Bill Geist's Zeitgeist

The Claim Game

One of the parts of this sensational gig is having the opportunity to interface with community stakeholders as we consult Destination Marketing Organizations around the country. And, it's a rare occasion when someone doesn't uncork a great line that begs to be shared.

Yesterday's favorite: "Shoot anything that flies. Claim anything that falls."

Sound familiar?

Happily, he wasn't referring to his community's DMO but, rather, to the practice of other organizations around the country that don't have a defined plan of attack. But, we all must ask ourselves...have we been (or are we) guilty of such a modus operandi?

Just saying...

Fun with Airport Codes

You know, those three letter designations you see on your airline tickets that must have made some sort of sense to someone decades ago (or in another country)? As we noted a few years ago, Sioux City was tagged with SUX before the term meant something other than what it means today. 

Today's newsletter from the Southeast Tourism Society contained a link to a clever website that catalogues virtually every airport code in the world with the rationale behind the selected letters. It also allows those of us with time to kill in airports to try to connect the dots between destinations.

For instance: FAT > HOG = EAT > HAM (Fresno CA to Holguin, Cuba equals Wenatchee WA to Hamburg, Germany).

Or, for those of us that can't get our minds out of the gutter, how 'bout this itinerary: DAY > BED > SEX > SUX > FUK > FUN. That would be Dayton OH to Bedford MA to Sembach, Germany to Sioux City IA to Fukuoka, Japan to Funafuti in Tuvalu.

I know...you can take the boy out of sophomore year but you can't take the sophomoric humor out of the boy.

What itineraries can you find? Go...

Radiohead in the '50s

Let's step back more than half a century (stylistically) for this Music Friday offering.

This is Haley Reinhart and Postmodern Jukebox with a retro killer version of Radiohead's Creep.

Martini glasses high, y'all.

An Unrecovered Fumble

The club's website claimed the band started at 6. The artist's website read 9. The Downtown Improvement District's website said 8.

I called the club, and asked what time the band started.

"I really don't know," said the person on the other end.

"Ummm...does anybody there know?"

"Doubt it." 

A shame on two fronts. The club forfeits at least $50 (as I had intended to eat dinner there before the show) and the artist misses a chance that I become a fan, buy his music and tell my friends.

All because someone was too lazy to get off their ass in the middle of the afternoon.

Oh, Hell Yes

If you follow this blog with any regularity, you know that one of my passions is music...clearly evidenced by the reality that we close each week with our Music Friday feature. Thus, I'll cop to what I'm about to say has a certain bias. Only people who love live music would generally agree.

It should come as no surprise that my frustration level is sensationally high when I blow into a town and can't locate the live music I know is there. Sure, I could pick up the alternative weekly and find club dates...but it usually comes out on Thursday and tonight is Wednesday. Plus, I have no idea where I could pick up a copy, even if a few still remained.

This really should be the role of the Destination Marketing Organization...and I've been harping on this for some time now. DMOs do a fairly sensational idea of content curation up to about 7pm. Our collective score after 7pm is a D- (and I'm grading on a gracious curve).

So, to say I'm simply enthralled with what Denny Edwards and his team have done at the Greater Raleigh CVB is a massive understatement. Talk about embracing music. They've determined that there is more live music in Raleigh than anywhere in North Carolina...so they've camped out on TheMostNC.com and claim to offer the definitive guide to every live music event in the region, from Kenny Chesney at PNC next month to bands nobody has every heard of playing dive honkytonks.

They've smartly designed the new micro-site to refer back to the mothership website...but only serving up music related content. For instance, the link to the Bureau blog from TheMostNC.com only returns music oriented posts. But, once on the main site, visitors can branch out to other areas such as dining and lodging if they choose. Very smart.

Hey, Raleigh? You just nailed it. Sensationally well played.

 

Mobilegeddon

At least, that's what the Wall Street Journal is calling it.

Today is the day that Google is expected to change-up its search algorithms to favor websites that are optimized for viewing on mobile devices.

Said another way, if you've been holding off on responsive design...you're screwed.

Have a nice day.

Wouldn't it be Easier?

Just got off the phone with Customer Service after struggling to complete an online form.

I wasn't even a third of the way through an explanation of which page I had encountered frustration when she interrupted me and quickly explained the solution.

"But, it doesn't say that," I replied.

"Oh, yeah it does, it's just really hard to understand."

That she probably fields this call 20 times a day to be as lightning fast as she was with an answer tells me more than she's a pretty quick study.

It tells me that whoever designed the page in question is costing the company a bunch of money in lost productivity.

Wouldn't it be easier to just redesign the page and the question in question?

Just a thought...

The Sledge

We lost another amazing talent this week with the passing of Percy Sledge, the voice (and possibly the lyric) behind the classic "When a Man Loves a Woman." You've likely heard or seen his rendition as media eulogized him over the past few days.

On this Music Friday, it's a posthumous twofer, as we also recognize another talent that left terra firma far too early this past winter. Here's the late Joe Cocker's version of "When a Man Loves a Woman."

We loved you both. RIP.

And Then There's Georgia...

A lot of action on both yesterday's blog and the monthly edition of the Z-News. We clearly hit some nerves.

But, for the first time, we were actually chastised by readers and followers for not leading with the State Hotel Tax debacle in Georgia. With all due respect...we considered it, but felt the negative media's influence on destination and community development was more widespread.

That said, what recently transpired in Georgia is a case study in just how clueless those we elect to serve us can be...and how we must be far more politically connected and vigilant than we have been.

As news sources would have us believe, the Georgia Legislature surprised everybody by a last minute move to tack a $5/night charge on hotels to pay for a major highway bill. Yeah...$5/night.

If this concept was that much of a surprise, the Georgia Legislature should all be pressed into service in the CIA. I mean, really...nobody knew this was a possibility? They were that good at keeping this secret when they can't hide their personal indiscretions?

But, that's not really the point. 

Here's where it gets ugly. Governor Nathan Deal responded to angry hoteliers by saying, “People wouldn’t come to their places of businesses if they didn’t have a good way to get there.” True dat. But that the hotel industry bears the burden of this initiative? What about the manufacturers whose overloaded semis created the crisis of crumbling roads far more than the SUVs of visiting families? What about the out-of-state carriers that pound the shit out of your roads?

Tagging visitors staying in your hotels for infrastructure needs exhibits a sensationally shallow understanding of economic development. But, by tossing off incendiary comments such as, “It would be a great tragedy if we had an accident with a school bus on a deteriorating bridge," Deal courts his base.

While ignoring the industry that supports increased investment in his State.

Yup.

Oh...Now Tourism is Important?

It's always fascinating to watch government make budgeting decisions regarding destination marketing. The unsophisticated ones never seem to be able to find the money to mount a credible campaign to attract visitors (and, thus, potential future residents and investors).

But, when they screw up the destination's image, it's so much easier to find the funds to repair the mess. Like Indiana, where the Senate's proposed budget allocates an extra million dollars in each of the next two years to the State Tourism Department to help improve Indiana's tarnished image in the aftermath of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act debacle.

Nice start, guys. But, I'm pretty sure it's going to take a lot more than $2 million.

Dig a little deeper.

Image: Indianapolis Business Journal (2013)