Andre Michelin

French entrepreneur who co-founded Michelin with his brother Edouard — and whose marketing genius created the Michelin Guide as a strategy to encourage more driving (and thus more tire wear) — inventing content marketing a century before the term existed.

Invented the Michelin Guide as pure business strategy — giving away free maps, restaurant ratings, and repair shop listings to make driving seem accessible and appealing — creating a century-long virtuous cycle where more driving meant more tire sales, while the Guide became independently valuable.