Did you hear about the mind-blowingly brilliant Taco Bell Hotel? In May 2019, Taco Bell announced they were going to open a four-day-only pop-up hotel, “The Bell,” (in Palm Springs), to serve its loyal fan base. But that’s not the real reason Taco Bell did it… The marketing team at Taco Bell dreamed up this amazing idea for one simple…
6 years ago, I made a life-altering decision. My wife, 6-month old daughter and I had just experienced an amazing vacation, relaxing in the warm turquoise waters of Florida’s gulf coast. We returned to our home in Washington, D.C., and decided to shake off the jet lag and go to the children’s park just a few blocks from our house.…
My new favorite NFL team? The Cleveland Browns. Say wha?!??!? The same team that lost 37 of 41 games from 2016–18? Yes. The same team that’s experienced 11 consecutive losing seasons? Yes. The same team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2002? Yes. That’s right — I like this team because of two hulking figures in their organization that have won the hearts and…
Life always comes full circle. Growing up in the 1970s and 80s I saw a massive disruption that most likely caused my incurable disease. The transition happened when “mom and pop” grocery stores, sourcing their products from small farms and local farmers, became overrun by mass-produced grocers, offering cheap-prices and thousands of options. Think: the big box revolution. Before this disruption hit,…
I love outliers, especially business and marketing outliers because they go for it. No matter how crazy the idea, they pick a lane, they commit, and then they do the hard work to prove their theory. I often write about two industries, in particular, due to their competitive nature and outlier marketing creativity — food and alcohol… In this day…
There’s an old axiom in politics, “When you are explaining, you are losing.”(*My wife says the same thing to me during an argument.) Think about an instance where you’ve heard a politician try to defend themselves against an outrageous attack — by repeating the attack, and thus, further branding the accusation in the brains of the voters. Does it always work? No. But…
David Meerman Scott is one of the great marketers of our generation, and he recently taught me an incredible lesson…but first, an amazing, jaw-dropping story: In 1980, David took the last photo of Bob Marley on a concert stage (at The Stanley Theatre in Pittsburgh) before the singer died of brain cancer. Nine years ago, the Marley family released the live…
November 2004. President George W. Bush had just won a second term as president. In fact, the race was decided by the state of Ohio. The margin of victory was razor thin, too. If 60,000 votes had flipped in the other direction, Democratic candidate, John Kerry, would have won the presidency. I saw this first-hand having served as the national…
Six years ago, Phillip Stutts was diagnosed with achalasia, a rare and degenerative autoimmune disease that disables the esophagus, eventually making eating impossible. For years, he took doctors at their word when they said the disease was incurable, that it could be slowed, perhaps, but not stopped. He took prescription medicines as recommended despite knowing that they have been linked to…
Ohio State University’s head football coach Urban Meyer may have saved his job, but he lost his legacy. Seriously. Over a nine-year period, Meyer protected an assistant coach Zach Smith through multiple domestic violence allegations. He protected Smith after he was cited for a DUI and he protected Smith after he violated multiple HR university policies. Smith was only fired…