The Art of Marketing

BY Erin Mckeever
2012/03/07

This past Monday I attended the Toronto Art of Marketing conference, where I had the opportunity to listen to well known marketing speakers like Mitch Joel and Randy Zuckerberg talk about the state of the marketing nation, brilliant entrepreneurs like Eric Ryan (co-founder of Method) and Scooter Braun (manager of Justin Bieber) sharing their secrets to success, and several other inspiring presenters on everything from data to delivery. And to make it even more entertaining, the hilarious Ron Tite, founder of The Tite Group and Second City alum, was there as the host to tie it all together.

I, like many others, who attended the conference walked away feeling inspired, and so for those who weren’t able to attend personally, I wanted to share a few of what I believe to be the top quotes of the day, with a little help from my friends and followers on Twitter (some paraphrasing has occurred).

  • Everyone will say you’re a dreamer or a failure until you hit that one. Then they’ll call you a genius – @scooterbraun
  • Our company values include weird and what would MacGyver do – @methodguy
  • The only thing worse than selling to Walmart or Target is not selling to Walmart or Target – @mitchjoel
  • Thanks to all the spammers who showed up to the hash tag. I see you hiding behind your egg profile pic. – @rontite
  • Think of your product as marketing. Make it amazing and save on marketing dollars – @methodguy
  • Never be realistic. anyone who ever did anything great on this planet wasn’t realistic – @scooterbraun
  • People don’t hate advertising, people hate shitty advertising – @mitchjoel
  • It’s not just about customer satisfaction, it’s about creating a real recognizable point of difference that can’t be replicated – Youngme Moon
  • Kick Starter now funds more businesses than the national endowment for the arts – @randyzuckerberg
  • we don’t sell products, we sell philosophy – @methodguy
  • Consumers change dining tables about as often as spouses. 1.5 times in a lifetime – Youngme Moon
  • Musicians create the timeline of our lives – @scooterbraun
  • I love the smell of marketing in the morning – @mitchjoel
  • The bigger we get, the smaller we act – @methodguy
  • Renovation is not the same as innovation – Youngme Moon
  • If you’re marketing shit, it’s still shit – @scooterbraun


Do you feel inspired yet?

  • 07/03/12

    Ron Tite says:

    Just to clarify, while I was trained at the Second City and have been on their corporate roster for years, I'm not actually an alum. That designation is usually saved for the talented performers who were members of the Main Stage Cast.