Bill Geist's Zeitgeist

You Must Be Doing Something Right

The Mayoral Race out in Lake Havasu City is heating up as the candidate debates begin. And "silly season" is in full swing.

Now, I totally get that the media only provides the quotes it thinks will either attract readers/viewers and/or advertisers...so, the account in the News-Herald may be as suspect as the candidates. But, here's what we know so far:

The two challengers don't like the CVB's recently developed tagline "Play Like You Mean It."

Really? How in the world is that even salient in a debate over who's gonna run the city?

If that's all the meat there is on the bone, I'm guessing the sitting Mayor's chance at re-election is pretty good.

So Young

Before the stadiums. Before the drama. There was a struggling band called Journey. After a couple prog-rock albums, they added a singer named Steve Perry to the line-up. The rest, as they say, is history.

One only need watch this performance on The Midnight Special in 1978 to see what was going to happen to original lead vocalist Greg Rollie.

Watch closely...because he is virtually invisible. It's all about Steve.

Who looks so innocent. So young. So sure he's singing the truth.

On this Music Friday, it's Steve's (then) new band with "Wheel in the Sky."

And, if you didn't catch it...he reappeared on stage for the first time in almost two decades last month in St. Paul. And, again a few days later in D.C. and L.A.

Will the boys kiss and make up for what could be the biggest tour ever? Stay tuned.

How Do You NOT Get that it's 140 Characters?

Twitter has been around for, what...8 years? Its famous point of difference is you gotta communicate in 140 characters. Not 160. Not 200. Just 140.

And yet, the people that are supposed to be (and believe themselves to be) smarter than the rest of us (e.g., politicians) keep getting tripped up by something the rest of us all understand.

Like the Nikki Haley entourage that tweeted the above message the other day, touting Education Reforms in the great State of South Carolina (click image to enlarge).

What she meant to say was, "we will no longer educate children based on where they were born."

Yeah...kinda different.

When the opposition salivates at the prospect of your every misstep...don'tcha think that someone ought to know the difference between posting on Facebook and Twitter? And not hit the "post on all platforms" button?

Or don'tcha?

All Hail the New Hub

In 2001, Steve Jobs proclaimed that the Mac would become our digital hub, where we would manage our photos, our music and our lives. True enough...at least for those of us that use Macs.

At Apple's recently concluded World Wide Developers Conference, it became pretty apparent that the iPhone has usurped the throne, making our laptops and computers mere accessories.

While I know it's inevitable, I can't help but think it's easier to walk into a pool or the lake with your iPhone in your pocket than your laptop.

Just a thought...

Drones to the Left, Drones to the Right

The Military uses them. Amazon wants to. And, Jack Bauer's trying to shoot them down.

A friend that has been creating seriously amazing photographic art from a remote-control camera mounted on a large kite admits that he is starting to use a drone in some situations when there's a one-in-a-lifetime shot and no wind.

And, now comes word that event production company Freeman is going to begin using drones to provide meeting planners with a virtual bird's eye view of event spaces in order to visualize set-up and maximize space. They'll also be able to show sponsors what their investment will look like, assuring a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Hey Jack? Not all the drones are evil.

Please don't bring down Freeman's.

Can't Count This

In our monthly e-newsletter last week, I commented on the pleas we hear for new standardized performance measures in the Destination Marketing field. And, I've been one of the ones that has been suggesting we need to get serious about tracking more than just "heads in beds."

After talking to a number of DMO CEOs whom I think are some of the smartest out there, I'm beginning to change my tune. I'm beginning to believe, as several of them do, that the most important performance measures to a community are what's uniquely important to that community. And, in many cases, those measures won't be portable to other communities.

Roughly at the same time I was having that ephiphany, an article in the New York Times (as shared by Reveries) seemed to chime in all at once. 

"Good enough is vastly more rigorous than any metric," says Nassim Nicholas Taleb. "As a scientist, I can say that very little is measurable," says the author of The Black Swan, adding that "even those things that are measurable, you cannot trust the measurement beyond a certain point." 

Duncan Watts of Microsoft, author of Everything Is Obvious, actually believes that having more information is good, but that "coming up with the correct meaning…is hard."

Data gives an appearance of control, but Novelist Anne Lamott, says that "everything that is truly human is the opposite of that. And, Albert Einstein, a numbers guy if ever there was one, likely would concur, given his famous advice: "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."

In the end, I'll repeat my new mantra, offered recently in Inc. by Chip Conley, Founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality:

“What counts that we are not counting?”

THAT is the holy grail of productivity measures.

It's Summer...Let's Kick it

There was a time I found the best unsigned artists on MySpace.

I know...how quaint.

Today...it's ReverbNation, and it's a fascinating glimpse into the world of independent artists. And, there is some amazing talent out there.

Which, of course, Music Friday must turn you on to....

To get this long awaited summer going, we present to you one Chance McKinney. Not exactly an unknown in the Pacific Northwest or to hardcore fans of CMT...but no household name either.

Which, if there is any justice in this world, will change with "Good Life," honestly the best ode to summer that I've heard in a long, long time.

Crank it up!

Staying Relevant From Decade to Decade

Yesterday, we discussed how former restaurant giants Red Lobster, Olve Garden and especially TGI Friday became invisible to today's consumers because, to a large degree, they reminded us of another decade.

It can happen to bands, too. So why hasn't it happened to Motley Crue?

According to Nikki Sixx (as reported in Fast Company), the band gave up a big payday by not allowing their music be used in the retro-metal Broadway musical Rock of Ages and its 2012 movie version: “We don’t want to be attached to an era. We don’t believe we’re an ’80s band or a ’90s band...we just believe that we’re a band. So, we chose to not be in Rock of Ages, and our instincts were right. The movie flopped.”

They also refuse to tour with '80s band package tours and, in doing so, have forfeited a lot of money.

But they've maintained the brand.

And, are going out on their own terms with what will be one of the biggest tours of the next year.

All hail the Saints of Los Angeles.

The Challenge of a Legacy Brand

Especially in the fast moving world of culinary, it's so easy to be yesterday's news unless one is continually reinventing oneself.

Red Lobster, Olive Garden and TGI Fridays are all struggling with consumer perceptions that certainly aren't new...but Millennial translations of those perceptions are killing these former food industry icons.

For Red Lobster, it's the nagging perception that they always have a sale going on. I remember watching through the one-way glass at a focus group in Chicago, bashing the brand for their incessant "sales" in the '80s. When they finally raised prices, their core audience (which had been well trained) walked away. Olive Garden is scrambling to change up their menu because it became too pedestrian.

And TGI Friday? A recent article in the New York Times relays that the brand is trying to shake it's '80s image of "a place where (Millennials') parents ordered potato skins and nachos from suspender-wearing servers." And, with 540 locations, they are trying to shake the notion that they are a chain.

Good luck with that.

I mean, I wish you all the luck in the world with your Food Truck Tour. But, unfortunately, I think your target market is smarter than that.

Using Humor to Sell Tourism

We live here. We are the worst possible people to judge how we should be marketed.

That should really come from those outside the State who can be objective.

We've seen that a lot, as Zeitgeist has begun testing commercials and online video for likability for select clients. It's quite amazing what the home crowd thinks should work and what actually does.

We've never tested the Wisconsin TV spots. Nobody's ever asked.

What we do know from testing tourism ads that utilize humor is that they tend not to work as well as those that focus on storytelling (aka Pure Michigan). But, that doesn't mean that Wisconsin's don't work.

Indeed, the spot featuring stars from the classic movie "Airplane!" has garnered a boatload of media equivalency. But, does that produce an increase in visitation?

For most of us in the land of cheese, brats and beer, this is old news. The spot debuted at the Governor's Conference on Tourism back in March. Like it or not, we knew what was to come.

But, one of the most respected TV empresarios this State has ever produced apparently just saw the spot for the first time yesterday. And, he posted his utter contempt on Facebook: "The Wisconsin tourism spots parodying "Airplane" are abysmal. The words to describe their badness have yet to be invented."

There. Somebody finally said it. And, within a few hours, over 40 comments from his friends (a large number from the marketing arena), all agreeing that it was horrible.

Being creative is one thing. Banking on the PR value of shooting the spot in the actual cockpit used in the movie is another.

Getting people to actually visit is something completely different.

There...now I've said it.