"I don't work with targets. I work with heroes."
Dave Betke
Founder, Do Better Marketing
"On a mission to eliminate attention metrics and the damage they do — draining budgets, jeopardizing reputations, and depleting the resources we all need to thrive."
"I don't know if this man uses a different part of his brain than other marketing types, but he and his ideas are entirely new and refreshing. Best of all, they work. His small company has pummeled marketing giants in national awards competitions, and for good reason. David combines genuine goodness and humanity with clever, strategic ideas that deliver results."
Michelle Morra-Carlisle
Writer, Editor, Communications Professional
WHO DAVE IS
That distinction is the reason everything I build works differently from what you've tried before.
Where a conventional marketer sees an audience to be moved, a psychologist sees people already on their own journeys — with their own questions, their own friction, their own needs that have to be genuinely understood before anything worth designing can begin.
I've spent 35 years asking the questions nobody else asks. Not what you want to create. What you want to happen. Not what message you want to send. What the person on the other side needs to feel before they'll say yes.
The answers reveal things that tactics never surface: which incentive structures are working against you, who owns the bridge between attention and commitment, and what your organization has been optimizing for versus what it actually needs.
"Dave asked me questions no one else had. He took time to understand where I was at and where I wanted to go. He built a step by step actionable plan that made more sense than any prior plan I had come up with."
"Dave saved me thousands of dollars and months of frustration before I even paid him a dime. I didn't know if I could afford to work with him — it quickly became obvious I couldn't afford not to."
Maria Latouf,
Owner, EquilibriOm
WHAT I BELIEVE
I believe people are not targets. They are heroes on their own journey, and my purpose is to create a fork where your two journeys meet, and you walk together.
I am deeply inspired by symbiosis in nature. The flower does not chase the bee. It offers nectar and trusts the bee's visit will bring life. That is how marketing should feel: not a constant pursuit, but a living relationship built on trust, respect, and shared nourishment.
I believe the either/or is almost always a false choice. The logging industry and the conservation movement both needed something real. When we stopped opposing each other and started designing for both sides to win, a 65,000-acre forest was protected forever, and the mill still operates today.
That forest is now West Arm Provincial Park. It was my first encounter with what I now call Symbiotic Systems™. And it confirmed something I had sensed since childhood: that invisible bonds connect all living things, and that when you design for those bonds rather than against them, the results sustain themselves long after the work is done.
"David has the uncanny ability to take a key message and merge it with a unique visual focus to make a pitch that can be unforgettable."
"One of many pieces they created, for my past work with the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters, used a light beam to highlight little-known facts about interpersonal violence for businessmen at an awareness event. Several years later, a former guest noted that every time he sees that 'darn little flashlight' he is reminded of how those facts changed his thinking."
"Making heartfelt connections, underscoring fresh perspectives, communicating something memorable — that is what David does best and what sets his work apart from simply marketing."
Patti McClocklin
Alberta Council of Women's Shelters
THE WORK
Symbiotic Systems™. Four principles: Symbiosis, Compassion, Psychology, Marketing. Applied consistently across every engagement.
A methodology that doesn't apply to itself isn't a methodology. GreenMeets, the diagnostic tools, and the Symbiotic AI Agent currently in development are all built inside Symbiotic Systems™ before being offered to clients.
"David is a master at creativity. Open-minded, innovative, client focused and measurement driven."
"If you choose Dave, you're 90% of the way to being successful — the rest is up to you. If you choose not to utilize his talents, pray your competitor doesn't."
Cliff Quicksell, MAS,
Professional Speaker, Author, Consultant & Coach
Marketing Triage™
Diagnosing which system failure is preventing your organization from converting attention into commitment.
Purpose-Ecosystem™ Design
Replacing that broken system with one where both sides genuinely benefit, and the results outlast the engagement.
Dimensional Advertising™
Physical touchpoints designed as commitment-building tools, not attention tactics.
WHO I CHOOSE TO WORK WITH
I choose to work with individuals and organizations dedicated to improving the lives of people, communities, or our natural world.
When I find the right people, I don't just work with them. I try to connect them to each other — through GreenMeets, through introductions, through the community that has grown around this practice over 35 years. Because I believe we are stronger as a unified voice.
The awards are just pieces of glass. What I care about most are the partnerships that have lasted over 25 years, the forest protected forever, and the Purpose-Ecosystems™ that take on a life of their own long after I'm gone.
THE MISSION
I'm on a 35-year mission to reduce the impact of waste generated by broken and misaligned marketing systems on budgets and our planet — and to repurpose those savings as mission fuel for the people doing the work that matters.
What if we could build better systems that increase efficiency, improve outcomes, and cause less harm to the world we all share?
Will you join me?
We reply within 2 business days.
FOR EVENT ORGANIZERS AND PRESS
For conference programs, event listings, media inquiries, and press use. Copy and use as needed. For speaking inquiries, use the contact form.
OFFICIAL BIO—COPYABLE FOR EVENT & PRESS USE
Dave Betke is the founder of Do Better Marketing, based in Edmonton, Alberta. He studied psychology, not marketing, and has spent 35 years applying the difference to organizational challenges that conventional marketing consistently fails to solve.
His methodology began in the early 1990s when he spent five years criss-crossing Canada to save a 65,000-acre endangered forest in British Columbia, treating students and retailers as heroes rather than targets, and finding a third way that gave both the logging community and the conservation movement what they needed. That forest is now West Arm Provincial Park, protected forever. The principles behind that campaign have never changed.
He is the creator of Marketing Triage™, Purpose-Ecosystem™ Design, and the Symbiotic Marketing Methodology, and the developer of the R.E.A.C.T. model for driving social and environmental action. His work has been recognized with seven national marketing awards.
He is also the founder of GreenMeets™, a bi-monthly global gathering of sustainability and regenerative practitioners, and is currently training an AI agent that gives marketing and business advice that considers planetary limits, symbiosis, and even considers its own energy use.
Dave speaks on the gap between attention and commitment, the psychology of systems that sustain themselves, and why treating people as heroes rather than targets is not just an ethical position — it is the structural reason some marketing ecosystems outlast the campaigns that created them by decades.
BEGIN
If something on this page created a moment of recognition, that is the signal. The 15-minute conversation is the right next step — no obligation, no sales pitch, just an honest conversation about whether there is a fit
We reply within 2 business days.
Prefer to reach out directly?
+1 (780) 474 • 6563
Do Better Marketing
(a division of Avatar Brand Management Inc.)
Diagnosing the systems where marketing budgets bleed — and redesigning them so attention becomes commitment, waste becomes mission fuel, and outcomes become predictable.
© 2023 All Rights Reserved
