tim washer

6 Things You Can Learn from an Unfunny Marketer’s Funny Redemption

Fifteen years ago, my friend Doug Kessler swore off any attempt at “comedy” after an attempt at funny dissolved into flat-out failure. Doug, who runs marketing agency Velocity UK in London, recalls the white-hot shame of it all: “We wrote a script. Sent it to client. We expected some review and back and forth… but when they said ‘Great! Let’s shoot it!’… we did. “It was SO not funny and SO stupid that I’m still blushing 15 years later.” But, more recently, Doug started to rethink things. Because what’s working in B2B marketing is (quite often) the offbeat story and the funny vignette. In October, at the MarketingProfs B2B Forum, speaker Tim Washer talked about the powerful pairing of B2B and improv, and Doug realized that “it was crazy to close off such a fruitful direction just because I’d failed once.” So here’s the Velocity shot at redemption, created for […]

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WestJet Christmas Not a Miracle, but a Mindset to Adopt in 2014 #BMTPPT [New Video Series]

What can marketers learn from the WestJet Christmas Miracle video? How can you coax buttoned-up executives to get on board with some playful improv? What’s it mean to give “generous content gifts”? In a special holiday edition of our new show – Better Marriage Through PowerPoint – Tim Washer and I discuss all this and more: A few show highlights follow. 1. A Heartwarming Story Paired With Powerful Brand Storytelling WestJet won Christmas this year, at least from a marketing perspective. WestJet’s Christmas Miracle video — wherein a purple-clad Santa stuns an airplane full of passengers by making their wishes come true — has attracted more than 23 million views on YouTube and plenty of social media love for the small Calgary-based airline. (Had you heard of WestJet before last week? I hadn’t.) Most importantly, the video is completely on-brand with the airline’s bigger story of a fun, friendly, caring

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