generate sustainable attention that can be monetised through highly targeted advertising while delivering genuine value to consumers. The potential impact is transformative: brands could reclaim control of their customer relationships, invest more in innovation and growth, and ultimately achieve “profipoly” status—becoming category leaders through superior profitability and customer understanding.
2
Building Blocks
In recent essays, I have outlined three transformative innovations that together can create a new paradigm in digital marketing. These building blocks – NeoMails for hotline creation, SmartBlocks for zero-party data collection, and AI Twins for N=1 personalisation – provide the foundation for challenging adtech’s dominance.
NeoMails reimagines email from a simple communication channel into an interactive engagement platform. Unlike traditional emails that merely push messages and drive website clicks, NeoMails creates app-like experiences directly within the inbox. Through its combination of Atomic Rewards (Mu) in subject lines, interesting and interactive microcontent, interactive SmartBlocks, and ActionAds, NeoMails enables brands to establish reliable “hotlines” – consistent, two-way connections with customers that eliminate the need for costly reacquisition through adtech platforms. Most crucially, these daily 15-second engagement vehicles create predictable touchpoints that build habits and trust, transforming every inbox from a sporadic touchpoint into a reliable engagement channel.
The second building block addresses the critical challenge of customer understanding through zero-party data collection. Traditional marketing relies heavily on inferred preferences from observed behaviour – the digital breadcrumbs that feed adtech platforms’ targeting capabilities. SmartBlocks revolutionise this dynamic by enabling progressive profiling through natural, rewarding interactions embedded within NeoMails. Instead of guessing what customers want based on browsing history or purchase patterns, brands can build rich profiles through directly (and voluntarily) shared preferences and intentions. This creates a powerful data asset that belongs to the brand, not intermediary platforms.
AI Twins complete the trinity by enabling true N=1 personalisation at scale. Starting with Adtech Twins built from public data, evolving to Madtech (Segment) Twins that combine marketing and advertising insights, and ultimately achieving Singular Twins, this technology creates individual digital replicas that enable unprecedented personalisation. Working alongside an AI Co-Marketer, these Twins continuously learn from customer interactions to predict next best actions and craft increasingly relevant messages. This intelligence layer ensures every communication feels personally crafted, adapting in real-time as part of an evolving customer journey.
Together, these innovations solve the fundamental challenges that have forced brands into dependency on adtech platforms: the “No Hotline” problem of poor engagement, the “Not for Me” problem of irrelevant messaging, and the “Not by Product alone” limitation of traditional martech platforms. By establishing reliable connections, gathering rich zero-party data, and enabling true personalisation at scale, brands can finally break free from the costly cycle of continuous acquisition and reacquisition.
The combination creates a powerful foundation for challenging adtech’s dominance. But how exactly can these building blocks be assembled into a viable alternative to Google and Meta’s advertising machines? That’s what we’ll explore next.
3
The B2C Breakthrough
The breakthrough moment came when I started reimagining NeoMails and AI Twins not as B2B solutions but as B2C channels that could transform digital engagement and monetisation.
I discussed NeoMails in my previous essay (How NeoMails can create an Adtech (and AdWaste) Alternative):
Who can bring NeoMails to life? A NeoESP/NeoMartech platform is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation. While brands stand to save billions in AdWaste and tap into new revenue streams through ActionAds, NeoESP/NeoMartech platforms can unlock unprecedented revenue pools. This represents a Blue Ocean opportunity in the Red Ocean of traditional martech.
Today’s martech platform providers find themselves trapped in a zero-sum game. Every sale requires displacing an incumbent, often through price discounting and feature warfare. The ESP and Martech market, estimated at $25-50 billion annually, pales in comparison to adtech’s $700 billion. In fact, many traditional ESPs, acquired by CPaaS players, have become commoditised infrastructure providers rather than strategic partners in their clients’ growth.
NeoMails changes this dynamic fundamentally. By offering brands a genuine adtech alternative, NeoESP/NeoMartech platforms can tap into revenue streams magnitudes larger than their current market. This isn’t just about better email delivery—it’s about reinventing the inbox as a primary engagement channel that drives sustainable profitable growth.
To succeed, NeoESP/NeoMartech vendors must reimagine themselves as B2C platform builders. Just as Search powered Google’s rise and Social fuelled Meta’s dominance, Email—reimagined through NeoMails—can birth the next generation of advertising giants. These platforms must solve a crucial challenge: making the cluttered inbox not just cleaner, but genuinely valuable. After all, sustained attention is the prerequisite for successful monetisation.
The opportunity extends beyond mere advertising. While social media streams offer fleeting entertainment, they’ve increasingly fostered polarisation and toxicity. NeoMails, powered by AI and driven by genuine user enrichment, can fill a growing void in digital experiences. Imagine the daily joy of solving personalised puzzles, discovering curated knowledge snippets, or participating in prediction markets—all delivered through brand emails that users eagerly anticipate multiple times daily.
A similar epiphany occurred with AI Twins during a recent conversation with a marketer who suggested flipping the concept: “Why not create AI Twins that my customers could talk to—AI clones of themselves? When we talk to ourselves, we’re uninhibited and open. So when customers interact with their twins, they’ll share their true intent and desires, enabling the Twin to make perfect recommendations.” This insight transformed the idea: instead of AI Twins solely interacting with the Co-Marketer, they could become digital companions or “Artificial Friends” (reminiscent of Klara in Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Klara and the Sun”). These N=1 AI Twins would understand not just brands and product catalogs, but the individual customers they serve—prioritising genuine customer needs and lifetime relationships over short-term corporate growth metrics.
The key to accelerating adoption of both NeoMails and AI Twins lies in positioning them as B2C solutions intermediated through brands—free to deploy and monetised through advertising. This approach – radically different from both the CPM pricing that email service providers (ESPs) charge for message delivery and the MAU-based MRR pricing that martech companies demand for their platforms – could finally create a viable alternative to today’s expensive and inefficient adtech platforms. By aligning incentives across brands, platforms and consumers, it promises to deliver genuine value to all stakeholders while redirecting billions in AdWaste towards innovation and growth.
4
Learning from Adtech
Successful adtech platforms have mastered the art of capturing and monetising attention. Google’s search, YouTube’s Shorts, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram social networks, TikTok’s videos, Amazon’s marketplaces – have all built platforms that attract billions of users, whose data is then harnessed for delivering targeted ads from brands, who know remarkably little about to whom their ads are being shown. That’s how intermediaries work, and it’s proven to be extraordinarily profitable for these platforms.
The genius of their model lies in creating self-reinforcing ecosystems. Users come for the utility or entertainment – whether searching for information, connecting with friends, watching short videos, or shopping for products. The platforms capture vast amounts of behavioural data from these interactions, which they transform into sophisticated targeting capabilities. Brands then pay premium prices to reach these engaged audiences (some of whom could be their existing customers!), funding further platform development that attracts more users and generates more data.
This virtuous cycle has created what are effectively attention monopolies, each dominating their respective domains. Their success demonstrates three crucial lessons for building alternative platforms: first, the paramount importance of delivering genuine user value to drive sustained engagement; second, the power of data network effects in creating competitive moats; and third, the potential for monetisation once attention and data reach critical mass.
The challenge—and opportunity—lies in applying these lessons to email, but with a crucial difference: instead of creating walled gardens that extract value from both users and brands, we can build open ecosystems that share value across all participants. The key lies in reimagining the very role of brands in the digital marketing landscape.
This opens an intriguing possibility: what if we could fundamentally change this “ad platform as intermediary” model? What if brands could become publishers in their own right—owning their data and deciding which non-competing products would fit well in their customers’ journey? ActionAds from NeoMails enables exactly this transformation. These capabilities extend naturally to AI Twins interactions, with 1:1 NeoMails serving as the perfect interaction point for AI Twins.
This combination of NeoMails and AI Twins builds upon the three crucial lessons from adtech’s success, but reimagines them for greater value creation:
First, on delivering user value: Instead of fleeting social media entertainment or intermittent search utility, NeoMails create daily moments of genuine enrichment through personalised microcontent, while AI Twins offer continuous, contextual support. These daily interactions build lasting engagement habits that benefit both brands and customers.
Second, on data network effects: Rather than hoarding behavioural data in closed systems, this approach enables brands to build rich zero-party data assets through direct customer interactions. Every conversation with an AI Twin, every response to a SmartBlock, creates a deeper understanding that improves future personalisation.
Third, on monetisation potential: Instead of extracting value through expensive advertising auctions, ActionAds enable brands to generate revenue by recommending relevant products from complementary brands, while maintaining control over their customer relationships. The targeting is precise because it’s based on genuine understanding rather than inferred intent. The ads become an extension of the content-led relationship that NeoMails foster.
This new model – let’s call it NeoAdtech – promises to transform digital marketing into a value-sharing ecosystem that benefits brands, their customers, advertisers, and the NeoESP/NeoMartech entity.
5
The Big Questions
As we dive into the specifics of bringing NeoMails and AI Twins to life, it’s essential to step back and examine the broader context. The digital marketing landscape is at a critical juncture, shaped by systemic shifts in technology, consumer behaviour, and economic pressures. To truly understand how NeoMails and AI Twins can disrupt Big Adtech, we must first address a series of fundamental questions that will shape the future of digital marketing.
These questions will guide our exploration of how NeoMails and AI Twins can reshape the marketing landscape. By finding answers, we can unlock new opportunities for brands to build meaningful, long-term relationships with customers while escaping the profit-draining cycles of traditional adtech. The solutions will create a new vision for marketing—one that is not just efficient but genuinely enriching for both brands and consumers.
- The Rise of Adtech: Who Gave Away the Keys to the Kingdom?
- How did adtech rise to dominate digital marketing?
- What historical decisions and systemic factors caused marketers to relinquish control over customer relationships?
- Why did brands become so dependent on Google and Meta as gatekeepers?
- Could this have been prevented, and what lessons can we learn?
- The Promise of N=1 Personalisation: Why Does It Matter?
- Why is one-to-one personalisation a transformative breakthrough for marketing?
- How does it differ from current segmentation and cohort-based approaches?
- What makes it critical for deeper customer engagement?
- Can it scale without compromising quality?
- Reinventing Email: Can It Compete in a World of Reels and DMs?
- Can email become relevant again for younger generations?
- What innovations could make email habit-forming?
- How can NeoMails create daily engagement rituals?
- What role does microcontent play in driving sustained attention?
- AI as the Creative Powerhouse: What Will Captivate the Inbox Generation?
- How can AI reshape email content creation?
- What types of microcontent will resonate in the age of short-form video?
- How can AI ensure consistent quality at scale?
- What role do AI Twins play in content personalisation?
- The Economics of Attention: Can Brands Escape the Costly Adtech Cycle?
- How does NeoMails redefine the economics of attention?
- Can it break the acquisition/reacquisition treadmill?
- What are the potential cost savings and revenue opportunities?
- How can brands measure success in this new model?
- The Inbox as the New Playground: Is It Possible to Build a NeoAdtech Ecosystem?
- Could NeoMails and ActionAds create decentralised ad networks?
- How does this model compare to existing walled gardens?
- What advantages could it offer brands and consumers?
- What infrastructure is needed to support this ecosystem?
- Trust and Privacy: Can a NeoAdtech Model Win Consumer Confidence?
- How do NeoMails and AI Twins balance personalisation with privacy?
- Can zero-party data build stronger trust than current models?
- What safeguards are needed for consumer protection?
- How can brands ensure transparent and ethical practices?
- The Path to Implementation: What Are the First Steps?
- How can brands begin their NeoMail journey?
- What capabilities need to be built first?
- How should success be measured?
- What timeline is realistic for transformation?
I will explore these questions in detail in my next essay.
