I Have an Idea… Get Out of the Weeds

“The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything close-up.” – Chuck Palahniuk

Face it. You’re in the weeds. Stop stressing over your next social media post or half-time show. Why? Because while you’re worrying about the next five weeks, the competition that you should be worried about, is planning for the next five years.

What’s the difference? While you’re building an activation plan, your competition is building a brand plan. Brands win championships. Championships are not achieved by booking that lady who can ride a unicycle while simultaneously balancing bowls on her head. Although…she’s awesome. Definitely book her for something. So many bowls.

Don’t be the person that brings up tomorrow in a brand strategy meeting. That person’s head is in the wrong place. That person is doing you no favors. And that person is pulling you down…into the weeds.

That might sound harsh, but that’s because it is. We’re here to win, and winning starts with recruiting the best athletes to your University. Maybe it’s just me, but I have never heard a blue-chip high school athlete commit to a school solely because of a half-time show or single social media post. It just doesn’t happen.

Now I’m not saying those things aren’t important. They are. But only AFTER you’ve built a viable brand positioning plan. Once you know where you want to go, you can plan your route.  Until then, you’re just guessing. Once you have a positioning statement that everyone internally has bought off on, then, and only then, are you ready to dedicate your time and resources to activating. It’s at this point that those minute details become crucial elements in your overall brand communication plan. It’s then that your Twitter post derives from a consistent story and purpose. It’s then that your half-time show shifts from entertainment for the sake of entertainment, to storytelling and brand indoctrination.

In the short term, some things are going to suffer. There’s no doubt about that. But, a little pain now, can lead to years of success tomorrow.

“I Have An Idea…” is a series written for College AD by the author of Brands Win Championships, Jeremy Darlow.