Tom Fishburne
Marketoonist and Innovation Leader
Tom Fishburne started cartooning on the backs of Harvard Business School cases. He draws from 16 years in the marketing and innovation trenches, including five at Method Products. Now, as the founder of Marketoonist, Fishburne helps organizations communicate with cartoons. What propels Fishburne’s cartoons is a belief that business is the single greatest agent of change. He champions remarkable innovation as the process of bringing ideas to life without a thousand cuts. Fishburne writes, consults, and speaks about business creativity, innovation, and marketing, using cartoons and case studies to help tell the story.
If a picture tells a thousand words, a cartoon tells a thousand boring PowerPoint slides.
Tom Fishburne started cartooning on the backs of Harvard Business School cases as a student. He draws from 16 years in the marketing and innovation trenches in the US and Europe, most recently as a VP at Method Products, named “the 16th most innovative company in the world” by Fast Company.
Fishburne is the founder of Marketoonist, which helps businesses such as Unilever, Kronos, and Kimberly-Clark communicate with cartoons. Over five years with Method, Fishburne launched new products, led marketing, and started the European business from scratch. He has led brands at Nestle and General Mills, developed web sites and interactive campaigns, and helped launch the first English-language magazine in Prague.
Fishburne’s cartoons have grown by word of mouth to reach 50,000 marketers every week and have been featured by the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and the New York Times.
What propels Fishburne’s cartoons is a belief that business is the single greatest agent of change. He believes that David can triumph over Goliath, and that organizations don’t have to be small to think like David. Fishburne champions remarkable innovation as the process of bringing ideas to life without a thousand cuts and that the creative process shouldn’t end after the brainstorm. He advocates that marketing starts from within, and that social media starts with a social mission.
Fishburne writes, consults, and speaks about business creativity, innovation, and marketing, using cartoons and case studies to help tell the story. His talk at South-By-Southwest was named the third best of the conference out of 500 by The Huffington Post. Fishburne delivers his message with a unique blend of humour and insight.
For more information, please visit: www.tomfishburne.com.
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3. Challenger Brands: Thinking Like David
Whether you are David against Goliath and David within Goliath, thinking as a challenger brand can create success against insurmountable odds. The key lies in changing the game and not playing by Goliath’s rules.
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2. Social Media: Marketing from Within
Brands are flocking to social media in greater herds than ever before. Yet setting up a Facebook page or Twitter account alone won’t suddenly make a brand more social. Social media starts with a social mission. The question for a brand to ask is not whether to use social media. The question to ask is how to make your brand more engaging. An antisocial brand using social media is still an antisocial brand. It’s not where brands communicate. It’s how brands communicate.
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1. Driving innovation: Overcoming Idea Killers
Fishburne uses cartoons and case studies to parody common innovation pitfalls and showcase how companies can foster creativity, avoid mediocrity, and create more remarkable products. Geek Squad famously described advertising as a “tax for unremarkable innovation.” The creative process shouldn’t end after the brainstorm, yet ideas often suffer a thousand cuts in the process of bringing them to life. Fishburne will shed light on the path of transforming ideas into new products. He will frame ways to build a culture that champions creativity and overcomes idea killers.
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Just a big thank you for today. I thought you were fantastic. I feel like you really 'got' us. It was both funny and thought-provoking - a difficult combination. The feedback from my team was really positive: several people described you as 'inspirational', several said that you were a 'fantastic speaker', and many said they enjoyed your presentation immensely.
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A presentation by corporate product manager-turned-cartoonist Tom Fishburne captured the complex vibe of this week’s South by Southwest Interactive conference. The connection between drawing cartoons and innovation struck a chord among the eclectic mix of software developers, marketers, artists, PR pros and others attending SXSW.
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