Meta-Furs and Other Creatures

I make my living in marketing and advertising. Whatever your opinion of the profession, what I do at the end of the day is help my clients tell compelling, relatable stories effectively. I'm amazed how often outdoor metaphors help in my day job.

For example, I was on a conference call with a client today talking about how to secure great stories for use in case study ads. When I told them this was more about hunting than farming they got it. You carefully choose your target, study it's behavior, and devise an effective strategy before you ever step into the field with a rifle.

I give a presentation on Demand Generation, which is the skillfull integration of messages and metrics to help move a prospective buyer from awareness to purchase by recognizing their information needs. This approach is best summed up by likening it to fishing. In fly fishing, your best success is determined by your knowledge, your approach, and adapting to the unique differences of the situation you're faced with -- much like demand generation.

These metaphors are powerful tools for creating visual images that help businesspeople digest complex concepts. And, really, that's what many outdoor passions are all about -- gaining the self-awareness to deal innately with an astounding collection of complex and inter-related variables. How deep is that run? What time of year is it? What's the barometric pressure doing? What species am I chasing? In business you need to quickly assess a myriad of variables to reach a conclusion. Same as in the outdoors.

Now, to the title. I had a creative writing professor in college who was a native Texan. One of my classmates noted that he pronounced it "meta-furs" as opposed to "meta-fours". Somehow that term always stuck with me.

-Sean-