Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Best “When It Doesn’t Seem Like Marketing”

Anyone who reads this blog with any frequency knows that for several years I’ve been a fan of Tom Fishburne, the founder and CEO of Marketoon Studios.  His daily blog illustrations about marketing should be a must read for non-marketing folks, especially those who think they know all about marketing.

Next week Tom is presenting to a gathering of marketing chiefs for community-destination marketing organizations (DMO,) many of whom get it.

More importantly, next month he presents to a forum of my former CEO peers for these organizations, far too many of whom are still stuck in old models of marketing.

For anyone who is interested in some of the concepts Tom will probably illustrate during that DMO innovation conference, click here to read a presentation on marketing he was asked to give at Google last fall.

I particularly liked the part of his presentation to Google when he illustrated why “the best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.”  This is particularly salient insight for public officials and many involved in other aspects of economic development who still think community marketing should be about big, glitzy ad campaigns or mega-facilities and events.

This type of thinking was discredited even before my now-concluded 40-year career in visitor-centric economic and cultural development began.  Unfortunately, it is still being perpetuated in some circles even today by people who assume they are expert at everything and close themselves off to new information.

Folks, such as this, remind me of a line in one of my favorite duets, written by Rodney Crowell, “You can’t talk when I don’t hear.”

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