death by 6,000 nibbles
When it needs cleaned, the tang looks for its pal, the Cleaner Wrasse who can be recognised by its bright electric blue colour and black stripe that runs down the length of its body.
Cleaner Wrasses hang around in 'cleaning stations'. Agencies in the reef.
The Wrasse is given access to the Tang’s gills and mouth, and then it eats any parasites and dead tissue off larger fishes' skin in a mutualistic relationship that provides food and protection for the wrasse, and considerable health benefits for the Tang. A reciprocal situation.
And so in order to gain access, the Cleaner Wrasse must first perform a secret dance – a special ‘code’ - in order to win the Tang’s trust.
This system normally works out fine, the symbiosis between two species, both partners are indispensable and the mutual advantage is obvious.
But there’s some other fish that mimic Cleaner Wrasses. For example, a species of Blenny called Aspidontus Taeniatus has evolved the same behavior.
It is almost identical in size and appearance to the Cleaner Wrasse. It even sports the same shiny stripe down its back and lurks around near the same reefs watching.
If approached by a Yellow Tang, the deceptive Blenny also knows the code.
The secret dance.
But once allowed in, instead of providing a cleaning service, the rogue Blenny uses its super sharp teeth to rip chunks of flesh from the hapless client.
Rather than ridding his client of parasites, Blenny IS the parasite. But in disguise.
The murky world of advertising technology [sic] contains many similar parasites, well adept at making themselves appear to be useful.
They look a bit like something to do with advertising, they can talk a language that’s a bit like the language of advertising. They know the code, which kinds of secret dances will get them access to the big fish.
And there’s lots of them.
This year’s chiefmartec.com adtech ‘lumascape’ graphic actually charts 6,829 marketing technology solutions from 6,242 unique marketing technology vendors.
While that represents ‘just’ 27% growth from 2017’s total (5,381) solutions, the percentage of growth the scale and velocity of this space is staggering.
In fact, the size of the 2018 landscape is equivalent to all of the marketing tech landscapes from 2011 through 2016 added together. Indeed, in 2011 they numbered just 150.
All of them having a nibble. All of them getting a chunk.
Where does all the money go?
Some of these companies are legit.
Some of the money may even find its way back into the industry, somehow.
But once you let them in, they keep biting.
And there are so many it’s hard to see how they can be kept out.
Then it's death by 6,000 nibbles.
