Bill Geist's Zeitgeist

The Impact of Visitor Spending

My friend Tim Morrissey posted a great "shaggy dog" tale last week, taking a poke at the economics of the new administration. That it starts with the hospitality industry earns it Friday Funny status.

Enjoy...and have a great weekend.

The Stars Align

I was honored yesterday to receive the Wisconsin Tourism Trailblazer Award for Lifetime Achievement. Given the honorees that have come before me...I am truly humbled. Thank you to whoever submitted my name...and thank you to everyone else that couldn't come up with a more deserving candidate.

My friend Gary Knowles posted this picture on my Facebook Wall...which started the cascade of congratulations from across the country. But I had to love the comment from my buddy Jim Epperson (of the Harrison County IN CVB), who said that Bill Samuels (of Maker's Mark) just received the Louisville CVB's Lifetime Achievement Award on Wednesday.

Dude, that's what I drink.

Coincidence? I think not...

A New Public Health Hazard

A new study, just out (as reported on Elliott.org), indicates that over half of us would board a plane, knowing we had H1N1, rather than pay the $150 airline change fee.

Doesn't this qualify any airline charging such a fee as a knowing, willing and intentional Public Health Hazard?

Just a thought...

A Tasty Way to Stimulate the Economy

130 Million people eat out in America every day...which pumps $3 billion into the economy, every day.

That's one I didn't know...and just one in a great video that clearly explains the impact of restaurants on the nation's economy. And the devastating effect when we begin to view eating out as a luxury.

Thanks to my friend Maura Gast of the Irving CVB for the catch.

Price Fixing, Anyone?

Years ago, I was a member of a professional trade association whose veteran members would go absolutely apoplectic when rookies would inquire about how we all set our fees. They would quickly lecture the young padawan that such talk was akin to price fixing, punishable by large fines from the federal government.

Yeah, like the Justice Department is gonna come after a couple professional speakers who talk about how they price their services under certain market conditions over a beer.

Because they sure aren't coming down on the hundreds of thousand gas stations that all jacked their prices a fairly uniform 20 cents across the country earlier this week.

If that's not collusion...I'm really not sure what is.

Is Good News the Answer?

Newspapers are dying. And, while online content is the primary culprit, I can't help but think that print editors' focus on bad news has played a part.

It works like this: Newspapers print bad news. Consumers get spooked and stop buying. Business cash flow slows, resulting in less advertising in newspapers. Newspapers die from lack of advertising revenue.

As consumers, I think we've had enough bad news. What would happen if newspapers became the bearers of good news? Featuring stories of the human spirit, the success in the face of adversity? We love Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Why wouldn't we love good news in our morning paper?

In a world where good news is so rare, wouldn't the media that provides it create a rabid following?

Certainly couldn't be a worse strategy than they're pursuing now.

Just a thought...

Did Somebody Get a New Marketing Director?

Is it just me...or is there pink just about everywhere we look this month?

NFL players wearing pink cleats? Delta flight attendants trading out their killer new red uniforms for pink ones...and the airline repainting one of its jets pink? And Hard Rock International sponsoring Pinktober?

Did Breast Cancer Awareness Month get a new Chief Marketing Officer, or what?

'Cause they're everywhere...and that's very cool.

Photo Credit: Jason Getz / Atlanta Journal Constitution

The View from the Ivory Tower

Had to laugh at an article posted on brandchannel about a new Harley Davidson cake decorating kit.

While the author questioned the price point and appropriateness of such a strategy, she so doesn't get it when she says that, while it may work for kids, it won't work for weddings.

She clearly doesn't get out much...cause I know LOTS of people that would love such a cake on the day they say they'll be faithful to another.

A Virus by Any Other Name

One of Wisconsin's legislative brain trust was successful yesterday in passing a non-binding resolution (what, nothing else to do on a slow Thursday?) encouraging everybody in the Badger State to stop calling it "Swine Flu." Apparently on the notion that doing so has hurt pork sales.

My friend Tim Morrissey, whose blog The Way Things R is on my daily read, nailed it today when he wrote:

"It’s a wonder we still eat chicken, with all that talk about Chicken Pox."

'Bout snorted my juice through my nose...

Is It Time for a New Hello?

The French love their “la bise”

Those are the cheek-to-cheek pecks upon greeting someone. It’s totally ingrained in their culture. It’s who they are.

But, in the face of a feared rearing of H1N1’s ugly little head, the French government is encouraging its people to refrain from the kiss. Mon dieu!

And yet, it makes perfect sense.

Here in America...it’s the handshake. And ever since contracting a vicious case of (non-swine) flu from a toxic web developer from Mobile in 2000, I’ve wondered why, in the face of viruses such as H1N1, we don’t agree to stop this time honored practice.

I know...it’s our culture. It’s who we are.

My infection, though, came about when said web developer was late to a lunch presentation. He hurriedly shook my hand upon entering the room...and I returned to my sandwich. A few minutes into his pitch, he started barking a phlegmy hack and then apologized, saying he was just getting over the flu.

I closed my eyes and sighed as I realized I had just consumed his virus. And then got sicker than I can ever remember being, ruining a family vacation to Williamsburg. Well, at least for me.

From that point on, I’ve believed the Japanese have the perfect greeting.

One that I think the world would be good to adopt in the months ahead.