Hong Kong Garden

Welcome to The Beat by Rockstar CMO. I’m Ian Truscott, a 3xCMO, trusted advisor, strategy consultant and Chief Bottle Washer at Rockstar CMO. In this newsletter, I’d like to share a mix of what’s caught my eye from our community, our podcast and our street knowledge blog.

Hello!

Usually, I send the newsletter on Sunday evening, so it’s in your inbox on Monday morning, as I hope to get your marketing mojo working for the week.

But yesterday evening, we had some good weather and as the days are getting longer I was hard at work in the garden. Then I am sure you wouldn’t begrudge me for recuperating with a glass of wine and not sending newsletters.

So, I'm doing this today.

Will I be so predictable and use gardening as an analogy for B2B marketing?

Well….. yes…. Yes, I will.

Oh, and you might argue that gardening is not very rockstar. Well, according to Country Life, U2’s Adam Clayton is apparently a “guitarist, rock god, and visionary gardener”.

That aside, a gardening analogy might not be something for the Gary Vee marketing cool kids, it is a great analogy for the long and short of marketing.

When we moved into our house, our modest garden had a basic fenced-in lawn and a deck. Two decades later, it has mature trees, flower beds, a much smaller lawn, and a small pond. From my seat on the deck, I can see a little vignette underlining that long and short thinking.

The deck has a pergola frame constructed before we moved in. It supports a vigorous climbing clematis that has taken a couple of years to reach its peak and won’t flower for a month. Below are some fading tulips that I planted in the Autumn, Foxgloves in full bloom at their peak and some annual seedlings which I sowed a month ago that are two months away from their mid-summer glory.

You may not know these plants, but this view was created with activities done decades, years, months, and weeks ago. When gardening, there are things you can do to get instant results and others you won’t see the benefit for weeks, months, and years. But, you will see the benefits.

I found a great quote from Audrey Hepburn that sums this up:

“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”

Like B2B marketing.

I am sure I don’t need to hammer this analogy home; you get it.

I am working with a startup right now, and I am splitting my time between the things that will give us instant marketing colour and planting the strategy and brand trees that the company will benefit from in the months and years ahead.

That’s the long and short of both gardening and B2B marketing. Maybe we can steal from Audrey and say:

“To be a B2B marketer is to believe in tomorrow.”

Finally, the gardening theme gives me an excuse to share a song from when I was very young: Hong Kong Garden from Siouxsie and the Banshees. That might not get you gardening, but it’s definitely “rockstar” I hope it gets your Monday marketing mojo working.

Thanks again for opening and reading this far, I hope you like the links below and please hit reply if you have any ideas or feedback.

Enjoy your week!

Cheers!

Ian

Ian Truscott | Chief Bottle Washer Rockstar CMO

Street Knowledge

Some of the good stuff from our community of B2B content gardeners.

Get your Monday Marketing Mojo Working

A classic from the vault this week - and the lyrics sound a bit like marketing - // Symbols crashing everywhere // Reaps the fields of rice and reeds // While the population feeds // Junk floats on polluted water // …..