Brett – I love you, man. I started watching football because of you. I love the NFL because of you. I have a 5′8″ (okay, 5″71/2) body divot in my couch because we’ve spent 3 hours together every Sunday for the past 19 years.

I am hanging on to a mediocre career in my local touch football league because I wanted to try some of the things you did on the field (I failed repeatedly and pulled a hamstring about a dozen times.)

So, how did you build your brand name so brilliantly?

Magic moments like:

Countless desperate underhand passes with no time on the clock and two savages hanging off you. Touchdowns.

Childlike enthusiasm as you run to jump in the arms of your teammates after they caught your hail mary.

285+ consecutive games playing through broken thumbs, bum knees, and concussions.

A 5-touchdown Monday Night Football performance in December 2003, less than 24 hours after the sudden death of your father. Why? Because your dad would have wanted you to play the game. Period.

Your brand brings one word to my mind: DRAMA. And you lived up to this positioning in spades every Sunday.

I invested in that remarkable brand and what it stood for.  Packers jerseys. Jets jersey. Viking Jersey. Authentic ones, not the cheaper replicas. Ouch.

But the last three years. You are not only damaging your ankle. I fear you are damaging your brand.

2008:
Retired.
Not retired.

2009:
Retired.
Not Retired.

2010:
Leaning towards retirement.
Retirement.
Hold on. Not yet. August rolls around. Not retired.

Brett, your brand has stood for something great for 19 years now: DRAMA. A word you would own inside the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Now it’s getting all fuzzy. It’s leaning towards a word in my brain you don’t want:  ”Indecisive“.

The brand rescue plan?

Maybe there’s somewhere off the football field where you can put that dramatic flair to use. There’s world hunger, earthquakes, and oil spills just screaming for your one-of-a-kind spirit.

Maybe there’s another game in life just waiting for your passion. But it requires something else:
A clear decision, and no looking back. Decisiveness.

Maybe I am wrong. The fact that ESPN is still running your return as their Top Story, and the fact that your jersey sells more than every other player on your team combined means that your brand still stands. But it no longer stands for one word, but two:

“Drama” and “Indecisive”.

That breaks a lot of the rules of great brands that need to own “one word” in consumer’s minds.

Brett… the “two word brand man”… if anyone could pull it off, it’s you.

So, things aren’t going so well… sales soft, traffic down, competition at your heels, customers not showing the love, team rowing in different directions.

Maybe you don’t need that fancy marketing plan in the 3 ring binder after all.

Instead, try all or as many of these 20 mini game changers and see what happens.

1. Come to work earlier.
2. Leave work later.
3. Bring a good attitude to work.
4. Fake it if your good attitude fails.
5. Practice your “game face” in the mirror before you leave the house.
6. Forget about the “good old days”… nostalgia is self destructive.
7. Work the phones, call a customer, and then work the phones more.
8. Simplify something complex.
9. Sweat the details.
10. Overreact and be militant when responding to even the smallest screw-up. Overdeliver when they least expect it.
11. Be around young people as they are less likely to be members of the “sky is falling” club.
12. Invest heavy in your Facebook, Twitter, and other social media skills.
13. Network like a tasmanian devil. Volunteer.
14. Manage by walking around in places you always avoided in your company. Speak to people outside your comfort zone.
15. Offer thanks by the truckload if good things happen. And take the heat and ownership if bad things happen.
16. Shrug off the losses. Repeat, “and this too shall pass.”
17. Avoid negative people. It contaminates. Misery loves company.
18. Leave the blamegame at the office door.
19. You call out, in a dramatic way, those who continue to play the “office politics” game. They are DNA ruiners.
20. Get way bigger ears and stop talking so damn much.

At one point in almost every week I try and do one of these 20 things even if it’s the last thing I wanna do. We all get in ruts. I do too. It’s what we do to get out of them that really counts.

I’m sure we’re all very aware of the idea that by taking great risks we can sometimes reap great rewards. Unfortunately, in the business of marketing risk rarely seems to happen. Projects that push us creatively don’t seem to come along very frequently, and it’s not often that we do more then just what you would expect: what’s safe.

As agencies we don’t always want to play it safe, but it takes two parties to create the great campaigns out there. A driven, creative team that will (excuse the cliché) really think outside the box, combined with a fearless client that can get away from what is easy and do what is unexpected, do what will take their brand or product beyond the newspaper ad and flyer.

So what happens when we choose to not take a leap and just go with what’s easy? You get what you give basically. You get just the kind of results you always get, some months it’s better, others it’s worse but ultimately there’s no spike, nothing that makes people step back and take notice.

What happens when you’re fearless?  This…

Over 15 million views. Followed by…

Over 10 million views.

Old Spice has never been afraid to sell their product in really over the top ways, but with Isaiah Mustafa at the helm they have taken it to a whole new level. In fact they did something just recently that, in my humble opinion, is absolute genius. The “Old Spice Guy” responded to people talking about Old Spice on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, Digg, etc, sometimes even answering questions posed directly to the “Old Spice Guy” himself. In fact they responded to close to 100 different messages and comments each with a unique and hilarious video, including…

A Marriage proposal

Talking to TV Hosts

Plugging Companies

Even having an entire conversation with Alyssa Milano

All of these personalized video responses got anywhere from 200,000 to over 3 million views. Clearly, this campaign is a resounding and definitive success. If you want to check more out you can see them all on the Old Spice YouTube channel here.

The numbers don’t lie; the Old Spice Responses got more views in 24 hours than Obama’s victory speech, Bush dodging a shoe, or Susan Boyle.

To take it a step further, the man himself Isaiah Mustafa has been appearing on talk shows like Ellen, Attack Of The Show, CBC News Morning and many more. You might say he’s become famous overnight, which is all the better for Old Spice.

Key takeaway here is pretty obvious. Risk = Reward.

As they say, if you give what you always have, you’ll get what you always got. If that’s just fine for you, fantastic! Otherwise perhaps it’s time to be fearless and take that risk.

Reading the news this morning, I noticed the VOCM question of the day — “Do you agree with ACOA contributing $200,000 to attract the show ‘Live! With Regis and Kelly’ to Prince Edward Island?”

Sadly, but not surprisingly, 60% of respondents felt this was a waste of taxpayers’ dollars.

As a proud member of the roughly 30% (some 10% undecided), I believe this was a truly unique and exciting way for islanders to promote their province, given that the goal of this ACOA funding was to raise PEI’s tourism profile in the eyes of others. It is ACOA’s mandate to fund opportunities for Atlantic Provinces to broaden their international appeal — mission accomplished.

Monday’s “Live! With Regis and Kelly” was the most watched episode ever in the history of the show. Almost one million people tuned in; they normally average half a million viewers per day. As well, PEI found themselves in the top ten in Google searches in the US. I can only imagine how many unique visitors reached out to the PEI tourism website. Regis and Kelly not only raised PEI’s profile, I imagine they brought out the spirit of Islanders all over. Ask the best media planners in the country, they’ll tell you that this kind of international exposure and word-of-mouth cannot be bought, especially for $200,000.

Not every province has the fortune of a remarkable tourism campaign like we do here in Newfoundland and Labrador. I commend the province of PEI for thinking outside the box, and I applaud ACOA for acting unbureaucratically and making it happen. $200,000 well spent.

MBWA, or “Managing By Wandering Around”, was a concept in the late 70’s.

Welcome to 2010. I think MBWA still works.

A VP Marketing that I have been dealing with for 24 months spends as much time wandering around in the trenches and his stores as he does on his desk. He even schedules it.

It startled me how much he is away from his office just visiting the over 100 stores in the chain and delegating conference calls to others.

It really got me thinking.

I’ve met way more CEO’s and VP’s over the past decade that spend way too much time:
• In the boardroom.
• Analyzing excel spreadsheets.
• Eyes deep into  the iphone/blackberry exchanges.

So…chat it up with anybody whose path you cross…especially if they are not the regular people you chat it up with.

Go strolling in parts of your organization where you normally wouldn’t stroll.

Slow down. Stop. Look. Listen.

Email doesn’t count.
Tweets do not count.
Wandering counts.
One foot in front of the other foot.

It’s been said that the #1 enemy of leaders isn’t competitors, regulatory systems or office politics. It’s their desk. Getting stuck behind your desk can slowly result in losing touch.

Put wandering in your calendar.

Sorry for being repetitive, but I really, really hate mission statements.

You can see my two-minute rant here:

But if you don’t have the time — give me about 60 seconds to make my case to make you a believer in creating mantras and banning mission statements.

Wendy’s mission statement is lifeless and dull:
“To deliver quality products and services for our customers and communities though leadership, innovation and partnerships.”

Then there is Cathy Bennett who runs a whole bunch of successful McDonalds franchises and doesn’t even know the global mission statement, but has created the shortest mantra I have found anywhere — F.A.F.

That’s it. F.A.F.

It stands for Fast, Accurate and Friendly. Whether you are on your first day on the job at the Golden Arches or you just earned your 10-year pin — it’s powerful, relevant and measurable.

Well done, Cathy.

When in Toronto a few weeks ago visiting a pal of mine, Michael Beckerman, who runs a really successful agency called Ariad Communications, I was envious how he was one step ahead of me in shattering the mission statement syndrome in a really powerful way — by actually writing the agency mantra in huge letters on the wall, and then taking the extra step of getting each and every employee to ‘sign up’ for the mantra. Like signing a contract to live the positioning. Brilliant. I wish I had thought of this first and told Michael. It’s a simple but powerful visual mantra I wanted to ‘borrow/steal/transfer’ on the walls of The Idea Factory.

So come on, rip down the meaningless, dull, safe mission statement from your walls this weekend while everyone has gone home. When they walk in on Monday morning, do what Michael did. Post up your mantra and ask everyone to sign it with a sharpie. It will shock and awe your team. Or better yet, come up with a mantra together and have a “Burning of the Mission Statement” party before painting the walls. Hey, the writing’s on the wall. It’s your call.

So if you haven’t noticed, British Petroleum, better known as BP, has a bit of a public image problem. It’s something that many people and companies have had to deal with at some point in their lives. Unfortunately for BP though, this one is not going to be swept under the rug. No clever advertising or public apologies are going to fix what they did. In no way are people ever going to have a high opinion of them again.

Apparently, though, they’re not giving up. They have purchased sponsored links that appear at the top of Google and Yahoo search results for terms like “oil spill.” If you’re not sure how that works, it’s actually very simple. Have you ever been searching for something and seen the top few results highlighted yellow (see below)? Well, that’s it. If you buy keywords like “Oil Spill”, then the results of a search for those keywords will be the link you wish a person to see highlighted at the top. Clearly this is a move to help redirect the cacophony of negative criticism and imagery that’s filling the internet daily about the massive and devastating ecological catastrophe BP have created. Too little too late? Or just completely unnecessary?

Now they’re the top listing for anyone looking for information about the spill, so what’s the point? Ok, we all know that social media, web strategies, targeted marketing, etc. are tools we use as marketing agencies to influence and modify the consumer’s impression of a product or service. Well, that’s it, that’s the point, to try and curve the hatred away from BP.

I’m not even going to pretend I know how they should handle this situation. If I had those answers I would probably be standing next to President Obama right now instead of sitting here writing this blog. I do know, however, that this lame attempt is certainly not going to do it. Perhaps that’s why there’s such buzz around them buying these search results. BP have the audacity to think they can even begin to cover this disaster, especially by trying to dictate what we see when we look for information on the spill.

There is one obvious piece of advice I would give, and take it with a grain of salt, because like I said, this situation is probably too big for any one solution to work as they have made many mistakes. However, they need to stop Tony Hayward from talking, ever. The man seems to say the wrong thing at the wrong time, every time. For example:

“There’s no one who wants this thing over more than I do, I’d like my life back”

Well Tony, what about the 11 men killed in the explosion? The fishermen and their families? Or how about the considerable amount of other victims?

But all hope is not lost. Perhaps BP would have a slightly better image if they were backing these kinds of people and perhaps getting a little dirty themselves by following their example.

It seems that one company’s ruin is another’s benefit. For example, we know that the pelican above is being cleaned with Dawn and right now Dawn isn’t making a big deal of it. They’re not out there with new commercials, new ads, or new anything for that matter. They’re being humble and just helping rather then saying “look at how awesome we are”. The public appreciates that and will remember it.

So, if there is a lesson to be learned here it’s that when a company makes a mistake they need to own up, not cover up.

Actually, that’s probably just a good life lesson, but hey, never underestimate the power of common sense.

Okay. This blog has been rather serious, so it’s time for a little humor at the expense of BP.

Just ask Winston Churchill. Well, maybe that won’t be so easy unless of course you’re a clairvoyant with a direct line to the hereafter. But if you could, I’m sure the famous Prime Minister of England could teach you a thing or two about keeping it simple. During World War II, he took a ‘less is more’ approach to his daily briefs from his many subordinates scattered over the globe. Forced to make quick decisions, the pressure on Sir Winston was immense. To aid his thinking process, he demanded that these briefs be summed up on one page. Starved for time, he had a vast amount of information to digest each day and needed it ‘boiled down’ to the bare facts. He simply could not process all the information coming across his desk during this crazy time. His strategy would appear to be successful.

Welcome to 2010, the information-crazed apex of modern history. Consumers today face a daily onslaught of information that would have made Churchill himself cringe. We can only process so much information. All the really good advertisers know this. Unfortunately, most advertisers want to tell us everything they possibly can, believing that we need to be told about all the wonderful details about their product so we can run out and get it right away. This assumption will almost surely lead nowhere, a wasted attempt, blending in with all the other ’noise’ out there. Advertisers first need to get people’s attention, and once this is accomplished (a not-so-easy feat), quickly and simply convey a single thought that we hope stays with our audience. Anything more is fruitless. If the consumer decides they need to know more, they will seek you out whether it be by phone, web or word-of-mouth.

Less is More… 
keep it simple, let your message breathe!

This video is a great example of this mantra:

I am neck deep in the middle of reading about a powerful principle from a guy I had never heard of before last week. His name is Simon Sinek (check him out at startwithwhy.com).

It goes something like this:

People don’t buy WHAT you do; they buy WHY you do it.

There’s a whole book on that simple sentence. Stay with me here for a minute, cause it’s powerful stuff.

Every single company on the planet knows WHAT they do. No matter how big or small the company is, everyone can easily describe the stuff or services a company sells. WHAT’s are easy to spot.

Fewer companies know HOW they do WHAT they do. It could be your unique selling principle, differentiator or value proposition. The HOW’s that make you different are not as obvious as the WHAT’s.

Then there’s the part that almost everyone skips.

Very few companies can articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. And making money is not the WHY — that’s a result. WHY is your purpose, cause or belief. WHY does your company exist? Why do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone really care?

Let’s take Apple Inc.

They didn’t start with the WHAT or HOW, they started with WHY.

Apple’s WHY may go something like this:

Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently (the why).

We challenge the status quo by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly (the how).

And, in this case, we happen to make great computers (the what).

Other companies competing against Apple skip the WHY and use features, benefits and rebates or discounts to build a rational argument for why their company is better. They sell the WHAT. They skip the WHY.

There is no real difference between Apple or Dell or HP… they are all corporate structures. They all make computers. They all have equal access to the same talent and resources and ad agencies.

Apple has defined itself by WHY not WHAT. It’s not a computer company but a company that challenges the status quo. That gives them the credibility to launch computers, phones, music players and software. (No wonder in 2007 Apple Computer changed its legal name to Apple Inc. to reflect they were more than a computer company.)

Think of Southwest Airlines. At the time they entered the game, only 15% of the travelling population travelled by air. People didn’t want to fly because it was too expensive.

Their WHY was focused NOT on the 15 percent of people who flew but rather on the 85 percent who didn’t fly.

This WHY led them to the ideology of being the “champion for the common man” and they competed against cars and trains. That’s WHY they started. The HOW was by being simple, cheap and fun. And they expressed it brilliantly with the line “you are now free to move about the country”. Not a tagline, that’s a cause.

What about close to home?

Take a look at Georgestown Bakery, buried in the center of the St. John’s.

I don’t know Stephen Lewis, but from my visits to his store I am guessing his WHY is to create unexpected art forms out of baked goods in small batches for those who think there’s a better way to enjoy sliced bread.

Pizza Experts?

Their WHY back in the 80’s was to create a faster and easier way to enjoy pizza.

The HOW’s — a 35 minute delivery guarantee, a new computerized ordering system that remembered your past orders so it took 15 seconds — not 5 minutes, and a phone number that was easy to remember (five seven nine double-one double-oh) so you wouldn’t have to look in the Yellow Pages.

______________________________________________

So, WHY is the belief, HOW’s are the actions we take to realize the belief and the WHAT’s are the results of the actions.

People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.

If your WHY feels fuzzy, look deeper within… it’s there. Think about it, focus on it, and make everything your company does revolve around it. Your employees and customers will thank you.

I love interacting with companies that empower their employees.

An empowered employee: A person that has the power to make decisions without a boss or supervisor lurking over their shoulder. A person that can go off-script, bend the rules and do what they believe is the right thing to do for the customer without fear of losing their job.

You’ll know it when it happens.

The empowered employee creates an instant feeling of authentic service that creates greater customer loyalty and will keep you wanting to come back. By the way – you won’t find it on their resume. And it’s not covered in the pages of the orientation manual or during their first day of staff training. Empowered employees exist as a result of the way an organization is run. When a company sets out a clear set of values and beliefs and hire people who are good “fits,” then they are more likely to trust people to do the right thing.

And empowered employees do the right thing.

I buy coffee every morning at the same place. For 125 consecutive visits I remembered to bring $1.63 for a large coffee.  On the 126th visit, I forgot. No money. The empowered employee winked and passed me my large coffee to save me the embarrassment from the 6 people waiting behind me.

They will make it back ten-fold.

I love going to this quaint restaurant once a week for breakfast. Six months ago they took the steel-cut oatmeal off the menu because apparently no one but me ordered it. The empowered employee ignored the menu and made sure there was steel-cut oatmeal available when I came in.

They will make it back ten-fold.

An employer can allow and encourage this kind of behaviour, or they can discourage and punish it, not empower their employees, and save the $1.63 or $5 box of oatmeal.

What kind of employees do you want protecting your brand?