The Brainzooming Group

Here is my Super Bowl advertising recap from watching the game and the Twitter activity on the live #SBExp Twitter chat. This year, I hosted my own solo Super Bowl party, which is pathetic, but at least I got as many chicken wings as I wanted.

Amazingly, after a start where it looked like the 49ers couldn’t cover a Ravens player within five yards, the game got competitive after the lights went out (more about that later). The game ultimately came down to the last play of the game, making the football better than the advertising, in my opinion.

Nonetheless, let’s get to the ads:

The Super Bowl Advertising Winners

The first half Amy Poehler appearance for Best Buy was a satisfying change of pace – the brand was clear, Amy Poehler was funny as always, and she said the word “dongle” . . . The second half Tide ad for the Montana Miracle was product, benefit, and game-specific, plus it incorporated surprise and emotion. That’s a hard working ad from a familiar brand . . . Before everything got started on the Super Bowl braodcast, there was a pre-game ad for Buffalo Wheat Thins that played on everyone’s fears of Yetis and neighbors breaking in to steal snack foods that was amusing, and kind of made me remember the brand.

Several brands pursued sponsor bombs and got into the Super Bowl advertising mix without paying the premium rates on CBS by using promoted Twitter messages carrying strong strategic tie-ins. The Society of Human Resources Management took advantage of an NFL Network draft ad for its promoted Twitter ad, while Outback Steakhouse twisted its Bloomin’ Onion promotion to encourage patrons say “Super Bloom” for a freebie order the Monday after the Super Bowl. When you’re on a limited budget, sponsor bombs are a smart strategy to pursue.

Amy Poehler for Best Buy

Tide - The Montana Miracle

Really?

Doritos apparently used up all the good amateur advertising people in the world in previous years with its earlier crowdsourced Super Bowl advertising entries . . . I’m not sure any of the first half Budweiser ads (Bud Light or Bud Black Crown) worked. Calvin Klein on the other hand? It’s underwear ad featuring a guy with incredible abs (which was a complete rip-off  of the H&M – Beckham ad from 2012)? Budweiser only wishes it could sell six packs that well . . . Audi’s ad with a young man taking Dad’s car solo to the prom and all of a sudden becoming an apparent rebel seemed off brand until the tag line explained it was all about “Brave engineering.” Brave engineering? Can you say, “Reach!”

The chasing Coke ad gave me no reason to care about voting or who would win the chase, even if it meant deciding which pre-shot ending would be chosen. The other Coke ad with the security cameras shooting pictures of people was supposed to be representative of shared moments. Feeling like you’re being spied on with your every move is a connection we all share, I guess . . . Both Jeep announcing Oprah and Dodge RAM announcing Paul Harvey as voice overs is like an editorial cartoon labeling all the characters – you just shouldn’t have to do that. Both of these ads are getting attention as among the best. They stood out because of lower production values (photo montages in the Dodge ad) and heart-tugging messages, but the format is getting tiresome – especially when Chrysler does it in exactly the same place two years in a row.

The first Hyundai Santa Fe ad included pancakes, The Flaming Lips, bikers, and bubble boys, with nary a mention of Hyundai. A later Hyundai ad for their turbo-charge capability actually worked, i.e. it mentioned a feature (turbo charged engine) and visualized a related benefit (staying in front of bad vehicles to follow).

Calvin Klein

 Hyundai Turbo Charged Engine

And the Movie Ads

Movie ads just don’t work for me in the Super Bowl. Since nearly every ad looks like a movie with some attempt at a surprising twist at the end (such as finally mentioning the advertiser), the movie ads look like everything else except with no surprises.

The Skin

In a local pre-game break, Hardees tried to out-skin GoDaddy, but then GoDaddy changed things up with an international angle – couples worldwide and French kissing. How about if we all agree to buy a GoDaddy url if they stop Super Bowl advertising? I missed the 2 Broke Girls ad that supposedly put GoDaddy to shame, I can’t imagine what it featured.

Instagram and Oreos

In what you’d have to think was its first featured Super Bowl appearance, Instagram was at the heart of the call to action for Oreos and its Crème vs. Cookie debate. By half time, the Oreos Instagram presence had grown to more than 25,000. While the TV-social media integration was being applauded, others questioned the cost per follower Oreos had invested. The BIG question: Will Oreos continue to activate its Instagram presence throughout the year?

Lights Out!

Beyonce was in a pre-game commercial explaining that her skin is a unique story. Apparently there’s a recorded story about her lips, which she avoided by not even pretending to sing on Single Ladies. But right after Beyonce was done . . . there was a blackout? Did she cause it? As @rsarver shared on Twitter, “BREAKING: During the Twitter, Superbowl goes down” . . . Given the change in momentum in favor of the 49ers afterward, we now know which Harbaugh brother is the better Catholic whose prayers get answered. My main concern though was people would start blaming FEMA and the other Mike Brown all over again . . . They said during the blackout the coaches were busy organizing the players to help them deal with the delay. Really? I never had one boss who had to come help me cope with a meeting that didn’t start on time.

But speaking of coping, both Oreo and Tide were able to respond with real-time content about the 30-plus minute blackout in the second half.  Allstate and its Mayhem character also got in on the blackout on Facebook, with Mayhem saying he’d planned to simply shut off the scoreboard. It goes to show that social media IS the most flexible, broadcast-oriented marketing communications tool a brand has – if it’s ready with the listening and smart content creation talent real-time activity requires.

What’s Up for Future Super Bowls?

What Eminem was to 2011, Rock was to 2013 – who will be the multi-ad person be for Super Bowl XLVIII? Future sponsorship opportunity? An international airline should sponsor all the kicks out of the end zone and 108 yard kickoff run backs . . . Somebody needs to develop the app to let you know which break has the weakest Super Bowl advertising so you know to go pee then . . . Maybe it’s just me, but simply throwing random characters, celebrities, and objects at your brand in for your Super Bowl advertising push (i.e., Coke, Bud Light, Mercedes, Taco Bell and others) isn’t all that effective. I’d recommend less of that in future Super Bowls. - Mike Brown

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the free Brainzooming blog email updates.

If you’re struggling to create or sustain innovation and growth, The Brainzooming Group can be the strategic catalyst you need. We will apply our  strategic thinking, brainstorming, and implementation tools to help you create greater innovation success. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call  816-509-5320 to learn how we can help you figure out how to work around innovation and implementation challenges.

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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What role do public relations efforts play when new product launches fail? Can public relations be the sole cause?

How significant a role can the public relations strategy for a new product launch play in mitigating other launch-related issues?

And what can a public relations professional do to play a more active, strategic role to contribute toward new product launch success even if problems surface in other support areas?

These questions are all part of a talk I’m presenting at the PR Consultants Group annual conference in Kansas City. Chaired by good friend, Alex Greenwood, of AlexG PR, the session will focus on how public relations professionals can hone their strategic, creative, and innovation-oriented skill sets to be more effective with product launches.

You Tell Me the Strategic Thinking Exercises to Cover!

And in what has become a typical presentation technique for me, the strategic thinking exercises for PR consultants we’ll cover during the session will ALL be chosen by the group as the presentation progresses.

Yes, that means when the presentation starts, I’ll have no idea what specific topics we’ll cover!

I’ve been using this presentation technique more frequently since a “you decide what matters to you and we’ll go there” presentation strategy tracks with the Brainzooming brand promise of being highly flexible and interactive when developing successful market strategies.

The presentation draws on ideas about why product launches fail from a Harvard Business Review article titled, naturally enough, “Why Most Product Launches Fail.” I’ve reshaped the article’s list of forty reasons for why most product launches fail to a manageable list of twelve reasons with ties to public relations. Even though the audience is comprised of all public relations consultants, the presentation topics will be valuable to anyone involved in developing successful product launches.

In that spirit, here are links to numerous Brainzooming articles on how being more strategic, creative, and innovative can help address the reasons for why new product launches fail.

Developing a Strategic Business Perspective

Being More Strategic

• A Simple Strategy Check
• Great Strategic Questions – A 3-Step Strategic Question Formula  
• BrainzoomingTM – First Questions
• Tactically Influencing Strategic Situations

Being More Creative

• Sharing a Creative Perspective
• It’s All Invented
• A Poor Question for Valentine’s Day: “Can You Change Your Look?”
• Unwrap New Insights this Holiday Season!
  
• One Way to Be More Creative Each Day
• Strategic Connections – 3 Tips for Identifying More Opportunities 

Being More Innovative

• Creating Change and Change Management – 4 Strategy Options
• Managing Clients Who Love Their Creative Ideas
• Improve the Success of Your Letters to Santa – Guaranteed!

How PR Can Address Reasons Product Launches Fail

Unclear or Wrong Audience / Market

• An Example of a Persona to Clarify Audience Members

• Using Think-Know-Do to Generate Stronger Messaging Ideas

Little Market Research or Unclear Differentiation

• Brand Strategy and Brand Promise Definition Background
• Developing Conclusions with Few Insights

Product Is Too New or Too Different

• 1 Tool to Change Your Tired Old Perspective – Trait Transformation

Bad or Weak Product Claims & Advertising

• Identifying Who Else Does What You Do

• Winning New Business by Being a Nuisance Competitor

Product Priced too High

• Strategy Ideas for Dealing with Lower-Priced Competitors
• Creating Greater Value from Brand Attributes

Crisis Issues: Product / Quality Supply / Regulatory

• Strategic Thinking Exercise – Black Swan Events in Your Plan
• Brand Kidnappings and Social Networking – 5 Ways to Prepare

Not Enough $ for PR, Marketing, Launch and/or Sustaining Sales

• Identifying the Best Leftover Ideas

• Guerrilla Marketing Questions
• Activating a Social Media Effort
• Increasing Memorability – Even with Few Dollars

Everything Depends on PR

• Ted Williams – A Voice for Focusing on Your “Happy Zone”
• Social Media Metrics – A Whole Brain Strategy

Too Much or Little Social Media

• The Two Biggest Mistakes in Social Media
• The Brainzooming Social Media Strategy Framework

• 26 Pieces of Advice for Relationship and Social Media Success

The In-house Marketing Campaign Isn’t Objective

• Do You Have What It Takes (for a Marketing Plan)?

Spokesperson Issues

• 6 Reasons a Brand Manager Wouldn’t Do the Ford “Focus Doug” Campaign – and Why They’d Be Mistaken

Sales Buy-in or Knowledge Lacking

• New Year’s Resolutions – Be More Derivative, Creative, Fun
• Reaching Employees by Advertising to Customers

Lack of Influencers Supporting Launch

• You Find Experts Everywhere You Look
• Incorporating the Expertise of Lead Users

Mike Brown

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the free Brainzooming blog email updates.

If you’re facing a challenging organizational situation and are struggling to maintain forward progress because of it, The Brainzooming Group can provide a strategic sounding-board for you. We will apply our strategic thinking and implementation tools on a one-on-one basis to help you create greater organizational success. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call 816-509-5320 to learn how we can help you figure out how to work around your organizational challenges.

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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Even though there are many Twitter chats throughout the week, tweeting during a live event on TV is different because you have a large audience who is also tuned in and reacting to the same content you are.

A great way to participate in a large live event Twitter chat is with a group of friends who are on the lookout for each others’ tweets. You can do this through creating a sub-chat inside the bigger chat with its own hashtag. For example, author Jim Joseph is known for his #EXP chats that operate inside a big live event Twitter chat. Through Jim’s custom hashtags, there’s the possibility of both meeting new people and interacting with a small group.

12 Tips for Live Event Twitter Chat Fun

To get the most from a live event Twitter chat, here are 12 tips for having more fun with your experience.

1. A Twitter chat isn’t about making pronouncements or simply blasting messages.

In a discussion-based Twitter chat, a moderator is usually providing questions one at a time for the group’s reaction. When you’re tweeting about a live event, however, there won’t likely be pre-planned questions. Because of that, simply observe what other folks are tweeting. You can answer and respond to other people, even if a question hasn’t been posed.

2. When deciding what Twitter app works best, give Tweetchat.com a try.

One benefit of Tweetchat.com is that it automatically adds the hashtag you’re using within your tweets. This offsets the effects of number 5 (below). Tweetdeck (at least the old version of Tweetdeck) generally seems faster than Hootsuite, but the old Tweetdeck isn’t what it used to be! The refresh speed on the Twitter API is vitally important if you want to avoid being minutes behind in the conversation.  No matter what, expect tweets to run slowly during major events, such as the Super Bowl.

3. Don’t use up all your tweeting energy in the first half / quarter / hour / preview show, etc.

If you’re really focused on a live event Twitter chat, you may be shocked at how tiring tweeting a live event can be. Pace yourself and stick around for the full event.

4. A live event Twitter chat is the perfect opportunity to become an MST3K character.

Discover your inner Tom Servo. Strive for being profound, insightful fun, or snarky – maybe all at the same time. If need be, consider using multiple tweets (and Twitter accounts) to be all these things!

5. Alcohol is an important part of an evening Twitter chat.

And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

6. Since so many people are watching the event, it’s more fun if you’re commentweeting.

People aren’t expecting news reporting regarding the event’s activities; they want to hear your ideas. Your commentweeting is what people really want. Deliver it for them.

7. If you’d like to be more outrageous when you tweet, a live TV event is the perfect time to try it.

The more outrageous you are, the more retweets and followers you’ll earn during a live event Twitter chat.

8. Be aware of good spelling, but don’t slow down for perfect spelling.

Share your ideas as fast as you can. People can figure out small spelling mistakes with few challenges.

9. Tweet short.

As with any other tweeting, if you want retweets, don’t fill up your tweets with all 140 characters. Include only the pithiest thing you have to say in 120 characters and give people a chance to make a quick retweet of your compellingly brief comentweeting.

9. If you’re in a sub-chat (i.e. a focused chat within a bigger event), include the hashtag for the bigger event in your best tweets.

Even through your focus might be on your small group of tweeters, you still want to try to get noticed by those tweeting  with the bigger live event Twitter hashtag. Doing so can bring new tweeters to your group and grow your audience.

10. Follow people you’re tweeting with during the event.

Follow people liberally, or consider creating a Twitter list as another way to track the chat. Additionally, it’s fine to carry on side conversations while the event takes place. While the event brings people to the party, meeting new people you’ll enjoy tweeting with in the future is a big part of the event as well.

11. While Twitter chats are silent, they’re tremendously noisy.

Don’t believe me? If you’re concentrating on an live event Twitter chat, try “hearing” people talking around you and processing what they’re saying. It’s nearly impossible. It sounds stupid, but if you experience deafening Twitter chat loudness, you’re not alone.

If you’re a veteran of a previous live event Twitter chat, what suggestions would you add?

Or if you haven’t participated in a live event Twitter chat previously, what questions do you have? I’d be happy to provide whatever answers I can!   - Mike Brown

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Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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It’s fantastic that live event social media coverage of an incredible conference allows you to experience an event live from afar along with the blogs, presentations, and videos recapping the content afterward.

The only downside is you get to start kicking yourself while the event is still underway for not having ponied up the bucks to attend.

That was my sentiment with the New Media Expo (#NMX).

The Sunday afternoon tweets clearly confirmed the great content coming out of the Las Vegas event. By Monday, any remaining doubts were erased that the investment to attend the New Media Expo would have been a great one.

So while I wasn’t at #NMX, here are a sampling of tweets from the event. Again, this wasn’t my original content. These tweets are simply a sampling of great content I monitored and retweeted. Thanks to all the live tweeters for their efforts to share these ideas with the outside world!

This first link is to a Slideshare eBook with highlights from a broad range of #NMX presentations.

New Media Rat Pack – Content & Community Visual eBook from #NMX & @… ow.ly/gDbZj #SocialMedia

— Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 8, 2013

Audience Growth and “Viral” Content

These New Media Expo tweets underscore that it’s a different ballgame for bloggers than for traditional journalists. This point is lost on many traditional media outlets trying to look like social media sites, often with silly results. Social media content creators, however, would do well to consider adopting the ethics professional journalists operate under daily basis. And speaking of “daily,” there is value in writing more – even publishing daily.

RT @socialmediasean: RT @saravodak: “The goal is not to become mainstream media; it’s to be better.” @leolaporte #nmx — Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 8, 2013

MT @501ctechdc: RT @ramonray: If your blog traffic is STUCK – 2 reasons – NOT writing enough & the quality of your content is miserable #nmx

— Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 7, 2013

While I still contend viral content is largely a game of numbers and chance, these tweets provide an underpinning to creating content that will be better received, even if it doesn’t become viral content. The theme of a micro focus inside a macro sentiment provides a basis for both generating and refining ideas that are near this intersection.

5 traits of viral posts: 1 – they live at the intersection of niche and normal. #NMX

— Amy Lupold Bair(@ResourcefulMom) January 7, 2013

RT @resourcefulmom: Getting your post to go viral: focused, small theme, but one that affects hundreds of millions of people. #NMX — Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 7, 2013

MT @resourcefulmom: LOVE this tip: 4. Viral posts ride on back of a detachable rocket. If ur audience is small, can only go so far. #NMX — Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 7, 2013

Social Business

This slide from the “War of Words: Myth-Busting Social Media, SEO & Content Marketing” presentation by Lee Odden is a wonderful illustration of how social content interacts with traditional marketing to address wherever a customer is in the buying cycle. You can find whole presentation from Lee Odden on Slideshare.

Love this slide by @leeodden#CIOs should partner with #CMO to understand power of marketing #nmx twitter.com/TheRedZoneCIO/… — Bill Murphy (@TheRedZoneCIO) January 8, 2013

These additional #NMX tweets point to how adopting a social business perspective not only paves the way for a different way of creating a brand’s customer experience, it also opens up intriguing possibilities for ongoing content ideas.

RT @mrmikelangley: MT @valaafshar: There are more smarter ppl on the outside,than inside ur company. That’s why social matters. #NMX #socbiz

— Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 7, 2013

RT @kevin_lee_qed: MT @samfiorella: Lesson from Ford SocMedia: people engage w/ people, not products. Simple truth. #nmx (lesson 4 brands) — Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 7, 2013

RT @dsillsby: RT @bobbyisaacson: “Most brands are still using social but not being social.” -@susanborst #NMX #BusinessNext — Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 7, 2013

RT @podmedic: RT @valaafshar: Lesson from @danawhite – customer loyalty is based on your response time and execution velocity. #NMX — Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 7, 2013

RT @chrisyates11: RT @laurenmacewen: Build customer service issues into your content creation plan #warofwords #nmx @leeodden — Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 8, 2013

RT @mompreneurmogul: MT @ariannems: Myth: Quality content isn’t sustainable. Solution: Know ur consumers’ journey. Empathize! @leeodden #NMX — Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 8, 2013

RT @laurenmacewen: Creating content is about creating content for an audience to inspire a specific outcome #warofwords#nmx @leeodden — Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 8, 2013

#Custserv also MT @billdowns: Have your sales team BCC answers to customer questions to ur creators = content ideas. @leeodden#nmx — Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 8, 2013

Less costly – there’s ROI! RT @laurenmacewen: Easily discoverable content helps consumers educate themselves #warofwords #nmx @leeodden — Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 8, 2013

RT @josieedmee: MT @leeodden: Guy’s social media mktg model: “Provide great content and earn the right to promote from time to time.” #NMX — Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 7, 2013

Guy Kawasaki on Social Networking, Apple, and Marketing Success

Keynote presenter Guy Kawasaki was filled with tweetable one-liners – no surprise there. Here are several that prompted my retweets. The first one sums up his take on four social networking platforms:

RT @hensel: Facebook is for people. Twitter is for perspective, google plus is for exploring passions, linkedin is for pimping #nmx

— Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 7, 2013

I’ve tried to say what Guy Kawasaki says below in several posts about Steve Jobs and the fascination with doing what Steve Jobs did at Apple. There’s no modeling Steve Jobs because he didn’t have to operate with typical strategies because he was wired differently. In all those time of writing about it, however, I’ve never been able to describe the unique situation with Jobs so clearly:

RT @valaafshar: The odds of having a visionary, smart dictator is small in business – @guykawasaki #NMX

— Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 7, 2013

Always a challenge to force yourself to accept when you want to do a variety of things:

RT @belindaparmar: RT @bryankramer: Most companies who are successful are known for one thing says @guykawasaki #NMX

— Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 7, 2013

Two Final Random Thoughts from the New Media Expo

This is one of those tweets that you sort of agree with, and sort of makes sense, but I would never have said it this way:

RT @sinabuns: RT @tamadear: We don’t just need analysts–we need data storytellers. Data without insight is just data porn. @webby2001 #nmx

— Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 8, 2013

Definitely not the sexiest of the rewteets, but a tremendously beneficial idea, nonetheless. I’d throw in your attention and passion right in there with your time as the most valuable things you have:

RT @jkfleming: RT @ariannems: “Money will come and go, but your time is your most valuable commodity!” @chriscducker #NMX #NMXDucker

— Mike Brown (@Brainzooming) January 7, 2013

I’ve got to find a way to get to #NMX in 2014!

Mike Brown

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the free Brainzooming email updates.

If you’re struggling with determining ROI and evaluating its impacts, download “6 Social Media Metrics You Must Track” today!  This article provides a concise, strategic view of the numbers and stories that matter in shaping, implementing, and evaluating your strategy. You’ll learn lessons about when to address measurement strategy, identifying overlooked ROI opportunities, and creating a 6-metric dashboard. Download Your Free Copy of “6 Social Media Metrics You Must Track!”

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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Top 40 Innovation Bloggers of 2012 Award Results

A big thank you to everyone who made time to vote for Brainzooming as one of the Top 40 Innovation Bloggers of 2012 on Innovation Excellence. The results have been released, and we are on the list at number twelve globally! Given the lesser presence I had on Innovation Excellence in 2012, it was exciting to be on the Top 40 Innovation Bloggers list again. The selection criteria weighting isn’t spelled out in complete detail, so everyone’s support for Brainzooming on the Innovation Excellence website, Twitter, and Facebook had a real impact.

In the spirit of re-establishing a presence on Innovation Excellence with new content this year, here are two recent innovation articles appearing there exclusively:

• 5 Characteristics of the Best Strategic Thinkers
• Collaboration as an Innovative Strategy to Fill a Market Gap
• Insanely Simple – Don’t Think Simplicity Is Easy!

You may find these two innovation articles beneficial, and the entire Innovation Excellence website, with a wide variety of authors, is definitely worth checking out.

5 Questions to Decide What Awards Your Business Seeks

It seems there are so many awards competitions for businesses, if you want to pursue them. Unless a business person is simply big on expending the time and cost to submit award applications – or the follow-on dollars often resulting from winning – it’s valuable to take a strategic perspective when deciding which business awards to pursue.

Consider these 5 strategic questions to decide what awards your business seeks:

1. Is the award name and business category consistent with our brand’s positioning?

2. Does the awarding organization have both name recognition and credibility with our audience?

3. Is the award selective and distinctive (i.e., not every organization who is nominated wins)?

4. Will competing for the award provide discernible marketing or business advantages?

5. Will winning the award provide discernible marketing or business advantages?

Beyond additional opportunity costs on the time and effort to submit an application, these five strategic questions can help decide when an award makes sense for your organization to seek. The more “yes” answers to these strategic questions, the more strategic sense it makes to seek a particular award.

For Brainzooming, being on the Top 40 Innovation Bloggers list makes a lot of strategic sense, as opposed to another award “nomination” we just received. The award name runs counter to how we position The Brainzooming Group, and one tweet about the contest said a single company had submitted 100 other companies as nominees. Those two “no” answers on questions one and three were enough to tell us to save our time on this business award nomination.

The Fun Awards Season – #EXP Twitter Chats

We’re entering the heavy entertainment awards season on TV. Couple that with the February 3^rd Super Bowl, and you have everything necessary for the fun #EXP (short for “Experience”) Twitter chats sponsored by friend and author Jim Joseph. While Jim bills the #EXP Twitter chats as focused on the marketing during these broadcasts, they quickly extend to hilarious and snarky running commentaries (or commentweeting) on the people, places, and miscues of live television. You have to be on Twitter to participate, but if you are, please join us for the upcoming schedule using the hashtag for each of the #EXP Twitter chats:

• Golden Globes – #GGExp –Sunday, January 13
• Super Bowl – #SBExp, Sunday, February 3
• The Grammys – #GrammyExp, Sunday, February 10
• Academy Awards – #OscarExp – Sunday, February 24

Trust me – even if the broadcasts aren’t entertaining, the #EXP Twitter chats will be! - Mike Brown

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the free Brainzooming email updates.

If you’re struggling with determining ROI and evaluating its impacts, download “6 Social Media Metrics You Must Track” today!  This article provides a concise, strategic view of the numbers and stories that matter in shaping, implementing, and evaluating your strategy. You’ll learn lessons about when to address measurement strategy, identifying overlooked ROI opportunities, and creating a 6-metric dashboard. Download Your Free Copy of “6 Social Media Metrics You Must Track!”

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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I attended an excruciatingly long 2 hours of a conference recently; the conference had all the potential for creating event magic, but it failed to deliver.

The conference experience, however, made me recall the Big Ideas in Higher Education conference hosted at Rutgers University earlier this year. That conference was all about creating event magic. Big Ideas set out to create a different type of educational conference, and it succeeded wildly through the venue, production, and content. The kudos for that success go to the two primary forces behind the Big Ideas in Higher Education conference: Tony Doody, Director of Programs and Leadership at Rutgers University and Courtney O’Connell, Assistant Director – Leadership Training.

Creating Event Magic at the Best Event I Attended this Year

My recent conference experience strongly suggests at least one event production team (and likely many more out there) don’t understand the types of strategies Courtney and Tony brought together to create event magic.

As a result, it’s worth revisiting seven lessons in creating a disruptive, magical conference experience courtesy of the whole Big Ideas in Higher Education conference production team:

1. Disruption doesn’t happen close to home, so go on your search

Rather than simply produce another higher education conference, the Big Idea team looked to other types of conferences outside education for disruptive ideas. Big Ideas wasn’t going to feature an endless string of higher education professionals presenting, even though that is what a higher education conference is expected to be. The conference format was assembled from inspiration outside higher education, including the idea of having varied presenters addressing non-higher education themes still applicable and valuable to educators.

2. If you can’t get someone to let you join them, then borrow, modify, and go

The Big Ideas in Higher Education team approached TED about creating a TEDHigherEd event, but was told TED owns all subject-focused events. Not wanting to be TEDxRutgers since that would be too narrow, they borrowed elements of TED-style presentations (20-minute presentations, no podium, varied topics) and adapted (having a host conduct interviews and Q&A, Jimmy Fallon-style games at the end of certain presentations, less pretense than TED) to fill the first day of Big Ideas. Because Big Ideas wasn’t part of TED, it likely provided much more freedom to customize the event to the audience needs.

3. Get your cool factor right so people want to join

Early on, the Big Ideas website clearly conveyed it would be radically different than any other higher education conference and dramatically more exciting than most other conferences across industries. Since the Big Ideas website contained a manifesto and used buzz-worthy images and language to create a cool brand impact, it was easier to bring additional speakers on board who wanted to be part of the event.

4. There are many assets and resources with value other than money

Tony shared a budget number with me that was incredibly low. Having created many expensive looking events on less than shoestring budgets, I was in awe of how the Big Ideas team did it. They took advantage of in-kind arrangements, trade-outs, relationships, and already-available assets to create an event that COULD have cost at least an order of magnitude more than it did.

5. An event’s physical setting has to support the brand experience promise

Rather than a standard meeting room, Big Ideas used an “arena” concept. The organizers first experienced the look when a Rutgers meeting room in the Livingston Student Center served as a TV studio for Anderson Cooper 360. Pipe and drape were used to shorten the room and create a black box atmosphere unlike any conference I’d ever attended. Seats on risers put the audience into the action of the presenters, with no opportunity to sit back and not engage.

6. Showcase emotional impacts throughout the event

At various times, Big Ideas was funny, heartfelt, dramatic, surprising, and sincere. And that was just my starting list of emotions thinking back on the content. Rather than fight or wrongly use the emotion of the event, Big Ideas applied a nearly perfect mix of presentations, interviews, and brevity (with a willingness for longer segments if appropriate) in its format to create a strong emotional line through the whole conference – without one panel discussion (at least that I saw).

7. Let your talented people shine

There were many people involved in making Big Ideas happen, but although Courtney O’Connell and Tony Doody were leaders, they were in the background for nearly the entire event. Instead of being front and center to grab the spotlight, they put a whole range of talented team members and presenters front and center. That’s what a true leader does, trust me.

This is just a starter for Big Ideas lessons

I love events because incredibly produced events intertwine strong strategy and rigorous execution from start to finish. Having produced events, I know these seven lessons don’t even begin to cover all the lessons from Big Ideas. But if you’re on the hook to deliver a great event, if you follow just these seven, your event has at least a fighting chance at being magical, too.

And if you’re still struggling with developing a unique conference experience, call us to put together your event strategy and creative platform. We’d love to help you create event magic; it’s a big part of what we do for clients all the time. - Mike Brown

Subscribe for Free to the Brainzooming blog email updates.

Download the free ebook, “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” to help you generate fantastic new ideas! For an organizational creativity boost, contact The Brainzooming Group to help your team be more successful by rapidly expanding strategic options and creating innovative plans to efficiently implement. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can deliver these innovation benefits for you.

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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Author Jim Collins checking out my orange shoes.

I was first introduced to the idea of an organization having a core purpose statement when our CMO pushed for developing a core purpose as discussed in a Harvard Business Review article by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras.

Core Purpose Statements in Organizations

A core purpose statement for an organization is essentially its reason for existence. But rather than simply stating what the organization produces or sells, its core purpose statement should be relatively long-term articulation of why the organization warrants a place in the market along with what drives it toward success. It’s neither a brand promise nor a slogan (which are shorter term), but congruence between all three statements is important.

A couple of examples of core purpose statements we used at the time were:

• 3M – To solve unsolved problems innovatively.
• Walmart - To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same things as rich people.

Ultimately, the core purpose we developed as a transportation services company was: To make global commerce work by connecting people, places, & information.

Each of these has a similar format:

• To (VERB)
• WHAT? Or WHO?
• HOW? WHAT? Or WHY?

What was particularly intriguing for me was the Walmart core purpose is about “giving,” and ours was about “making,” even though Walmart doesn’t give things away, and we didn’t make anything as a service company. This discontinuity between what a company does and its reason for being indicates a certain positive internal tension to drive an organization forward to a bigger goal and success.

How does a core purpose statement translate for an individual as part of personal branding?

As an outgrowth of the work we did, and as I started to speak to groups on personal branding, I developed a personal core purpose statement. For an individual, it is the driving force in your life to which all your activities are tied.

When developing my personal statement, I was in a period of spiritual reawakening. As a result, the original version of my core purpose statement, which was tied to a sense of financial freedom, transformed completely into one that defined success as serving others on a daily basis.

My own core purpose statement has been a tremendously important force in helping me abandon trying to balance my life’s activities. Instead, I focus on the success of aligning my priorities, decisions, and activities to my core purpose. That’s provided an incredible amount of peace of mind over the years.

Questions to Develop a Personal Core Purpose Statement

What gets you up every morning?

You can ask and answer these questions to start formulating ideas for your core purpose:

• What things motivate me to get up & get out of bed every morning?
• In what ways am I of the greatest service to others?
• What brings me happiness & contentment?
• What things do I find most fulfilling?
• On what would I spend my time, talents, & attention if I didn’t have to work?
• At the end of my life, what things will make me smile when I look back?

Use the format shared above to structure the common themes emerging from your answers into a personal core purpose statement. And whether you share your personal core purpose with others is a decision you’ll have to make. Quite frankly, I’ve only shared the exact wording of mine with a couple of people. Instead, my hope is that people see the impact of it in my behaviors and the way I lead my life.

What do you think about a core purpose statement leading to success in a career?

Is this a new concept for you, or have you already developed a statement? If you already have one in place, how does it help shape your life? - Mike Brown

Subscribe for Free to the Brainzooming blog email updates.

Download the free ebook, “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” to help you generate fantastic new ideas! For an organizational creativity boost, contact The Brainzooming Group to help your team be more successful by rapidly expanding strategic options and creating innovative plans to efficiently implement. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can deliver these innovation benefits for you.

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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