BCBusiness

70 BCBusiness nOVEmBER 2018 tanYa gOEhRing T hanks to his skill as a raconteur, marketing veteran David Allison has earned a spot with both the National Speakers Bureau and the Global Speakers Agency, regularly talking in front of 1,000-strong crowds. His new target-audience pro•ling tool—designed to help a range of industries—is based on people's values rather than their age. Allison explains why he believes Value graphics is a game- changer and why emphasizing your unique traits is every- thing in business. This much I know… "you know you're doing the right work when time stands still. For me, it's when I'm speaking onstage or writing. That's when I lose all track of time and hours can go by in a nanosecond. I had practice at talking growing up, because I always had to •ght my way out of arguments. I think I was unwittingly prepared for being able to present a solid case, and so today when it comes to sell- ing stu‰, it's not really anything more than telling the right story for me. You just need to read your audience and understand which one they want to hear." "There are so many ways to tell the story of Value- graphics, which is based on 75,000 anonymous surveys in our database. They measure 40 di‰erent core values that sociol- ogists and psychologists agree are a map of what it is to be human, along with responses to 340 questions about people's needs and desires. So if I know where you stand on these things, such as the environ- ment, I know who you are. We know that age-based stereo- typical generational stu‰ is so horrible, and now we have a database that proves it's wrong. My footprint is in large-scale real estate and resort develop- ment, but we've also worked for hedge funds and private equity banks, online retailers, First Nations, universities. The beautiful thing is, we're basing it on shared values. Data has the potential to make the world a better place. We just have to make sure we're doing it ethi- cally and responsibly." "I've always deliberately sought to meet lots of people, and Chris Nicholson [his partner, an assistant superin- tendent of schools, with whom he lives in downtown Vancou- ver] and I are huge fans of Ballet BC and various art galler- ies. We're not wealthy patrons who can write a giant cheque, but we can do little things like dinners. It's also led me to work with [author] Douglas Coupland, whom I met when we were both on the board of the Contemporary Art Gallery. It's not lost on me, or on Doug, that my book debunks gen- erational stereotypes, when his novel Generation X was so pivotal in making generational labelling an accepted norm. We've laughed about it, but in fact, Doug was instrumental in helping me with my book. One project [Coupland and his company] Global Treefort took on recently was creating a presentation about the future of work, for the global launch of a new Konica Minolta enter- prise technolo›y at an event in Berlin. Artists are interpreters of what's going on in the world; their work is just the purest expression of an idea. If we all approached our work with their fearlessness, it would be a really great world." ž market Values David Allison helps businesses understand that when it comes to targeting customers, age is just a number by Lucy Hyslop LU NC H W I T H LU C Y ( quality time ) T H E DE E T S people person P OSITION: principal at david allison, a Vancouver- based advisory firm; author of We Are All the Same Age Now–Valuegraphics: The End of Demographic Stereotypes; partner at global treefort, a creative think-tank in Vancouver AG E : 53 P R E V IOUS ROL E S : in Vancouver, co-founder of B/a, a real estate market- ing firm (sold in 2015), and Vp marketing for sotheby's international Realty Canada; associate creative director at marketing agency macLaren mcCann in Calgary SCHO OL : Ba in journalism and communications from the University of north dakota K U D OS : B/a was awarded marketer of the Year by BC Homes Magazine and the Canadian home Builders' association of BC in 2010 LU NCH : Club sandwich at the Vancouver Club "one thing i've taken away from the last 30 years of work is that i think it's important to figure out what parts of you no one else can possibly copy, and then go out and be the most extreme version of yourself that you can be."

• Cover