Colon - Disruptive marketing: what growth hackers, data punks, and other hybrid thinkers can teach us about navigating the new normal

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Praise for Disruptive Marketing

Disruptive Marketing is an incisive look at todays complete overhaul of traditional marketing and its effects on both producers and consumers. Colon has expertly analyzed the importance of breaking away from yesterdays linear and stuffy approaches and opened up new possibilities in the digital market. Its an essential read for anyone looking to make a splash with the next big thing.

Francesco Baschieri, CEO and founder of Spreaker

At last theres a brilliant book I can send to clients who refuse to believe that to stay relevant they need to shatter pre-conceived ideas, open their eyes, and dare themselves a little. Hold onto your hats, marketers, because this books going to take you on the ride of your life. Through entertaining storytelling and irrefutable evidence, Geoffrey Colon has distilled what every one of us needs to know about how to succeed in this digital world. With our worlds only constant being change, this book should be on every marketers desk if they want to understand what it takes to be nimble and survive.

Mel Carson, coauthor of Pioneers of Digital and author of Introduction to Personal Branding: 10 Steps Toward a New Professional You

Grounded in fact, amplified by inspiration, and supported by compelling stories drawn from real experiences, Disruptive Marketing is worthwhile reading from beginning to end.

Jamie Gutfreund, global chief marketing officer, Wunderman

The pace of marketing and product innovation is moving faster than ever before. Why do some companies thrive while others wither on the vine? Its their approach to marketing and product development. In this book, Colon gives you the tools to change your thinking and approach to growth to get ahead of the curve.

Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown, GrowthHackers.com

Seasoned marketers are now facing more challenges than ever, as their decades of experience can sometimes be disadvantageous. This book illustrates an era where creative professionals are eschewing traditional corporate hierarchies, marketing responsibilities are being distributed widely across organizations, and consumers are exposed to brands through each other instead of through established publishers. Geoffrey Colon offers some telling examples of how pioneers are navigating this, along with a telling roadmap for many more of the changes coming in the years ahead.

David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer of MRY

Disruptive Marketing will make you realize that your marketing comfort zone will quickly become uncomfortable unless you are prepared to embrace the rapid changes that Colon so eloquently documents. This excellent book is probably best summed up by the title of its final chapter: Learn, Unlearn, Relearn.

Diane Young, co-founder of TheDrum.com

In Disruptive Marketing, Geoffrey Colon makes a case for reducing the complexity, bureaucracy, and single-minded leadership that create barriers to finding and swiftly implementing creative solutions to the challenges facing modern marketers. In the current landscape, missing the forest through the trees is no longer an option. An inability to see or unwillingness to embrace the need for change signals the beginning of the end for a marketer. Colon lays out the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but: our industry is being disrupted, and anyone who refuses to adapt will be left behind.

Melanie Deziel, @mdeziel,
award-winning branded content strategist

An intelligent and fun read that gets at the heart of the major problems we currently face in marketing, and how to fix them. This book belongs on your desk, and your bosss desk.

Mathew Sweezey,
principal of marketing insights at Salesforce

Colon offers a bold and much needed perspective to challenge the status quo that ideas can only come from traditional processes and creative-led teams. Todays ideas come from early collaboration with diverse thinkers ready to take a journey that may start off uncomfortably but ends in the most magical way. As Colon points out, the people at the table may be far from the expectedand thats a good thing. (And his idea about writing the press release for the product before you create it is brilliant.)

Lindsey Slaby, founder, Sunday Dinner Agency

Disruptive Marketing isnt so much a business book as a marketing manifesto. Its core message is that marketing isnt a set of core principles or effective practices or even a department in your organizationits a way of thinking. And disruptive marketing borrows genius and inspiration from every industry and walk of life, imbuing everything you do and even how your existing and target customers interact with your brand. Geoffrey Colons goal is to free us from our assumptions and one-size-fits-all thinking. He shows us that we need to focus on, and capture, what really matters: time, attention, and conversation. Disruptive Marketing manages to be wide-ranging, creative, ambitious, visionary, shrewd, and practical all at oncejust the same qualities that, according to Colon, our marketing strategies should have.

Holly Epstein Ojalvo, founder and editor of the digital news site Kicker (gokicker.com)

Colons exceptional career in marketing has provided him with a unique perspective and the ability to think futuristically when it comes to marketing and innovation. His book is a must read for those looking to stay ahead of the curve and the competition, especially young people launching their careers. Balancing concepts with concrete resources and tools, the book will leave you excited and prepared to launch and execute new creative marketing ideas.

Emily Miethner, CEO and founder, FindSpark.com

Colon successfully lays out the three intangible skillsempathy, design, and emotional intelligencethat are pivotal to disruptive marketing and thinking. These key qualities will help millennial marketers build the foundations to their careers and empower industry veterans to rethink their approaches to delighting customers. Marketers of all ages will tremendously benefit from taking a deep dive into Disruptive Marketing.

Tai Tran, Forbes 30 Under 30, 2016 and LinkedIn Top Voice, 2015

Colon eloquently explains through his own experience how producerism is not a buzzword anymore. The art of customer co-creation is very much real! Todays audiences are not satisfied with just consuming content in a stand-alone mode. Many want to be a part of the products journey and, in a lot of cases, be an active voice in shaping it. With increasing activity over social media, there is more to come and Geoffrey correctly surmises the most innovative companies of the future will have producerism in their DNA!

Rohan Khara, co-founder and COO of Jabbercast

Colons chapter on podcasting intertwined with his theory that anyone can be a creator/producer is key to understanding how marketing is changing. Writing not merely about brand messaging but content creations produced by many, Colon uses personal and professional experiences to drive home to the reader that marketers arent doing your marketing; rather, everyone who loves your product is doing your marketing.

Parviz Parvizi, co-founder of Clammr