Once upon a time in the land of Marketing, there lived a powerful wizard named Story. Oft praised for his virtues, few understood the nature of his powers and fewer still knew how to channel his teachings. Depressed and dejected, Story left for Hollywood, and after banging out a few scripts at the local Starbucks, lived happily ever after. The End. Or was it?

Storytelling has been ...

Last weekend Silicon Valley Comic Con (SVCC) blew away records for first-year “cons,” attracting daily crowds of nearly 30,000. And while this amalgam of comic book artists, cosplayers, sci-fi stars and tech geeks made the San Jose Fire Department just a bit antsy as the San Jose Convention Center reached capacity, the producers of this epic gathering were thrilled. They went from concept (tech meets pop culture) to profitable execution ...

Let’s agree for the moment that marketing is, in fact, different from selling. Marketing is the romance; selling is the consummation. Marketing focuses on the market; selling, the seller. The marketer builds a brand that is uniquely positioned and inspires irrational loyalty; the seller builds what they know how to build and then drives revenue via offers, discounts and gimmicks that, once retracted, result in a decline in ...

Though content marketing is hardly a new idea (Michelin introduced its now-famous guide to help early motorists find their way back in 1900!), the ascent of social media has propelled content to the top of most marketers’ to-do lists. A recent gathering of practitioners in Chicago, however, revealed that mastery of content marketing is more challenging than expected and works better when it is a SERVICE that follows the ...