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Why We Need To Be Unpredictable (Lessons From Old Spice)
Princess Leia grips the center console tightly as the Millenium Falcon banks hard and enters the Asteroid Field. “You’re not actually going into an Asteroid Field!” she barks. Han doesn’t even look up as he switches the ship into manual guidance – “They’d be crazy to follow us wouldn’t they?”
The Millenium Falcon engines roar as it swerves, narrowly missing another large space rock. Back in the cockpit, C3PO leans in, gasps and says “sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field are approximately 3,720 to one.” Han tightens and quips:
“Never tell me the odds”
It’s Time To Get Unpredictable
We spend a lot of time as marketers being predictable. Do a search on Google for “brand consistency” and you’ll get 305,000 results of headlines like:
- The Power of Brand Consistency
- Brand: Consistency Consistency Consistency
- Ensure your Brand Consistency
So, yeah, we get it – brand and messaging consistency. Okay, check – I got it. That’s why we hired that agency and got the Content Management System yeah? Right.
And, then we jump into advertising and demand generation – and we’re forced down a consistent road. Let’s find out what works – and tune that PPC engine. It’s humming now. Right? Okay, let’s fine tune it. Not too much now. Not too creative… Just enough to get that conversion rate up a little bit. A/B Test the banner ads, the landing pages. Okay – it’s working. Consistent results. Don’t break it.
Now, let’s make sure we’re also speaking with one voice in our Social Media strategy. We’re all saying the same thing, right? One voice. Got it.
Same thing with print, our event strategy – massage it. It’s working. Aaaaaaaand scene. It’s finished, complete.
The leads are coming in, the conversion rate is consistent and even the sales people are respecting the negative space in the Powerpoint template. Life is good. The IT guys tease you about being the Brand Nazi – and you wear the badge proudly. Your process is air tight. The engine is humming. The Marketing Force is strong with you.
But Then There’s A Disturbance
Something strange happens. Something weird happens. The competition comes out with something new . It starts off innocuous enough – just another TV campaign. It’s a guy on a horse. Cute, and funny – but you’ve seen it before. But suddenly it morphs, and now it’s online. It’s fresh. It’s viral. They start making YouTube videos actually talking to specific people!! Everybody is suddenly covering your competition’s marketing.
Imagine for a moment that you’re not on the marketing team at Old Spice. You’re the marketing team at the competition. Old Spice just flew into an Asteroid belt – and exploded out the other side with one of the most creative, attention-getting viral campaigns ever explored. And, they’ve got the sales to boot. Dare we follow them? What do we do now?
Oh boy.
Go Home Or Go Rogue?
Of course you can’t just throw your finely tuned marketing engine out – or you’ll lose. But we’ve got to try rogue things. That’s where the breakthroughs come from. So, how do we know when to improvise? How can we make a good decision about when it’s time to go rogue? How do we know when to fly into that asteroid belt?
Well, it starts (ironically) with stopping for a moment, and assembling your team together. You’ve got to make the decision – and here are a few questions that can get you started:
1. What do we do better than anyone? How can we use this to go off of our current strategy?
In other words, every marketing team has their strengths and weaknesses – and how can we use our strengths to do something surprising. At a former company I worked for, we were really really adept at producing content. We had four or five really good writers on our team – and we were great at producing thought pieces. We took a piece of budget and created off-the wall breakthrough education pieces that got attention. What strengths do you, or your team, have that, if exploited, might be counter to the current strategy.
2. What is the absolute last thing our competition expects from us? If we could produce anything we wanted, what could we produce that would completely shake their world?
At one client I worked for – we considered doing a user conference for the competition’s users. That’s right, we would announce a user’s conference for the competitive product, and then use that event to “help them” with the product. What are some unpredictable things you can do?
3. What does the best of our finely tuned engine get us? What about the worst? Is that really good enough?
Most of the time, our incremental increases in Web traffic, downloads, leads generated, sales closed etc… are good enough to make sure we don’t fail. But they almost always assume no outside influence – and they rarely assume an exponential success. What can we experiment with that will really shake the tree?
And, finally, after you come up with a bunch of creative ideas – ask yourself this question – other than “it’s not in the budget” – what are the reasons for not moving forward with this idea?”
Sometimes Ignorance Is A Competitive Advantage
Whether he’s bluffing or not, Han doesn’t want to know the odds of survival. There is a wonderful new post on the Harvard Business Review blog from Anthony Tjan. In it, Anthony speaks to the power of ignorance for both creating and executing on innovative ideas. Specifically on execution he says:
“Rallying people behind the idea requires a resolute belief in one’s vision. This conviction is obviously easier when you don’t know the thousands of ways an idea could crash and burn. You don’t lose sleep over something of which you are unaware. Ignorance promotes a fearless conviction that inspires and motivates the team members who are driving execution. Entrepreneurs know that they go into situations with the statistical odds stacked against them, but rationality is overwhelmed by conviction in the possibility of succeeding. Conviction is highly infectious, and people who catch it can and will execute with a greater intensity and sense of purpose in their roles.”
Man, sign me up! That really describes a company, and a marketing organization that I want to work for.
See, consistency and creating a finely honed and efficient marketing engine ensures we don’t fail. Going rogue – into the asteroid belt and coming out the other side – now that’s what exponential success looks like.
May the force be with you….
P.S.> Here’s the YouTube Clip of that wonderful scene from The Empire Strikes Back
