This Is Marketing: You Cant Be Seen Until You Learn to See

Earn your own permission and own it
When we use a social media platform because it has plenty of users built in,
we’re not really building an asset.
Sure, for now you can reach your followers on this platform. But over
time, the platform makes money by charging you, not by giving away their
work.
And so you’ll need to boost a post. Or worry about what happens when
the platform tries to increase its stock price.
If permission is at the heart of your work, earn it and keep it.
Communicate only with those who choose to hear from you. The simplest
definition of permission is the people who would miss you if you didn’t
reach out.
You should own that, not rent it.
Tuma Basa and RapCaviar
In 2015, in a defensive move, Spotify hired music tastemaker Tuma Basa to
compete with Apple’s new initiative in DJ-curated playlists. Basa took over
the RapCaviar playlist and within months, it had grown to more than three
million subscribers. Those are listeners who have given permission to
Spotify (and Basa) to share new music with them.
Within three years, he had grown the list to nine million people.
He built the most important asset in the music business. Bigger than any
radio station. More important than any magazine.
When Basa profiles a new artist, she becomes a superstar (that’s a money
move, Cardi B). Every Friday morning, the playlist is updated, and by the
end of the day, the landscape of hit music has changed.
Spotify doesn’t need to own radio spectrum, or a magazine. They own a
permission asset instead. Permission, attention, and enrollment drive
commerce.

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Showing up with generosity
How do you get permission in the first place? How do you connect with
people who want to hear more from you?
The worldview of those who care about new things (the neophiliacs)
drives them to seek out new voices, new ideas, and new options. There
aren’t a lot of these folks in your market, but there may be enough of them.
When Marvel wants to launch a new superhero franchise, they don’t
begin with nationwide TV ads. Instead, they go to San Diego Comic-Con.
The Comic-Con has permission. Permission from raving fans, neophiliac
fans, to break new ideas, to help them find the next big thing.
That’s the place to launch Deadpool. Not with a pitch, but with
generosity.
A special coming attraction.
An interview with the director.
Actual news.
The movie’s not coming out for a year. They’re not there to sell tickets.
They’re there to earn permission. To gain attention over time, to earn the
privilege of telling their story to people who want to hear it.
Mostly, it’s a signal. A way of telling the core of the tribe that attention
has been paid, that this is the sort of thing people like us will be talking
about next year.
It doesn’t matter that there’s only a tiny percentage of the movie market
at Comic-Con. What matters is the quality of their story and the depth of
their empathy and generosity.
And then, if they’ve done it right, the word will spread.