Are You Marketing a Destination, or Exporting a Culture? (Josh Albrecht)

Most DMOs still ask how to get outsiders to notice their destination. Josh Albrecht, CMO of VISIT Milwaukee, argues that's the wrong question - a DMO's real job is to export culture until the destination becomes part of someone's identity, the way his dad stayed loyal to Coke even when Coke wasn't on the menu.

Josh walks through how Milwaukee tested that thesis: an Adidas sneaker collab that sold out online in 20 minutes (75% local buyers), a homegrown TV show driving visitation growth in markets like St. Louis and Kansas City with zero added ad spend, and a $0 partnership with Dwyane Wade's scholarship foundation that became a fully organic campaign.

Adam pushes back on the sequencing: if the mandate is getting outsiders to visit, why spend so much time and budget on culture before ever reaching them? He also shares a gut-check moment from a hometown parade where every local business showed up - except the DMO.

The episode opens with Stu's News on two unsettling data points: fewer than 1% of users click through Google's AI Overviews, and restaurants without a website are over 50% less likely to surface in AI-generated recommendations.

Bottom Line: If your destination doesn't have a culture people are proud enough to wear, buy, or show up for, no amount of outbound marketing will build the loyalty that actually drives visitation.