Conversion Crazed

CommerceBank: It's a Party!

Last weekend I was in New York City. Sunday I was hanging around mid-town and stumbled across the 5 Boro Bike Tour going up 6th avenue. First off seeing 30,000 people riding bikes through the city is always cool, but pedestrians beware :).

I was walking to the corner of 6th and 55th and started noticing something right away. New York isn't quiet and wall to wall people aren't quiet, but right away what filled the entire areas was the sound of the CommerceBank Cheer Squad. We are talking 12-15 people and a steel-drum/carribean sounding rock band.

They were absolutely incredible, the tour hadn't even started and they were cheering, screaming, laughing. The band was blaring Hot, Hot, Hot by Buster Poindexter and other reggae dance songs. The most incredible thing was it was only 10-15 employees. Now I don't know if or what they were paid to be there but it looked like they were having a great time. More importantly everyone in the area was having a great time with them probably 1000-2000 bikers laughing and cheering with them, and I found myself hanging around the area smiling and being a part of the "good vibe".

It's becoming incredibly hard to have your brand break through the noise these days and I'm always fascinated to see the result when a company tries to make splash. So, I was sitting back enjoying this and thinking to myself: 1) how cool is it that CommerceBank and their employees really got into the event like this (beyond just being the title sponsor) but 2) how much mileage are they going to get for this. And just as I was thinking that a group of bikers were walking their bikes behind me laughing and one of them said "Oh man, I've got to open an account with those guys, they like to party!"...

Well done CommerceBank... well done.

PS: normally I would have tried to talk to one of the employees but attempting to wade through the intersection to get to the other side wasn't even an option :)

What a Long Strange Trip it's Been

Time flies when you’re having fun, and William Shatner always looks like he’s having fun. Did you know that he has now been the priceline.com spokesperson for nearly 10 years. It really has been that long.

Thinking about the last 10 years and I have to wonder if what attracted priceline to Shatner in the first place is hurting them now. He really is his own brand… recently his revived “music” career and his larger than life characters on shows like Boston Legal have created a powerful recognizable force. Most of priceline’s ads pander to Shatner's brand and the question is: where is priceline in all of this? Does priceline take such a back seat to Shatner that they are overshadowed?

Consider the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f1CgJXkcUQ 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s_5dg3FNXA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9NnSuLtFbQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wDM_g0aHN4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT1heZBxsFY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBNL9xx3Ie0 

Are you being short sighted in how you deliver your brand value?

One thing that I lament in business more than anything else is that more often than not those most responsible for determining long term strategy and leadership lack an often overlooked quality... the ability to understand causality. The ability to understand causality is a quality rarely talked about in terms of leadership but it is often hidden behind the larger notion that an individual is strategically minded, but I think there is more to it than that. There is a larger ability to understand the domino effect that a change might have, either positive or negative. Its a huge problem when businesses don't think this way.

It took me a long time to recognize the problem but now it screams to me every time I see examples of it. It is not manifest in a lack of planning or cleverness of ideas its shows itself in the short and long term repercussions (both positive and negative) that that action takes. Branding or image campaigns owe their effectiveness to causality but I often wonder how many advertising execs think about it in those terms. More than a simple response/counter response action.

This often takes the case in the simplest of messages. You have to ask yourself: do you think about how small gains could have a potential negative effect on the bigger picture? One of my favorite examples of this has to be the soda machine in the second floor of the building in which we lease an office. I'm not a soda fan but this catches my eye every time I walk by and makes me laugh. In order to save money on electricity the building has put the power in the kitchen on a motion detector, that includes the soda machine.

proof I'm not kidding:

Are you getting the problem yet? What is the brand message? it's not Coke or Pepsi its COLD DRINKS. Here's the irony: if the power is off, the refrigeration is not working, if the refrigeration is not working your get... WARM DRINKS. Were I as an unsuspecting consumer walking by suddenly tempted by the draw of a tasty cold beverage I would plop in my $.50, get the soda of my choice, raise it to my lips, and get the surprise of warm soda. Instantly all credibility is gone I will never trust the cold drinks machine on floor 2 ever again. When your whole brand value is cold drinks and you deliver warm drinks to save a few dollars a month in operational expense you are not thinking big picture.

Think about your business and its brand message; think, is there a policy, campaign, sacred cow, an employee, or other obstacle that gets in the way of your delivering your brand value? How will you resolve it and how will you do it in a way that has a long term positive effect. Food, or should I say WARM DRINKS, for thought.