The Vagabond Marketer

WTH? Billboards

It's been a while since I updated, but I did my cross-country drive and am now in Denver. I left last Friday and intended to stop at a few more places along the way, but ran into torrential downpours starting in Indiana, and continuing on through Illinois, Missouri, and parts of Kansas. Given that most of the places I wanted to see were outside, skipping them seemed like the wisest choice. Drowned rat is not my best look.

Anyway, while I was driving, I noticed a few billboards I wanted to share with you, as I am terming them "WTH?" Billboards. This refers to the idea of the billboard being good, but the execution being not that good.

I realized I should have tried to get pictures for you, but that wasn't easy to do with the weather and driving conditions. So you'll just have to imagine.

So the first WTH? Billboard showed up in Indiana, courtesy of Vincennes University. Vincennes University is the oldest University in Indiana. And I knew that, how? Because it was on their billboard.

This was *ALL* that was on their billboard. "Oldest University in Indiana."

Think benefits, people!

Now, this billboard could have been saved by just one more small addition: "A Tradition of Excellence" (or something similar.) It just doesn't seem to me that potential students (or their parents) are selecting colleges based on age alone. They want some guarantee or clear benefit for their tuition investment.

So that was WTH? Billboard #1.

WTH? Billboard #2 showed up in Illinois, and contained a very strong religious message. I don't remember the exact wording, but that's not really that important. The message was something about accepting God and how bad things would happen if you didn't. Now, the problem with this billboard was that it had no follow up. Just the message. Let's say that I was intrigued by the message and wanted to join the community supporting it. I would have no way to identify them, or find them, or connect with them. Presumably, the point of the billboard was to change the viewer's opinion. Wouldn't it be nice if the group who paid for it had a way to track if their message was even working? Presuming the billboard wasn't free, this was a total wth?

WTH? Billboard #3 showed up in Missouri, and had this grey and red graphic on it. Not even clear what it was supposed to represent. And the only text it had was "The Noodle is Coming." Again, no URL, no contact info, nothing. Being a curious sort, I got to Denver and Googled "The noodle is coming." The best result I found is that this slogan relates to some pasta company that will be opening up in town. So let's talk about why this fails. First, most people who don't understand something are not going to take the extra effort to get clear. So they will drop this out of their minds. Next, even if they wanted to get clear, they'll be kind of annoyed that the company made them work that hard. Third, why would you spend money to promote a business and not give the viewer an easy way to connect with that business?

WTH? Billboard #4 showed up in Kansas. It read "A Kansas farmer feeds more than 128 people and you." So, let me thank the Kansas farmer. I truly appreciate it. But the problem with this sign is that it struck me as imprecise. More than 128 people, plus you? How many more people than 128? A whole person? 1/2 a person? They could have just rounded up (I doubt anyone would have nailed them for fudging the numbers just slightly.)

Anyway, it was a bit strange, again, because aside from informing me that dinner last night probably came from a Kansas farmer, there was no action to take. Nobody to support- heck, no way to even say, "Thanks!"

WTH?

My take away message is that if you're going to spend the money on advertising, make sure it gets you some results. Don't put up WTH? Billboards and wonder why they aren't working. 

How Do You Really Know a Place Anyway?

I've been thinking a lot about this idea lately: "how do you really know a place anyway?"

What I mean by this is, How do you know when you've seen the best some place has to offer, and how do you know when it's time to move on? I'm talking about physical locales here, but the question could be larger- symbolic- existential- if you wanted.

But getting back to physical locales... the question of "how long will you be gone? and "how long will you be staying places?" are two that keep coming up.

I'm wondering how I will know the answer to these questions.

They've been coming up more often as I prepare to get on the road for a couple of months, maybe more. People have been asking me, "why are you doing this trip right now?"

And I have 3 main answers:

The first: I'm having a mid-life crisis a little bit early. I've always been precocious. :)

The second: I'm just coming out of a cycle of having worked really hard in a lot of ways- investing a lot in my business and my family and relationships- and I want to try out a different way of living before I embark on my next set of life goals (for example, having children + raising them)

The third: I want to see some parts of the country I might not get to visit otherwise.I want a chance to explore some new ideas and expand my perspective.

What's been interesting is that most people think my upcoming trip is really cool. Men, especially, seem to think it's super cool- and women are mixed. Some are excited for me; some seem to think I'm a little bit nutty or flaky, which, if you know me well, is really, really far from the truth. It's been interesting to notice reaction across gender lines.

The other thing that has been coming up sharply is a newfound appreciation for my hometown; brought on, probably, by this sense of leaving it for a while. As the weather turns nicer, and the cherry blossoms start to come out- and I get to see cool things like Terracotta Warriors- and eat yummy burgers at Rogue States- I start to have doubts, just slightly, about whatever I find on the road being any better than what I have here.

It's sort of like impending absence is making the heart grow fonder. But the other way I've been thinking about it is, maybe it's not really about better or worse- maybe just about different.

Certainly, the rest of the country has a lot to recommend it (no matter what the East Coast snobs say!), and it will be exciting to see more places.

It's been interesting to try and think about how long it would take to know a place. I'm sure that this trip will be about, in some ways, finding places I wanted to see, and then leaving with a sense of places I'd like to know better. I'm sure that there will be places I stay too long, and maybe places I don't feel quite ready to leave when it's time.

I'm reminded of the quote from T.S. Eliot:

"We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring

will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

What do you think? What does it take to really know a place?

(Comments welcomed!)

The Case for Travel GuideBooks

So I just ordered a slew of travel guidebooks in preparation for my trip- and just got 6 of the 7 of them delivered today. I love Amazon Prime. I debated on whether to get guidebooks at all, or not- and it turns out, in the larger travel community, there are, apparently, two schools of thought on this.

The first school of thought says guidebooks are your friend. They are a good way to quickly tune into what's most important about a place and make sure you see everything you should see. I can see merit in this approach- I generally plan ahead and wouldn't want to miss anything important.

The second school of thought says guidebooks should be avoided at all costs. If you're just out there to experience your trip, you just do it. I think the idea here is that you don't want to be overprescribed or just doing things by rote. I understand this too.

But, for my trip, I went ahead and purchased a bunch of guidebooks: Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Washington State, Idaho, Montana & Wyoming, and California. I chose to do this for 2 main reasons:

1. I wanted to get kind of an overview of what all there is to see in each place- it will help me make more informed choices along the way
2. I wanted to be sure I didn't miss anything I would regret not seeing while I was there. In this situation, ignorance would not be bliss.

In terms of using the guidebooks, I'm planning to use them to build what I call a "general + gentle" itinerary. To my way of thinking, this means I'll use them to fill out the general structure of my travels, but then leave the specifics and details more up to the moment- feeling free to make changes along the way. It makes me feel good to be sure I see some things I definitely want to see, and I am also excited about leaving some open space and letting Life fill in the details just right.

I'm excited to take the books home this weekend and start going through them. I know I'm going to Colorado first, and Utah next, so I'm basically going to start with those two. Since I'll be circling back to Colorado a few times on my trip (Denver is going to be sort of "home-base" while I'm out West), I plan to see a few things in Colorado each time I'm in town, and then travel out of state to see some of the other places on my list.

It's really intriguing to me to be thinking of living a less structured and more open-ended life while traveling. I'm also excited to see how many fantastic and cool places I might possibly visit.To that end, I also picked up a copy of 1,000 places to visit before you die- going to see how many I can check off on this trip (generally and gently of course! :)

I've got my windshield repair appointment set up for next week, and will be picking up maps for my trip sometime in the next few days as well. So the planning is moving forward!

Gearing Up For My Road Trip

It's been a couple months that I've been planning behind the scenes, but it's now time to start sharing my plans! I'm taking a road trip, starting in April, and ending...when I'm done.

I'll be leaving the East Coast just as soon as I can wrap up a few things, and heading out West for a bit. I'm planning to start in Denver, and already have plans in place to visit Utah and New Mexico. I'm also planning to visit Portland and Seattle, and maybe a couple other places, too- if they'll have me. :)

So I'm starting this blog now, about a month before I leave, as I'm starting to get really excited for my trip. I still have quite a bit of stuff to do before I leave, but I think it will be fun. Not only do I need to start deciding what to take for my trip- this is going to be a combined working, learning, growing, and having fun trip- but, also, I need to take care of more mundane things like taxes, and wrapping up some odds and ends.

The really bad snowstorms we had here in Maryland this past winter also left my car's windshield kind of dinged up- so I want to get those chips filled in before I go. Windshield fixed, an oil change, and my transportation should be all set.

It's funny, too, in a way, because I've already started mentally grouping my stuff- deciding what will go with me, and what won't. I'm excited to be "traveling light"and seeing how little I need, really, to live.

This is a huge change for me, as I have thousands of books, hundreds of CD's, and lots of clothes. I'm hoping I can be well read, up on the latest music and well attired with just about 1/10th of the stuff. :)

If I have time, I'm doing a big clean out and giveaway before I go too. I should be able to make Goodwill or Salvation Army pretty happy.

I plan to visit some cool places, hang out with some cool people, and share my adventures with you here. I hope you'll take a second to subscribe for my updates- I'd love to stay in touch as I embark on this journey of exploration.

I'm thinking of it like a pilgrimage of sorts- and I'm sure I'll be way different when I'm done! 

More soon!