Ep 9 Business Intelligence and Culinary Travel with Aqua's Chip Futch

Voiceover: 00:00:07

Welcome to Aqua Talks, where marketing meets bold game changing ideas.

Join your hosts, Larry Aldrich and Maddie Dudley as they explore the art and science of cutting through the noise, capturing attention and fostering meaningful connections with your audience.

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Mady Dudley: 00:00:44

Hi and welcome back to Aqua Talks. I'm Mady, one of the co hosts of this podcast where we dive into the world of marketing.

Whether you're a seasoned pro or you're just getting started out within the industry, I am joined today by my co host, Larry Aldrich.

Larry Aldrich: 00:01:01

Hi, I'm Larry Aldrich, President, Aqua Marketing Communications and Brensys Technology llc. Today we're joined by Chip Futch, Aqua's Director of Digital Strategy and Business intelligence.

Chip, why don't you tell us a little bit about your career.

Chip Futch: 00:01:17

Thanks Larry. Great to be here today. My background is in technology, also with a long background in broadcast and also a touch of restaurants as well.

For Aqua, I handle business intelligence.

So we look at the strategy, handle the dashboards for our clients, diving deep into the data as well as the analytics and everything else that that encompasses, as well as website development, application development for our clients as well.

Larry Aldrich: 00:01:47

That's great. You talked a little bit earlier about website or, excuse me, software development. Did you write code? A little bit about that.

Chip Futch: 00:01:57

Wrote some code but without dating myself. The language has changed very frequently. So yeah, we definitely have a team of coders that can code far better than me.

But yeah, from old school C programming all the way up to modern languages, HTML, Java, et cetera. Yeah, we write that and handle that in house as well. As for our analytics and dashboarding system, we write in a language called R. Okay, great.

Larry Aldrich: 00:02:29

Yeah, I was having a little bit of a conversation yesterday last night and with a friend of mine and we joked a little bit about someone that we've worked with who's old school but really good at what they do and strong and a good background and I kind of used the reference. He was old mainframe and just hasn't evolved into what it's come to today.

Chip Futch: 00:02:54

You know, it's funny you say it like that because really we've kind of come full circle in a way.

You think about it, in the early, early computer days they had like a minivax down in the, down in the basement and these black and white text terminals strung up all through the offices and all the computation was done down on the mainframe. We went into the personal computer era, and we're still there to a degree in the sense that we have very powerful personal computers.

But due to things like AI, an enormous amount of processing is done back in the cloud now, and everything's kind of moved back where your computer's more reflective. It's become more like a terminal a lot of times.

Mady Dudley: 00:03:31

So I feel like we have a lot to dive into today, a lot to get into. But before we do, I did want to talk about some current industry trends with you and get your take on them.

So a big trend, and we've talked about it before, but you mentioned earlier that you have some experience in the restaurant industry, so wanted to pick your brain a little bit about culinary travel and travel that's really focused on understanding the edible landscape of a destination.

Chip Futch: 00:03:58

Well, you think of culinary travel. When you talk about your visits, your vacations, you're going to remember several things.

The scenery, the environment you're around the culture, you're around the people. But you always remember the food you ate and the drinks you had. That's always number one.

I joke, and she's going to kill me for saying this, but my wife, anytime we talk about a given region, particularly in a country I lived in for a while, Mexico, oh, that region has the most amazing takes. That area has the most amazing tacos de pastor, or it has the most amazing tortas or whatever, any given region.

So anywhere you go in the world, you're going to remember the food you're exposed to. It's huge.

Mady Dudley: 00:04:46

Yeah. I'm currently booking a flight to France and there's something called valet de gastronomie.

And it's the start of sort of the Michelin guide, where how Michelin had inspired people to get out and drive around and try different kinds of restaurants in different towns. And it's from, like, Marseille to Dijon. And they go to Dijon and try the mustard. And make sure when you're in Provence, you have.

I'm like, oh, someone has to do it. I'm, like, basing my whole trip around just eating.

Chip Futch: 00:05:20

Someone has to do it. Someone. It's a tough job. Yeah.

Larry Aldrich: 00:05:23

When you're looking at marketing, travel and destination, do you think food takes a bit of a backseat when it comes to what's being marketed?

Chip Futch: 00:05:32

It does sometimes. I think in our case, for example, one of our clients right now is making a very strong push into culinary travel.

They have a great, great restaurant scene. I might as well say them. Punta Gorda, Inglewood Beach. They have a Great restaurant scene down there.

A lot of independently owned restaurants, particularly in the Punta Gorda area. And it's just people aren't aware that there is such a great little culinary thing going on there.

And I think a lot of times people don't draw attention to that. You know, we're marketing a beach or a theme park or, you know, mountain hiking, whatever, depending on the destination. And maybe food comes second.

And I think a lot of times that's a bigger driver than we allow it to be.

Larry Aldrich: 00:06:16

Yeah, it's definitely huge driver. Every time I come down to the this area, first thing I think, where am I going to get a grouper sandwich at?

Chip Futch: 00:06:23

There you go.

Larry Aldrich: 00:06:24

Grouper sandwich.

Chip Futch: 00:06:25

Got to get the grouper sandwich.

Larry Aldrich: 00:06:26

Blackened grouper sandwich with cheddar. With cheddar cheese. And I'm. I'm happy.

Chip Futch: 00:06:30

I'll go with a different cheese, but yeah, I'll take that blackened grouper sandwich all day long. Yeah.

Mady Dudley: 00:06:35

Yeah. Well, okay, let's just dive into these questions then, huh?

So first and foremost, tell us a little bit about your career and how you have, you know, arrived at where you are today.

Chip Futch: 00:06:48

Let's go back to the dark ages. I've been, I'll say it outright, been a computer geek my entire life.

As soon as I could get my hands on a computer, and I'm gonna really date myself here. I got a. Bought a TRS 80 model 3 OG. OG. Graphics are horrible. Didn't have discs on it. Everything loaded by cassette. Flash forward a number of years.

My dad had a construction company and eventually started working with the engineers there, and we developed a software package for bidding Department of Transportation software. So I kind of got my start old school there. I ran on Lotus 1, 2, 3. Really dating myself now. It kind of evolved from there.

So through college, University of Florida, and eventually after University of Florida, I actually went to film school in Vancouver, British Columbia. Got a film degree.

Mady Dudley: 00:07:42

How does a film school later translate into marketing or computer nerd?

Chip Futch: 00:07:48

Well, there's always computers involved.

Mady Dudley: 00:07:50

That's true. Yeah.

Chip Futch: 00:07:51

The film degree I pursued was focused on computer animation more than anything. So that was very early in that the capabilities of machinery to do that.

So Vancouver was one of the few places I could actually go and get my hands on hardware that was made by a company called sgi, which is no longer around. But they were light years ahead of anything else at the time. So working in Vancouver for a while, do I take the film route or do I take the TV route?

Well, film route. Even though there was precious few of us that could do it. We didn't demand the pay that we probably should have been paid.

So anyway, came back to Florida, got a job at a post facility and started working with really, really great creatives, account executives, creative directors, and that kind of evolved. I didn't want to just know what we were trying to do visually, but why. And so that kind of drives the marketing of it. Who are we trying to talk to?

What is the motivation behind. I'll use this as a funny example. Winn Dixie porcorama sale. Okay, Winn Dixie's been sold now, so I don't think I'll get su.

But the Pork o Rama sale, the credit director wanted to have flying pigs. So we did that in 3D animation.

And at any rate kind of over the years as things evolved and this sticks out in my mind in particular being in Atlanta with a creative director from an agency in Tampa. I'd moved to Tampa at this point.

We were on a three day shoot for McDonald's and he said to me, he goes, you know, you really, you're always asking the marketing questions. And he goes, and not only that, he goes, you kind of understand the motivation behind it. He goes, you really should be on the other side.

And I didn't pursue it then, but that's always stuck with me. And something I always remember.

Larry Aldrich: 00:09:51

How did living in Canada and other countries prepare you for your current position?

Chip Futch: 00:09:57

Well, I think a lot of it's so you don't see destination, particularly destination mark. You don't see it through the lens of just what you're exposed to. You're seeing it through the lens of a different culture.

Living in Mexico and owning restaurants in Mexico and marketing those restaurants in Mexico, you're appealing to a different audience and you really have to go outside of your comfort zone. You think, well, I know how to market to people in St. Pete or I know how to market to people in Miami or New York or Denver.

Going into, I lived in San Miguel Guanajuato, which is a mouthful, but it's a UNESCO World Heritage site. So there's people from all over the world.

There's we, you know, understanding who's going to be interested in coming to this restaurant and how do we talk to them and how do we bring them there.

So yeah, I kind of think that the cultural, you know, the two different cultures between Vancouver, British Columbia and then Mexico and then obviously all over the states kind of, kind of get you better prepared to market destinations better and look at it from a different perspective.

Mady Dudley: 00:11:02

So let's get into the nitty gritty of your day to day of the famous Aqua intelligent dashboard proprietary data that you created. Can you tell us a little bit about that and what you provide for our clients?

Chip Futch: 00:11:19

Yeah, I think to tell that we jump back a little bit. When I moved back to the United States with my family, I took a job as a marketing director at a DMO and Aqua was our agency.

So I got to know Aqua and started working and got to know a lot of the people in Aqua and wow, you're doing a lot with data for such a small destination. Well, we had to, we had no budget. I had to do it. There wasn't the budget to afford more than standard intercept research.

We didn't have the mass amounts of budget. So any rate, that eventually worked into coming over to Aqua when I left. Come on, come on, come on. To the dark side or the light side?

I'm not sure which side is the dark side. Any rate, we kept working on it and evolving it and within a few months of coming to Aqua, we had fleshed out our first dashboard product.

And I guess as you'd say, the rest is history. But it's a constantly evolving thing. Our dashboards are customized for every client. No two clients are alike.

Mady Dudley: 00:12:25

Yeah, I know. You've helped me a lot with PR dashboards and getting our earned media out there to the clients.

Chip Futch: 00:12:33

The data, it's important to see.

A lot of times it's just a matter of visualizing it, but it's also the ability to take that data and mix that data with, blend those data sets together and that's where you get into some of the secret sauce, I guess, so to speak. Getting more actionable insights from the intelligence.

Mady Dudley: 00:12:52

Yeah, chip makes all of the data look very pretty.

Chip Futch: 00:12:55

I try to.

Larry Aldrich: 00:12:57

As Aqua's Business Intelligence Director and digital strategy, what's your take on the developments in technology in marketing space?

Chip Futch: 00:13:07

Wow, talk about evolving. Well, I'm going to say the buzzword AI, right? Everyone's talking about AI, but it's a fantastic tool, Absolutely fantastic tool. But it is a tool.

It's like PC versus Mac. They're both tools. Apple's no better than PC. PC's no better than Apple. They're both tools. AI is the same type of thing.

You look at it as a tool and I think it's important to remember that what the A means, it's artificial, so where it can speed up your processes. It's not replacing your processes. It only knows what it's exposed to or learns what it's exposed to.

Which there's inherent, some inherent danger there if a model is mistrained. But overall, I mean, just the speed we can process things now, being able to dump in a.

How many times you say, you know, like you're using a CRM program like to, to talk to your customers and say to import your mail list, have it in this format. Well, yours in a different format. Well, okay, so you're going to sit in Excel for X number of hours. Hey, on a whim I dumped two in there.

I said format spreadsheet one, like spreadsheet two. Two seconds. Done.

Mady Dudley: 00:14:16

Nice.

Chip Futch: 00:14:16

You're on with your day. You're back to business. You're not doing the menial task as much that's handled it for you. That's just a small example.

The language, the ability to digest a huge contract and give you the bullet points you can go in and look at quickly or vice versa. Take a few bullet points and turn it into a response, but then go back in.

I think the critical part to remember, particularly on the language side and generative text based stuff, is you go back and edit. It's not 100% accurate, but wow, what a speed up. So that's been huge.

And having to be able to look at these massive data sets and, and spit out one or two insights you might not have seen without spending an exorbitant amount of time trying to look through it is phenomenal and we're integrating it every chance we get.

Mady Dudley: 00:15:04

I'm curious about the research within the industry that you've done and any highlights or maybe even low points that you're willing to share.

Chip Futch: 00:15:15

I think it's not so much as a high point.

I love intercept research first and it's still a very critical component to doing what we do is getting out and asking the people who are in, in a destination, for example, did they consider any other places, et cetera, et cetera.

There was one question, so this always cracked me up, was one question that was on a survey when I was at DMO and it was probably left over from early Internet days. But it's. When booking your travel, did you use the Internet? Yes. No.

You would think it would be a binary answer, but because we're trying to build a good model that also had a not sure, a good instrument, not sure. So over time, as expected, you know, you would see yes go up and no going down.

But not sure even as late as: 2015

I don't remember how I booked this trip. Honestly, I don't remember. Okay, flash forward a few months. Gears. Whatever. The family. We were up visiting some other family in St. Augustine.

I was at a. I think it was a Holiday Inn. Going to check in, waiting in line at the desk.

And the woman in front of me is arguing with the desk clerk, no, I'm booked. He's like, ma'am, I don't have your reservation. Did you book online on the Internet?

And she says, no, I booked on Expedia because Expedia comes from magic. And it's just that I think it's just people. The Internet is such a part of what we do. They don't think of it as being on the Internet.

Mady Dudley: 00:17:08

It's just.

Chip Futch: 00:17:09

I used my Expedia app. I didn't use the Internet. Still kind of funny.

Mady Dudley: 00:17:14

I saw this meme. This is messed up. I saw this meme that was. I think you'd appreciate it. My parents were very patient with me, teaching me to tie my shoes.

I should be patient with them, teaching them what video is not AI and what is AI Just had this conversation with my dad the other day of this wave that, like, overtook a boat. And I'm like, dad, this is AI. That guy's head's on backwards. Yeah, good stuff.

Larry Aldrich: 00:17:43

Chip, you and I are going to be at the Etourism summit in April in Vegas. This is April 22nd, so it'll be my first E Tourism summit. I'm really excited about it, actually. I'll be sitting on a panel there.

You've told me you've been there a few times. Is there anything that stands out that you should let me know? Or any tips or anything? I know I'll be there.

So I'll be asking you a thousand questions. Anyway, you'll be there with me.

Mady Dudley: 00:18:05

I'll be on the panel, too.

Larry Aldrich: 00:18:06

But, yes, I will. Is there anything that.

Any tips, anything that stands out that you might be excited to be a part of at the Etourism or anything you want to say about it?

Chip Futch: 00:18:18

Well, I tell you one thing that excites me about that versus a lot of the other conferences. Not saying one's better than the other, but just how fast it flows. There is so much going on, and it's a great place to go in and really get a.

It's almost like getting a million little briefs on what all the tech and marketing is doing.

I mean, digital marketing is such a massive part of what we do now that it's great to see and see some of the small guys that you might have missed otherwise. You're getting inundated with emails and everything all the time and that actually being able to see the products is a great thing.

And also the networking, of course, with hundreds and hundreds of other marketers from destinations all across the country and the vendors. It's a great experience, but it was a whirlwind. The last one I went to was in San Francisco. It was a few years ago, quite a few years ago.

Any rate, it was amazing. Great summit. I've been looking forward to going back since then.

Larry Aldrich: 00:19:15

Great. Thanks for being with us there today, Chip. It's great having a conversation with you.

Chip Futch: 00:19:20

Happy to be here.

Larry Aldrich: 00:19:20

I do talk to you every day anyway. But thanks for being here with us on AquaTalks.

Chip Futch: 00:19:27

Happy to be here.Thanks.

Mady Dudley: 00:19:27

Thank you so much for listening or watching today again. I'm Mady, joined by my friend Larry and this is Aqua Talks.

If you're interested in learning more about this episode or our guest Chip that joined us today, please go to aquatalks.com you can also subscribe to our podcast. Follow us on social media there and just learn more about Aqua and the world of marketing in general and we will see you next time. Thank you.

Voiceover: 00:19:56

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Until next time, stay bold, stay inspired, stay imaginative.