What Would Walt Do?
What’s not to love about a cartoonist turned businessperson? Especially, one who’s an undisputed marketing genius? No, not me (but thanks for the 2 of you who thought that), but Walt Disney.
Drew McLellan at the suggestion of CK has compiled his excellent series “Marketing Lessons from Walt” into a free PDF ebook. From the intro:
While vacationing with my family at Walt Disney World, I decided that I was going to capture some of the marketing genius that I believe began with Walt’s passion and has now grown into one of the world’s most powerful brands.
I have long believed that Walt Disney’s genius was not animation or theme park design, but in truly understanding the human heart. Somehow, in the midst of ROI, measurability, counting clicks and studies that can track a person’s eye movements to see what part of an ad captures their attention first — we have forgotten that marketing and branding is ultimately about wooing and winning someone’s heart.
I thoroughly enjoyed the series when it appeared on Drew’s blog and highly recommend the ebook version. Drew does an awesome job of capturing the essence of fun and wonder that makes the vision of Disney such a draw.
Thanks so much for spreading the good word on Drew’s great piece! And I’m so happy that I now know of your great blog. Love the content and how you deliver it. Very engaging.
The old cartoons are the best! Walt was the man.
Shane
CK - Thanks for the kind words. It really is a terrific piece. And you donning the ears to promote it rocked!
Shane - You know it, man. The really good new ones even draw from the old school masters.
Tony,
Thanks for pointing folks to the PDF and for your kind words about the content.
As you know all too well, being able to capture complex issues in a single cartoon or character is quite a talent. I believe its that ability to tell stories via pictures that was the germ of Walt’s brilliance.
Drew
Drew - Glad to do it. It’s a terrific resource.
Tony,
Walt is a great marketing role model. Nothing questionable about his ideas and methods.
But could you pick a better name? I mean imagine if at 6PM on sunday night in the seventies they ran…
The Wonderful World of Tony Clark
The Wonderful World of Steve Olson
The Wonderful World of Brian Smith
It just doesn’t work like…
The Wonderful World of Walt Disney
Another great example of the perfect name for marketing is…
Tiger Woods
Just try to think of a better name for the greatest golfer to ever play the game. You could put a dozen of the best marketing minds on Madison Ave. on it and never come up with a better name.
Steve - That’s an awesome point. It is a great branding name. Also think of all the great cartoonists who were “Walts” - Disney, Kelly, Lantz. Pretty interesting…