Marketoonist is the thought bubble of Tom Fishburne. Marketing cartoons, content marketing with a sense of humor, keynote speaking.
Marketoonist is the thought bubble of Tom Fishburne, a career marketer and cartoonist.
Learn MoreCartoons from 15 Years of Marketing, Business, & Doodling in Meetings
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If you’re ever on a video shoot, you’ll no doubt hear someone say, “we’ll fix it in post-production”. This usually happens toward the end of a long day, when everyone is tired and there’s a sticking point preventing everyone from going home. Sometimes the client hasn’t seen what they’re looking for. Sometimes there’s a stalemate on art direction. The promise…
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I’ve been hooked this week by Seth Godin’s latest book, Linchpin. Seth briefly profiles the Devil’s Advocate, which he describes as a “card-carrying member of the Resistance” — a force that prevents remarkable ideas from coming to life. In his blog, Seth occasionally advises his readers to “uninvite the devil’s advocate, since the devil doesn’t need one, he’s doing fine.”…
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I learned the power of archetypes from Joseph Campbell’s classic interview with Bill Moyers. The explore the universal themes, characters, and stories that repeat throughout history, appearing in every form of human expression from the Bible to Star Wars. These archetypes repeat because they resonate deeply with human consciousness. I first saw Joseph Campbell’s work applied to brands at General…
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The very first Saturday Night Live in 1975 featured a mock-commercial with George Carlin making fun of the Gillette Trac II, which was the first two-blade razor. SNL spoofed it with a fake three-blade razor called the Triple-Trac, and closed with a tagline, “The Triple-Trac. Because You’ll Believe Anything”. Twenty-three years later, in 1998, Gillette launched the Mach3 razor, the…
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“If marketing kept a diary, this would be it.”
- Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs
Packed with nearly 200 marketing cartoons, this new book collection celebrates 15 years of Marketoonist.
Last week I joined one of the better idea generation exercises I’ve experienced in a while. We split into small groups and toured the San Francisco Ferry Building to scout out retail merchandising ideas. The Ferry Building is packed with novel, funky shops like a Far West Fungi, which only sells mushrooms: dried mushrooms, fresh mushrooms, mushroom ice cream —…
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I had a “Lost in Translation” moment a couple weeks ago in a meeting with 20 French and Russian executives. It was the first time I’d ever been in a meeting where someone simultaneously translated the discussion into ear pieces. I spent the whole meeting wondering if they really understood what we were trying to communicate. Many of my jokes…
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We can thank adman Alex Osbourne for the Brainstorm (he’s the O in the agency BBDO). Alex invented the Brainstorm in 1939 as an alternative to the usual meetings of “discouragement and criticism which so often cramp imagination”. Alex Osbourne realized that an environment is needed where judgement is suspended and ideas have space to grow. As part of the…
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ADHD isn’t just for teenagers. It afflicts businesses and teams too. I once heard a venture capitalist offer to prescribe Ritalin to one of his portfolio companies. It’s easy to get distracted by the Shiny New Thing. It’s particularly easy to get distracted when the going gets tough on your core plan and energy starts to wane. Whether it’s a new…
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I’m enjoying Rework, the entrepreneurial handbook by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hanson, founders of 37signals. I was inspired to read it after meeting Mark Rohde, who drew all of the illustrations. One of the brilliant riffs in the book is titled, “Nobody likes plastic flowers”. Jason and David lobby for the beauty of imperfection and advocate the Japanese principle…
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In London last week, I happened across Mark Ritson’s column in Marketing Week: “Hoodwinked by the Emperor’s New Tweets”. The title alone sparked this cartoon idea. Mark lampoons the social media bandwagon, particularly the herd mentality to incorporate social media into each and every marketing plan and the gullibility of marketing directors to believe all the hype. He writes, “Most…
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“Poking the Bear” belongs on a marketing lingo bingo card alongside “Low Hanging Fruit” and “Share of Voice”. It’s one of my favorite marketing buzz phrases because it’s so vivid. “Poking the Bear” means going up against a competitive giant knowing the potential response will be massive. Schwans innovation guy Marc Coudeyre, who I knew at General Mills years ago,…
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It cracks me up whenever I hear a creative director referred to as “the Creative”. It makes it sound like creative directors belong to a different species. We wouldn’t refer to “the Supply” or “the Accounting”. But “the Creative” is often referred to in this strange third person (as parodied in this clever video from an agency: “Creatives grow better…
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Most products are developed like a waterfall. Waterfall development is the classic sequential linear process where you finish one stage before moving on to the next one. You aim never to revisit a stage once you’ve finished it, so you’d better get that brief right the first time. When I worked in web development in the late 90’s, we adopted…
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Last year, I heard Swedish axe maker Gabriel Branby speak at the DO Lectures. Gabriel’s company, Gränsfors, makes the finest forged axes in the world. He spoke about the essence of product development as craft. His company takes axe-making very personally. To underscore that commitment, each of his axes is forged by a smith who stamps his or her personal…
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As Jerry Garcia once said, “You do not merely want to be considered the best of the best. You want to be the only ones who do what you do.” That quote was part of Rule #24 in Alan Webber‘s inspiring Rules of Thumb book, and partly inspired this cartoon (except I played with toes, not thumbs). The vast majority…
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Last week, I happened across Tim Ferriss handing out copies of 4-Four Hour Workweek at SXSW. I first read the book two years ago after hearing Tim speak at the Do Lectures in Wales. We were the only two Americans there and I was inspired by his talk. I reread some of the book on the flight home and was…
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I’m gearing up to speak at SXSW in Austin on Friday, so my mind is racing. My talk is called “Drawing Board: Innovation Lessons from Cartooning”. I’m sharing the many ways that cartoonists come up with ideas and find ways to break through the clutter. I think these lessons can apply to any form of innovation. Last week, I met…
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Last week I traveled to snowy Toronto with a sales director. Over two days, we saw more than 30 Canadian stores and talked with dozens of consumers, retail buyers, store managers, and shelf stockers. It reminded me that I need to get out of the office a lot more often. It’s easy to think of marketing as what happens in…
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Working at method has taught me that package design is the single most important part of your marketing plan. Founder Eric Ryan likes to say that he views cutting steel as a marketing expense. Once a consumer told me that he buys method because the package design makes him want to lick the bottles. Remarkable design, whether in the store…
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I doubt there’s a marketing plan in the world nowadays without some form of influencer marketing focus. Reaching influencers is part of every agency pitch. With mainstream media becoming less effective over time and widespread recognition that influencers play a big role in buying decisions, the influencer hunt is on. The challenge is how to do it right. How do…
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