Marketoonist is the thought bubble of Tom Fishburne. Marketing cartoons, content marketing with a sense of humor, keynote speaking.
Whenever budgets are under scrutiny, marketing is one of the first items on the chopping block. Those conversations are more difficult when marketing and finance speak a different language. One of the most important target audiences that marketers need to learn how to market to is their own CFO. I’ve always liked the brand management school of marketing training because…
Read More
One of the most popular cartoons I ever drew was about the Internet of Things, right after Google announced the acquisition of Nest in early 2014. “I think my Nest smoke alarm is going off,” one character tells another. “Google Adwords just pitched me a fire extinguisher and an offer for temporary housing.” iRobot later proved that truth is stranger…
Read More
Doing “more with less” is emerging as a sort of business mantra for 2023. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella used the term externally and internally this week to talk about the overall business climate. In a memo to staff announcing layoffs, he looked outward: “As we saw customers accelerate their digital spend during the pandemic, we’re now seeing them optimize…
Read More
I’ve drawn a lot of cartoons about the tendency of marketers to want to change everything, all at once, and all the time. There’s an old marketing truism that “marketers get tired of their advertising before consumers do.” The same instinct to change for the sake of change goes for every aspect of marketing, from logos to packaging to agencies.…
Read More
On May 26, 1995, Bill Gates wrote the famous “Internet Tidal Wave” internal memo at Microsoft. This was a huge wake-up call for the desktop software company at the time. It immediately shifted priorities and resources for Microsoft to go after the nascent World Wide Web. I thought of this “Internet Tidal Wave” moment when I came across a helpful…
Read More
My last cartoon before the holidays was about playing it safe. The other extreme is complete reinvention. There’s truth in Bill Gates’ classic 1996 observation: “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.” Organizations can get get stuck in a rut and resist change. …
Read More
I drew this cartoon partly in response to two studies that came out this week. They seemed to capture the mixed signals that businesses are grappling with as they look at 2023. The Deloitte “CFO Signals” report partly tracks the risk aversion of CFOs over time. Deloitte found that only 29% of CFOs say this is a good time to…
Read More
