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Tourism marketing – and especially tourism PR – relies on ideas to grab the attention of our audiences. But lord-a-mercy, so many of us humans just can’t seem to get out of our own way: we are natural born idea killers.
As an agency who’s served hundreds of clients over many decades, we’ve been the chief mourners at way too many idea funerals that were completely unnecessary. And “unnecessary” is a key word there, because – let’s face it – some ideas are better off dead. (Sorry Tourism Regina, but your unfortunate “Show Us Your Regina” campaign comes to mind here. PS – we cheered from the sidelines at how beautifully you ultimately bounced back from that!)
No, what we’re talking about here are ideas that are clever, on-point, executable (even if it means a little effort and/or resources), and headline-worthy. When THOSE ideas die an unnecessary death, we sob the loudest.
Why were their deaths unnecessary? Because they were instances in which the brand/business REALLY and EXCITEDLY wanted to bring them to life…and then slowly proceeded to choke the life completely out of them instead. The result was that the ideas either never got off the ground, or they did but they were so stripped of power that they disappointed everyone in the end.
Here are the three most common (and sneaky) ways your big ideas die.
Vanillafication
- Cause of death: This is when a person or a team takes a BIG, bright, colorful, and tasty idea and completely wrings the flavor out of it until it’s just plain ol’ vanilla.
- Why we mourn: Yes, it’s entirely possible to trim an idea back and still have it achieve the intended results. But when it’s shaved, pared, and plucked until it’s a shadow of its former self, there’s simply no way it will meet the original expectation. That’s super sad because then the idea was “used” but didn’t harness the intended equity. Now the power of the original idea is likely squandered and can’t be reclaimed.
- Usually stems from: Risk aversion, budget fear, and/or avoiding logistics.
- Example:
- Original Idea: Christen a Juice Sommelier at your hotel’s restaurant, invest in a bit of training for them, and lean into it with things like a manned afternoon juice bar in the lobby, juice tastings/pairings, special juice turndown menus, an annual Juice Festival, spokesperson opportunities and more.
- Vanillafied Idea: Add a juice bar to the Sunday brunch buffet.
And if you’re skeptically laughing at how completely different those two ideas are… THAT IS A TYPICAL EXAMPLE OF VANILLAFICATION. We’re not making this stuff up!
Overwashing
- Cause of death: This is when a person or team goes in the completely opposite direction of vanillafication, and not in a good way. Here, each time the idea is revisited, it gets “rewashed” anew…needless frills are added, unwarranted tangents are pursued, focus is lost, and the idea ends up serving too many masters.
- Why we mourn: In the zeal to have an idea accomplish too many things, it usually winds up accomplishing nothing because its original power gets diluted. That core of the idea gets smothered by all the add-ons, which means the intended result dies with it.
- Usually stems from: Too many cooks in the kitchen, excessive committees, politics, and/or lack of agreed-upon leadership driving the decision making.
- Example:
- Original Idea: Create a culinary trail that comes to life during an off-season month to boost visitation.
- Overwashed Idea: Name it for a local political figure or distinguished resident (because an ego needs stroking), expand it to include wildlife programming (because there are grants available for that), require visitors to stop at a tourism center (because $10 million was just spent on construction development), and charge a fee for access (because why not grab some extra revenue?).
Sure, you can build on the culinary trail idea…but your adornments should strengthen the culinary focus. Overwashing happens when you add on extras that “wash out” the culinary focus. The idea ends up having too many disparate elements to it, and so it becomes a story too complicated to tell and too disjointed to resonate with your intended audience.
Gridlocking
- Cause of death: This is when an idea just…stalls. It’s never *quite* publicly killed, but it never moves forward. It dies because it’s doomed to agenda-purgatory, always being revisited but never being settled.
- Why we mourn: REALLY great ideas usually have a shelf life. Either they are tied to specific timing or trends, or they just make sense given the circumstances of the moment. Or, it’s an idea that competitors could (and perhaps are likely to) seize, and so any delay risks a missed opportunity because someone else might do it first. That unrealized potential is like a hard gut-punch to marketers everywhere.
- Usually stems from: Indecision, arduous approval process, lack of clear decision-making leadership, politics, and/or budget fear.
- Example:
- Original Idea: Partner a hotel brand whose brand pillars focus on comfort and customization with the Girl Scouts of America to create an exclusive in-room dining selection of Girl Scout cookies at each property. Sales support local troops, and other benefits are offered to deepen the partnership – meeting venues, mentoring, etc.
- Gridlocked Idea: Talked about at marketing meetings endlessly for years, with debates over whether or not it’s the right “brand match” and “audience.” Preliminary meetings with the Girl Scouts occur to discuss the idea, with no follow through but no refusal either.
Of the three, this idea killer hurts most of all because usually the executives end up kicking themselves when they see another brand successfully bring it to life. Regret for a lost opportunity is super painful.
Alas, if you or your organization falls prey to any of these phenomena, there’s no cookie cutter solution we can offer. Each brand and business is unique, so we can’t hand you a playbook to “fix it.”
But what we CAN say is that if you’re frustrated by your organization’s lack of success in bringing ideas to fruition, or consistently envious of all the cool things your competitors are doing (that you’re not), it’s likely to stem from one of these three impediments. The best thing you can do is some soul-searching to understand which one – or which combo – is causing the issue. Awareness is half the battle for sure, and then you can figure out what habits need to be changed in order to get your ideas to the goal line.
Need a little help generating good ideas in the first place? We got you.
