I enjoy questioning assumptions and stirring dialogue. At Kleto Forum, I write with a free-spirited, contrarian voice that brings energy and new angles to the conversation.
The Great SEO Con SEO agencies love to promise the world. “We’ll get you to page one!” “We’ll double your traffic in six months!” “We’ll outrank your competitors!” It sounds impressive, especially if you don’t live and breathe Google algorithms. But here’s the dirty secret:
The Cult of Clean Lines Minimalism has become the golden calf of modern design. White space? Genius. Sans-serif fonts? Revolutionary. A single button on a blank screen? Award-winning! Designers whisper the word “minimalist” like it’s some holy chant that absolves them of effort. But here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Stop Copying the Wrong Homework Marketers love to peek over their competitors’ shoulders. What’s their logo? What’s their brand voice? What colors are they using this season? Then they copy, tweak, and convince themselves they’re keeping up. But here’s the bold claim: your competitors’ branding playbook
The Authenticity Trap Marketers won’t shut up about “authenticity.” Scroll through LinkedIn for more than 30 seconds and you’ll see a dozen posts preaching the gospel: “Be authentic! Customers demand authenticity! Authentic brands win trust!” It’s the buzzword of the decade — and one of the most misleading
The Viral Mirage Marketers are obsessed with virality. Everyone wants to be the next Old Spice commercial, the next Dollar Shave Club video, the next TikTok trend that racks up millions of views overnight. Agencies pitch campaigns with words like “disruptive,” “share-worthy,” and “viral potential.” Founders daydream about waking up
The Sacred Text of Marketing That Nobody Reads Every company seems to have one: the sacred brand guideline PDF. It’s usually bloated, shiny, and about as useful as a manual for a DVD player in 2025. Designers slave over these documents, carefully outlining rules about logo spacing, color palettes,
The Myth of the Magic Color If you’ve spent more than ten minutes in the marketing world, you’ve probably heard someone solemnly declare: “Red buttons convert better than green ones.” Or maybe it was blue. Or orange. Or whatever color some guru’s A/B test happened to
The Comforting Myth of Branding Ah, branding — the sacred cow of the marketing world. Entire departments exist to “protect the brand.” Agencies make fortunes creating “brand books” thicker than most novels. And founders? They obsess over fonts, colors, and slogans like they’re chiseling commandments into stone tablets. Here’s
The Myth of the Magic Logo Marketers love to obsess over logos. They’ll spend months (and small fortunes) debating whether Helvetica feels too “corporate” or if the shade of blue in the wordmark is “trustworthy enough.” Designers present elaborate decks with logo mockups plastered on tote bags and airplane
The Funeral That Never Ends Every year, like clockwork, someone declares “SEO is dead.” And every year, the SEO crowd collectively rolls their eyes, fires up another webinar, and insists that — no, SEO is alive and well, thank you very much. But let’s be honest: SEO isn’t so