Destination Discourse · 2026-07-30 · 50 min
In this episode of Destination Discourse, Stuart Butler and Adam Stoker recap Adam's latest CMO Jam - a live, candid roundtable with six DMO marketing leaders - and dig into the ideas that stuck. The biggest one: panelist Christian Mingle pushed back on the word "relevance," calling it table stakes - do people know we exist? He argued DMOs should chase significance instead: do we actually move the needle for our destination? The framing reshaped the rest of the discussion. They also cover the agency model's unraveling. Multiple CMO Jam panelists said they'd fired their agency of record in favor of specialists hired for specific problems, as in-house teams get more capable with AI. Adam argues agencies must shift from selling execution to selling strategy and partnership, and predicts real disruption over the next three years. The conversation closes on budget: money is moving from paid media into content, but not owned content. Stuart makes the case for incentivizing residents and locals to create authentic destination content instead of DMOs producing and owning it themselves - trading control for reach and distribution.
94: Are LLM Visibility Audits Total BS? (Emily Zertuche)76 / 10087: Would Your Stakeholders Fight to Keep You If You Disappeared Tomorrow? (Gary Sherwin)78 / 10093: Are You Paying Attention to the Trends Reshaping Marketing Right Now?91: Is Your DMO Website Still Just a Listings Page in an AI World? (Will Wright)90: Why Would AI Ever Trust Your DMO's Content?