Bill Geist's Zeitgeist

It's OK to Say "No" this Thanksgiving

For those in America, this Thursday is the holiday known as Thanksgiving. And the media is awash with stories about the latest research on whether we will travel, how we will travel and what we will eat.

Despite warnings for miserable travel conditions in parts of the country, AAA estimates Thanksgiving travel will be up over 4% from last year thanks to sagging gas prices and a rebounding economy. They also believe we will be spending more this weekend than last year.

According to Priceline, 68% of Americans would rather have family and friends stay in a hotel rather than bunk with them. No word whether that's because half of us admit to "getting busy" while staying at family and friends' homes...or whether we all want to avoid a scene out of "The Family Stone."

And then, there's what we will eat. Over the past few years, I've broken with the tradition of carving a bird in favor of a big pot of wicked fine seafood, sausage and turkey gumbo. But, when I'm assigned a dish for a holiday dinner at someone else's house, it's usually the green bean casserole. Mostly because I screwed up the recipe a few years ago...and ended up crushing it.

Which, as a Wisconsinite, is only natural, as we Cheeseheads love our green bean casserole more than any other State in the Union...except Kentucky. Or so says Del Monte.

Bacon and celery salt are two of my several secret ingredients. Yours?

Jeff Healey

It's a Music Friday Pop-Quiz: Besides being taken from terra firma way too early, what do Patrick Swayze and Jeff Healey have in common?

If you're anything like us, you know they starred together in the movie "Road House," one of our Top 3 "Guilty Pleasure" movies of all time.

Jeff is best known for his hit cover of John Hiatt's "Angel Eyes." So, I guess we'll offer a three-fer today. The aforementioned ballad, Jeff's cover of the Doors' classic "Roadhouse Blues" (which has a lot of odd cutaways to scenes from the movie...but don't miss the ending scene).

But, to see Jeff tear it down...this is the one: "As the Years Go Passing By" from a Stuttgart show in 1995.

Damn, I miss his style.

The Unintended Consequence of Minimum Wage

I'm sure that some of the people pushing for a Minimum Wage over $10/hour in the United States are intelligent. Hell, some probably even went to Harvard.

But, my guess is that those individuals never set foot in the Economics Department.

A new study by the head of the Hospitality School at Pennsylvania State University offers a decidedly dire prediction for the City of Los Angeles, should it hike its Minimum Wage to $15.37/hour ($32,000/year):

1394 Hotel Jobs Lost, $106 million lost in guest revenues, equalling $16.4 million lost in hotel occupancy takes and almost $3 million lost in corporate taxes.

And, that's JUST the hotel community in Los Angeles.

Say what you will about Ayn Rand...but we get closer to "Atlas Shrugged" every day.

The Music Video as a Destination Promo

A few months ago, we offered the Destination-centric music video of Dan + Shay, celebrating young love in Myrtle Beach. And, we've seen a number of DMOs begin to move down this path.

Our friend Anthony Haag shot us this video the other day. It's a cover of the American Authors' song "Best Day," including loads of Lake County IL shots with cameos from DMO staff, partners and some guys that look like they might play for a football club in the NFC North.

As video is increasingly the medium that moves us all...these innovators are blazing effective trails in consumer awareness and preference.

Well done, my friends.

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.

 

They Used to be Called Chambers of Commerce

Destination Marketing Organizations have evolved a ton since the days of Elvis.

But the message is still pretty much the same, even on a Music Friday.

Beth Hockenberry Erickson (Acting CEO at Visit Loudoun) hipped me to this sensational video of the King...paying homage to the "Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce."

Irony...Meet Incongruity

The plot line of The Lego Movie (opening this weekend at a theatre near you) centers on the the evil Lord Business (voiced by Will Ferrell) that attempts to end "freestyle play" with a weapon that can glue Legos together. Weirder yet, he plans to do it on "Taco Tuesday."

Past the unfortunately heavy-handed depiction of business people as malevolent, does it strike anyone (besides Tim Manners) as ironic that, since 1998, Lego has "sidelined its freestyle play sets in favor of sets patterned on various movie properties" such as Star Wars, The Hobbit, Harry Potter and others.

Just a thought...

 

Star Trek Before Star Trek

We were hanging out the other night in Salt Lake’s funky Bar X, savoring a way cool combo of Bourbon and Absinthe with a hint of orange, diggin' the vibe of this retro throwback with ulta-modern mixologists.

Bar X is also known to show B movies on its flat screens (which totally completes the experience). And, on this particular night, it’s the 1956 semi-classic “World Without End.”

OMG...it’s Star Trek a full decade before Gene Roddenberry brought the genre-changing franchise to the little screen. Other than the landing party using six-shooters (as opposed to phasers) to eliminate threats, it’s all there! The uniforms, the sliding doors, the cheesy control panels, the desolate planet topography. And, yes, the scantily-clad chicks that so want to do the visiting earthlings (though the Kirk-esque Rod Taylor doesn’t get to try out a blue one).

And it’s not just Star Trek that apparently drew from this low-rated classic, as one of the alien races with which the landing party engages has skull caps that are so Galaxy Quest that we totally laughed our asses off. And then, started talking like the Thermians the rest of the night (I swear it wasn't the Absinthe).

There’s no question it’s tough finding this B-movie gem...but, if you’re a fan of the Original Series, it’s so worth looking for.

Gene...you little thief.

Scan My Banana

Just back from a great day with the staff, leadership and community partners at Visit Lake County IL. A morning workshop riffing on Social Media, a luncheon keynote on the crucial importance of tourism and consumer trends in the sensational Genesee Theatre and then an afternoon discussion with community leaders in downtown Waukegan talking about next steps in that community's excitingl rebirth.

Yeah. It was a good day, Tater.

At some point, Visit Lake County Marketing Manager Anthony Haag shared with me a cool story about how Ecuador Tourism has partnered with its country's banana producers to add promotional QR codes to the labels on said bananas. Scan the QR...and one is transported to a cool video of the destination.

What an amazingly smart concept...and one that, with a little thought and creativity, virtually all of us could adopt and adapt.

Thanks, Anthony...it was fun hanging with you and the team!

On the Floor? That's the Ball You Just Dropped.

Lots of winners and losers on Oscar night. But, BrandChannel ID'd one of the biggest...and it's not at all related to the film industry.

In-N-Out Burger missed a golden opportunity when the publisher of Vanity Fair tweeted a picture of award winning director Ang Lee, Oscar in hand, scarfing one of their burgers on the streets of L.A. The tweet even hashtagged the burger icon.

Alas, In-N-Out didn't capitalize on the retweet opportunity to its 11,500 followers (and still hasn't).

Their last tweet was over a year and a half ago.

Sigh.