Final Friday marked 20 years of Marketoonist. On October 21, 2002, I printed my very first advertising and marketing cartoon, then referred to as Model Camp. It was a cartoon on the 8 Varieties of Model Managers.
I had simply began as an Affiliate Advertising Supervisor at Normal Mills, engaged on Yoplait. I emailed this primary cartoon to 35 co-workers from my cubicle on the 4th flooring, linking to a e-newsletter sign-up.
I imagined this advertising and marketing cartoon sequence can be primarily for my co-workers within the workplace. However I quickly began listening to from folks working in advertising and marketing in all kinds of firms all around the world. I discovered all of us share comparable tales and experiences on this humorous advertising and marketing trade of ours (and enterprise normally).
Advertising is consistently in a state of flux, with an countless stream of shiny new issues to distract us. However the extra issues change, the extra they keep the identical.
Through the years, I’ve cherished this communal feeling that we’re all figuring it out collectively.
I by no means imagined that this cartoon would have lasted 20 years, and definitely not that it could evolve into my profession. I stored drawing as I labored at completely different firms (Normal Mills, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream (Nestle), Technique Merchandise, HotelTonight) and somewhere else (Minneapolis, San Francisco, London).
In October 2010, I made the leap to deal with Marketoonist full-time, rising it right into a customized cartoon studio and giving keynote talks all over the world. This gave me the chance to satisfy a lot of you in individual.
I largely need this cartoon sequence to be a reminder to not take ourselves too significantly. And I feel that laughing at a number of the humorous issues in advertising and marketing may also help us change into higher entrepreneurs.
I’m grateful for all of you who’ve been studying this cartoon over time. Thanks for becoming a member of me on this journey and supporting me alongside the way in which.
Later this week, I’ll share an interview with MarketingWeek on a few of what I’ve noticed on this 20-year journey, and the backstories on a few of my favourite cartoons over the past 20 years.
“If advertising and marketing stored a diary, this is able to be it.”
– Ann Handley, Chief Content material Officer of MarketingProfs
Right here’s my first-ever cartoon on this sequence, and some others that come to thoughts:
