Disruptive Marketing: What Growth Hackers, Data Punks, and Other Hybrid Thinkers Can Teach Us About Navigating the New Normal

by Geoffrey Colon

Now that 75 percent of screen time is spent on connected devices, digital strategies have moved front and center of most marketing plans.

But what if that’s not enough? What if most people ignore company messages? What if consumer engagement never goes further than the “like” button? A sobering reality is hitting marketers. Technology hasn’t just reshaped mass media, it’s altering behavior as well. And getting through to customers will take some radical rethinking.

First step is to toss the linear plan. Next is to strip away conventions, open your mind, and join Disruptive Marketing on a provocative, fast-paced tour of our changing world . . .

Where selling is dead, but ongoing conversation thrives Where consumers generate the best content about brands Where people tune out noise and listen to feelings Where curiosity leads the marketing team Where growth depends on merging analytics with boundless creativity

Packed with trends, predictions, interviews with big-think marketers, and stories from a career spent pushing boundaries, this book will propel you out of your comfort zone and into the disruptive mindset you need for future success.

Genres: Business, Audiobook

256 pages, Hardcover

Published August 9, 2016

About the author

Geoffrey Colon works at the intersection of marketing, tech, and popular culture. Data punk, DJ, podcaster, and author, Geoffrey is Head of Brand Studio at Microsoft Search Advertising. Previously he was vice president of digital strategy at Ogilvy & Mather, digital communities supervisor at 360i, and social media specialist at Bond Strategy and Influence. He has written for The Futurist, Advertising Age, and Fast Company, and been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Billboard Magazine, Advertising Age, Los Angeles Times, and on NPR.

Reviews

[Allyson Abel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a MUST READ for any marketer! Gets you thinking beyond the traditional and think outside the box on how you develop your campaigns, structure your departments, and rethink who/how you hire. The mix of creativity and analytical thinking is one of main reasons I got into marketing. So great to see a work celebrate that combination. I can't wait to see where marketing is going to go in future. But, this is MUST READ right now!

[Ilinca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't remember anything this book contributed. Except perhaps the revolutionary idea that you need both creativity and analytics. Thank you, Geoff, for that insight. But if you already knew that (and if you didn't, you should probably not be reading books, because you are most likely a primate, not a person), then don't buy this book.

[Celeste · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book, amazing writer! Truly gifted storyteller while injecting facts and delivering the concept of disruptive marketing. Great read for anyone who wants to think differently and for anyone brace enough to learn, unlearn and relearn.

[Geoffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

from the Foreword:

Geoffrey has always been a gifted storyteller, one with both eyes firmly on the future. He has the ability to take a macro view on the trends and behaviors around and in front of him, in on and offline worlds, and distill them into a crisp vision for today’s marketer.

Disruptive Marketing does just that.

Packed full of ideas you will have a hard time getting out of your head and that you will want to share with those around you, this important manual book documents the huge change we have seen over the past two decades with the advances in technology, communications and how they have impacted our lives, and it prepares you, the reader, for the second and third acts to come.

Geoffrey turns to the worlds of sport, punk rock, DJ-ing, teaching and parenting; sharing anecdotes from history, his varied life experiences and personal and professional journeys, rather than the somewhat overused case studies of the business book world. This mix shows us exactly what a disruptive marketer is, and while there is no set path to getting there, the behaviors we can all adopt to become one. He challenges us to ask ‘what if’, demonstrating the huge importance of the question, while painting an exciting picture of how digital marketing is evolving and may well work in the very near future.

Do note:; this is not an instruction manual, a step-by-step tutorial or a guide on the ins and outs of the latest social and digital platforms. This is a foundational text that will change behavior from the linear marketing techniques created in the Don Draper era, to a much more dynamic and fluid approach required for marketing on and offline, to set us all up for work now and way into the future.

The new workplace is creatively fueled. In commerce, disruption has become the norm. So the disruptive marketer must be both an analytical, creative hybrid and an expert able to deliver across both strategy and execution.

Ditch the reliance on an MBA and pick up this provocative and enlightening read.
Crammed full of tools, theory, relatable reference points and anecdotes, fresh thought leadership and a superb tour through the tech-fueled world we are living in today, Disruptive Marketing is the conspiratorial whisper everyone in business needs to listen to.

[Kelley Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this as an audible. I will probably re-read it in text because there were several points that helped me reframe my thinking. I'd like to go deeper. I firmly believe the author's voice delivers their intent and passion. In this case, the author is very "New York." It can be hard to detect sarcasm from argument or disgust from passion.

[Chris Humphrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s An OK read. Marketing in 2015 is a bit different than today, but I don’t judge the contact on that. For me, there’s too much aspirational prose and not enough meat. It not their fault because everyone seems to be writing marketing books in the same fashion. I’m not looking for answers to act upon but I am looking for inspiration on why I should act.

[Marcell Nimführ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. That is an example of a me-too book. A collection of re-heated generalizations of digital marketing, sprinkled with other practitioner’s superficialities. When the book was written, the world didn’t need another tome telling us that digital marketing is different. The lack of evidence here is astounding.

[Alex Hoskinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many examples are already outdated (as the author predicted they would be), but this is a very thought-provoking book that makes a lot of good points. I'd recommend it to every marketer. It'll make you rethink your whole strategy.

[Harry Vinh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd rather delve into consumer behavior than read this generic book.

[Pearlord · Rating 2 out of 5]

I want to read

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Geoffe’s book was a series of vigorous head nods and f*ck yeah’s. He’s helped me articulate things in my own career and given me a handful of née books to add to my list.

[Nell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of his examples are from the music industry due to his own background, and centered around Seattle where he lives. It was also the main reason the book resonated well with me.

[David Phelps · Rating 2 out of 5]

one axiom of marketing books: they will be terribly written, publicized, and distributed

[Jessie Mae · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really hard to get in to. Read it as part of a class and was determined to finish it. Felt like it picked up around Chapters 5 and 6. The author is well read and cites many references but I was hoping for more of his thoughts and less of others.

[Rob Woodbridge · Rating 2 out of 5]

A primer for new marketers or very old marketers.