Bill Geist's Zeitgeist

Kicking off the Summer of '16

Every season has its songs. The beginning of summer for me has always been "Dance to the Music" by Sly and the Family Stone.

Here's to a great weekend...and yeah, on this Music Friday, all the squares should go home.

The Fine Print

So...I get that it is a State Law that motorists must stop for pedestrians at the Tampa International Airport when they are in the crosswalk.

Does this infer that we don't have to if they are not?

Just a thought...

You Can't Always Get What You Want

So goes the classic song from the Glimmer Twins...which is how many in Florida (and the Destination Marketing world at large) felt earlier this month when the Broward County Administrator selected a sitting County Commissioner for the top spot at the Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB, instead of someone with DMO experience.

Part of the dilemma facing the Administrator was Florida's insanely backwards Sunshine Laws that inhibit good candidates from applying for DMO jobs. Part of it was politics. And part of it, as noted in a recent Sun Sentinel editorial, is a flawed process.

But, as the lyric continues, "you might find you get what you need."

Most of us don't live in Broward County. Thus, while we may think they need an accomplished Destination Sales and Marketing pro, the truth is that they may not. Maybe they needed someone at the helm who could continue to steer the organization and the industry through the shark-infested waters of County politics...something her predecessor did exceptionally well.

It's a highly politicized world in which DMO pros must navigate, something I shouldn't have to remind anybody in this space. Indeed, I was selected to lead the Greater Madison CVB 26 years ago, not for my knowledge of convention sales but, for my ability to get bills passed in the State Legislature. Madison was approaching a referendum fight to build a convention center and they needed someone with political experience to help guide the process from the DMO side.

Stacy Ritter may be exactly what is needed in Fort Lauderdale and, as the Sun Sentinel said, "We wish Stacy success in her new role. We count on her to deliver results."

Welcome to our world, Stacy.

The Yin and Yang of Airbnb

Depending upon the way you look at the research surrounding Airbnb, you either see them as wildly disruptive or nothing to get too worked up about (or something in between). For, as revealed in a recent edition of Skift, the statistics (even from the same study) are all over the place. Take the recent Pew research on the sharing economy:

OMG! 72% of Americans have used a shared economy service!

But, only 11% have used Airbnb...while 53% have never even heard of it.

Which begs the question: How can the street value a company at $25.5 billion when the majority of us, confronted with its name, say "huh?"

Faithfully Cool

As the stories tumble out about the multi-faceted sides of Prince that we never saw (like picking up the $80,000 medical bill for a man he'd never met...but a man that was the progenitor of the beat behind James Brown and countless other R&B acts), this one is my second favorite:

In 1984, Journey was one of the biggest stadium acts on the planet. Keyboardist Jonathan Cain was basking in the success of "Faithfully." And, the Purple One was on the phone...asking Jonathan to listen to a track he had just completed. He was concerned that his song borrowed too heavily from Jonathan's and didn't want to go forward with it if Jonathan didn't approve.

After listening to the song, Jonathan said, "Man, I'm just super-flattered that you even called. It shows you're that classy of a guy. Good luck with the song. I know it's gonna be a hit."

It was "Purple Rain."

I was in radio at that time and, frankly, I never made the connection, despite hearing both songs every day and, very likely, sometimes playing them back to back. That Prince did, shows an amazing awareness and deference to artists around him whom he respected.

On this Music Friday, we offer them both in a mash-up cover.

Make fun of the '80s all you like. It was pretty cool, from time to time.

 

Let's Get Together and Call Us an Institute

There may have been a time when the direct linkages between economic development, tourism and non-resident tax generation weren't as stone cold obvious as they are today. So I guess I could give some old school economist a day pass if they'd call tourism promotion a "non-essential" service of State government.

Except none of the staff at the Platte Institute for Economic Research look that old. So maybe it's their youthful idealism (or agenda) that caused them to pen the following opinion in the Grand Island Independent:

"The Nebraska Tourism Commission is, by definition, a non-essential agency engaged in non-essential, and recently, wasteful spending...NTC’s functions are not in the same universe of importance as education, criminal justice, roads or elections."

Hey, Sparky(s)? How do you plan to pay for those essential functions like education, criminal justice and roads (I'll pass on calling elections essential, thank you)? With the very resident taxes your website claims you are trying to reduce through your "research?"

And, even if you stubbornly hold to the notion that tourism generated taxes aren't real and don't serve to reduce resident taxes (how quaint), you cannot dispute the recent work of Longwoods International (a real research company) that proves a linkage between tourism advertising and entrepreneurial investment...a goal your website infers you seek.

Let's call the Institute for what it really is...and it's not about rigorous economic research.

And, let's agree that, while mistakes were made at the NTC, Tourism promotion is vital to Nebraska's future.

Peace in the Valley

In this increasingly divisive world, I just gotta love it when two of my neighbors can agree that America needs to be great again.

And offer two very different solutions (click to enlarge).

Wild Thing at 50

It is still as vital and as seminal a rock 'n roll song as has ever been written.

50 years ago last month, the Troggs released the punk-before-there-was-punk "Wild Thing." As CNN's Todd Leopold wrote, "it's stupid and defiant, powerful and primitive, everything rock 'n' roll ever wanted to be in 2 minutes and 30 seconds."

We could go a hundred different directions on this Music Friday (we shared one of the covers a few months ago) and, it's been a while since we've featured Tom Petty (who'll be on tour this summer with his first band, Mudcrutch). So, here's a rare video of the Heartbreakers goofing around in the studio from what looks like the Damn the Torpedoes era.

Kills it.

Local vs. Expert

Another familiar complaint in Destination Marketing (see yesterday's post) is that an "out of town" (or out of country) firm or CEO can't possibly know how to market a region.

This, of course, assumes that someone who lives in a place can be objective about what will attract a visitor to that place.

While this is, by no means, a criticism of homegrown talent...there is a certain logic to having someone from your target market (let's say America) lead the resurrection of a Destination Marketing effort in a nearby country (such as Bermuda). Without deep research, most resident marketers wouldn't know what motivates an American to choose one island over another. Bill Hanbury and Vicki Isley, of the Bermuda Tourism Authority, do (and, his recent podcast explanation on how they are developing Bermudian talent to one day take the reigns is sensational).

And, then there is this rant from a businessman in Belize that (among other complaints) the firm that created his country's destination website wasn't Belizean. While true, whoever did it (and their sensational video content), certainly understands what motivates.

Local talent is critical for content creation and storytelling. But, just because someone isn't from your town, state or country is no reason to disqualify them from working on your destination's behalf. They might just see things that a local doesn't.

On Transparency

It doesn't happen often...but, when it does, a lot of the public criticism of Destination Marketing Organizations is based on a perceived lack of transparency.

We don't know how much the staff makes. We don't know how they select their target markets. We don't know how much they spent on their website. We don't know how much they paid a spokesmodel to tweet.

That's what we hear from the whiners. Thinly veiled suggestions that something nefarious is going on...and innuendo is a powerful tool.

What these individuals would do with this information, however, is unclear. Unless they were accomplished destination marketers, they wouldn't know what markets held the highest ROI. Nor would they know how much an effective online presence costs.

It's like the physician that created his own TV spot in response to the failed Rhode Island video. Nice try...but it looks like a spot that an amateur would do. Because he is. What most people think would inspire a visit simply doesn't. And we have hours of DMOvizion focus group research that proves it. 

It's rare to hear people suggest that they want more transparency from the folks running public works (except maybe in Flint) or Parks and Rec. Why does everyone think they know how to do destination marketing?

Because they once took a vacation?