Ever Wonder How the Sausage Is Made?

For 30 years, I’ve been a secret keeper.

The kind of secrets you don’t put in a press release. The kind you only talk about over late-night drinks with the one colleague you trust not to leak your business.

But I’m done.

Because if one more destination tells me their media plan is “fine,” I might actually scream into the void.

The Sausage Problem

Destination marketing has a sausage problem.

On the outside, your media plan looks gorgeous: strategically flavored, perfectly packaged, lots of confident nodding when it’s presented. But inside? It’s mostly filler.

Agencies tell you it’s artisan, locally sourced, grass-fed strategy. But when you slice it open? Mystery meat.

I know because for decades I’ve been the one quietly peeking behind the counter — and, admittedly, the one helping keep up the shiny packaging. Not because we wanted to mislead anyone, but because that’s how you stayed relevant: play the game, keep the packaging pretty, and don’t question the recipe too loudly.

That ends now.

Red Flag Media: The “Are You Kidding Me?” Sausage List

1. The “Co-op Savings” That Cost You More The sales pitch says, “It’s cheaper if you join in!” But that “bulk buy” often locks you into overpriced placements. It’s like buying a family pack of hot dogs only to find out they charged you steak prices.

Lesson: Co-ops can work—but only if you run your own math. Bulk buys don’t always mean bulk savings, especially when someone else is seasoning the deal.

2. The Invisible Markup That mysterious “industry standard fee” (sometimes 3%, sometimes 50%, sometimes… who knows) buried in your invoice? That’s the fat in your sausage you didn’t know was there.

Lesson: Ask what every line item costs and who’s pocketing what. Transparency isn’t “disruptive”; it’s responsible.

3. The One-Stop Shop Who Owns Your Wallet If the same vendor handles your creative, your media buying, and your reporting, you’ve basically let one butcher make, package, and grade their own sausage. Guess who’s always getting an A+?

Lesson: Keep someone independent in the mix, even if it’s a one-time audit.

4. The “Guaranteed Impressions” Illusion “Look at all those impressions!” Sure, but impressions don’t mean travelers. That’s like buying sausage casings and forgetting to put any meat inside.

Lesson: Focus on outcomes, not vanity metrics. If no one can tell you what it actually did, you just paid for bragging rights.

What I’ve Learned (30 Years in the Sausage Factory)

For decades, clients would quietly ask: "Hey, can you… just look at this? Quietly?"

And we would. We’d slice open the sausage, check the ingredients, and nine times out of ten, find unnecessary fat and filler.

And here’s my confession: I didn’t just find the filler. I packaged it. I smiled through the same decks everyone else did, because that’s what the industry rewarded: quiet, compliant, well-packaged relevance.

But the cracks are too big now. Budgets are tighter, expectations are higher, and I’m done protecting a recipe that doesn’t work.

Lesson for DMOs:

Own your recipe. Whether your media is bought internally or outsourced, someone on your team needs to know exactly what’s in it and why it’s there. Ask the awkward questions. If the answers make people squirm, you’re probably getting close to the truth.

Our New Move

We’ve turned those quiet behind-the-scenes fixes into a formal thing: Market Opportunity Exercise Mode (because calling it a “media assessment” feels like buying off-brand bologna).

One DMO did this and found 400K in wasted spend; we helped them pivot without losing a single impression.

Here’s the Question for You:

When was the last time you looked at your own sausage? (Stop giggling, you know what I mean)

If the answer is “never” or “not recently,” maybe it’s time.

For 30 years, I helped sell the packaging. Today, I sell the truth. And the truth is: you deserve to know exactly what’s in your marketing sausage.

(Yes, we can help you look. But mostly? I want you to stop eating mystery meat.)