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.

[1] Drew McLellan at the suggestion of [2] 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.

[3] Marketing Lessons from Walt