My new podcast: A History of Marketing
"A History of Marketing" is a weekly podcast that explores the strategies and stories behind marketing's defining moments. It features interviews with top marketing academics, CMOs, and historians.
Today, I'm launching a new podcast: "A History of Marketing"
You can read all about it and subscribe for updates at marketinghistory.org.
You can also subscribe on your favorite podcast app:
Why make a podcast about marketing history?
There are many reasons. Here are 11 I can think of off the top of my head.
- Because there isn't one already. There are loads of podcasts about marketing today, and marketing in the future. But there isn't one dedicated to how marketing has evolved through the ages.
- To preserve history. Marketing is an ephemeral field. Campaigns – even the big ones – can be lost to history. A colleague had never heard of "The Pepsi Challenge" before. The voices of the marketing greats won't be around forever.
- To educate and entertain other marketers. People learn best through storytelling. By learning about the past, we can better understand where we are today and where we are going in the future. History – including marketing history – is full of fascinating characters and entertaining stories.
- Because I aspire to be one of the top 0.1% of marketers in the world. If I'm going to spend my career in marketing, I might as well try and be one of the best. If are ~10,000,000 marketers, being in the top ~0.1% puts me in the top 10,000. Bullets 5, 6, 7, 9, and 11 on this list are about how this podcast will make me a better marketer.
- To learn from the best marketers in the world. This podcast is a growth hack to meet with the world's greatest marketers. I've already met legends like Philip Kotler, David Aaker, Jagdish Sheth, and Guy Kawasaki. I read their work and ask them in-depth questions over a one hour interview.
- The best way to learn is to teach. I've read a lot of marketing books – and I've forgotten a lot of them too. I'll retain information better if I not only read a book, but I take notes, ask questions to the author, write a blog post about it, and share the information with others.
- Publishing a podcast makes me a better marketer. I'll market the podcast itself: publishing it, sharing it, evangelizing the ideas of it. This practices a set of marketing skills that I don't use at my day job.
- I have a unique set of skills to produce a podcast. I hosted a TV show in college. I'm a fast video editor. I'm good at sending cold emails to get guests. I'm experienced enough to know what questions to ask. I'm not the best editor, podcast host, or marketing historian – but my combination of skills makes me well suited for this project.
- To play with and learn the latest AI tools. No, I don't want to create a sloppy AI-generated podcast. But AI is a great tool for research, asking questions, enhancing audio quality, and more. I used Google's MusicFX tool to create the theme music, NotebookLM to research and understand academic articles, Adobe's AI podcast tool to improve audio quality, Gemini for transcripts and suggesting SEO-optimized blog headers.
- To have a fun creative outlet. I love podcasts and have always wanted to make one. I get to apply a lot of the creativity and skills I once used in filmmaking to a new medium. I've already had a blast working on it. Each episode feels like a fun puzzle to be solved.
- This is a cheap alternative to an MBA, and it's likely more useful too. I considered an MBA for years and took the GMAT. The timing was never right and the opportunity cost was too high. I realized this podcast checks a lot of the same boxes: learn from great professors, network, reading case studies. But MBAs are time consuming and expensive. I can adapt this podcast to my schedule, chipping away at it on nights, weekends, and holidays. The price to produce it is $35 in monthly software licenses and the a $75 USB microphone. I get to meet the best marketing professors from all over the world – I'm not limited to just one university.