Boston's Greatest Icon.

Today's Marketing Cookie is about finding and capitalizing on opportunity.

Good marketers can spot an opportunity. Great marketers create an opportunity on the spot. It's true. There's always a better way to gain attention, build awareness, and generate leads. You simply have to see where no one else has looked and think what no one else has thought.

Most Boston marketers know how expensive it is to sponsor the Red Sox and advertise at Fenway Park, known the world over as "America's Most Beloved Ballpark." Even if you don't know the actual costs for sponsorship, you can probably get a good idea when you buy the most expensive tickets in the league. Despite the high prices at Fenway, the value a sponsor gets is nearly immeasurable. Fenway Park holds the longest sellout streak in the history of all major professional sports. It is a place where dreams are made, traditions are celebrated, and baseball is forever.

Marketers who cannot afford to sponsor the Red Sox or hang a sign in Fenway must find other means to touch the most dedicated, most enthusiastic sports fans the world has ever known. When you venture down Brookline Ave on game day and push through the crowds on Yawkee Way, you'll see all forms of marketing and advertising trying to capture your attention before you enter the ballpark. Ads are painted on buildings, hanging on light posts, being towed by planes, and plastered on every conceivable surface. There are also people wearing signs, shouting their brand messages, and handing out samples of their product.

Once you've made your way inside Fenway and found your seat, you will see the CITGO sign, the largest sign in New England and arguably the most recognizable in all of Boston. The CITGO sign has been a famous part of the Boston skyline since 1940. Whenever a Red Sox player blasted a home run over the Green Monster, my father used to point at the sign and say, "C-IT-GO!" (see it go!) That giant 60-foot sign will forever be a part of the Fenway experience.

As a marketer, I love the CITGO sign because it marks the 20th mile of the Boston Marathon, it can be seen over the Green Monster during every pitch of every Red Sox game, and not a single dollar of advertising has ever been paid to the owners of Fenway Park. The CITGO sign represents ingenuity in marketing and a triumphant example of finding and capitalizing on opportunity. In my opinion, the smart marketers at CITGO epitomize the truth in what today's fortune says, "You discover treasures where others see nothing unusual."