Sleeping Barber - A Marketing Podcast SBP 153: Dull Media Smells Like Burning Money. With Adam Morgan and Karen Nelson-Field
In this episode of The Sleeping Barber Podcast, Marc and Vassilis sit down with Adam Morgan (Eat Big Fish) and Dr. Karen Nelson-Field (Amplified Intelligence) to talk about one of marketing’s most overlooked money pits — dull media.
You’ve heard of dull ads — but what about dull media?
From perfume that smells like burning money to attention metrics that flip our measurement logic upside down, this conversation exposes how marketers might be wasting more budget on where they show up than what they show.
Together, they unpack:
- Why the real cost of dullness might live in your media plan, not your creative.
- The massive gap between viewable and actually seen impressions.
- How cheap CPMs can quietly destroy ROI.
- Why challenger brands suffer most when attention is lost.
- And why the smartest marketers start from one brutal truth: nobody cares — so make them.
It’s a lively, insightful, and often hilarious conversation that will make you rethink everything from your media mix to your measurement frameworks.
Key Takeaways
- Dull media wastes more money than dull creative.
- Attention metrics are becoming the new standard.
- “Viewable” ≠ “Seen.” Stop confusing impressions with impact.
- The cheapest media often delivers the lowest ROI — a false economy.
- Challenger brands face double jeopardy when cutting corners on attention.
- Budget pressure is no excuse for bad planning.
- Attention isn’t a metric — it’s a design principle.
- Marketers must challenge models built on impression volume.
- Setting the bar higher is the only way to make media work harder.
- Removing waste and reinvesting in effective attention drives better results.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction to Dull Media and Marketing Waste
03:06 - The Cost of Dull Media vs. Dull Creative
06:00 - The Impact of Media Delivery Mechanisms
08:55 - The Concept of Seen vs. Unseen in Advertising
12:02 - Innovative Approaches to Highlighting Media Waste
15:01 - Attention Metrics and Their Importance
18:06 - The Challenge of Changing Industry Standards
20:53 - The Role of Budget Pressures in Media Choices
26:48 - Challenging Assumptions in Media Engagement
30:34 - The Cost of Dull Media
34:06 - The Double Jeopardy for Challenger Brands
38:46 - Understanding Attention as a Design Principle
42:30 - Setting the Bar Higher for Media Effectiveness
Supporting Links:
The Extraordinary Cost of Dull - System1 Group
The Cost of Dull Media | Dr Karen Nelson-Field (amplified.co)