When Sexy is Just Not Enough: Lessons for Marketers

There is a saying in digital marketing circles that it is tough to get executives to buy into big shifts of funds into digital because there are no big sexy ad campaigns they can show off. Well, I think we have gotten past that in the digital world because the creative ideas have gotten very sexy.
I recently watched the Association of National Advertisers' (ANA's) Digital and Social Conference, and I saw a ton of brilliant creative, ranging from the "Rose" basketball shoe launch video series by Adidas to the way Taco Bell mobilizes its 7 million faithful fans through social media posts. These creative concepts may not be broadcast to millions in one wave of TV ads, but any executive would be proud to share them on stage and tout the impact they were measured to have.

Though, is how much of the presentations showed off the sexy ideas and made claims about their amazing ROI, but did not talk as much about HOW they made it happen. Yet, there is a massive hunger among marketers, including those in the audience, for not just cool ideas they can learn from, but also for finding out the mechanics that make sexy happen.
Most of the questions to the speakers after their presentations were about HOW, such as:

• How did you do the research that led to those insights?
• How engaged were your executives in such a change in directions?
• How big a team do you have to manage all of this?
• What were the roles of your agencies and how did you get them to work together?
• What tools did you use to optimize the media in flight?
• How did you prewire the execution so it could be measurable?
• What costs do you include in your ROI figures?

What is clear is that the complexity of executing these cross-channel, high impact campaigns is so much higher than what marketers dealt with in traditional media. The operations side matters, and even though it is so much more mundane than showing the sexy stuff, it is as important to learn from as the creative concepts are.

Marketing leaders spend much more time sharing the sexy creative stuff, and less time challenging their organizations on how they need to operate differently. How to take a new approach to the next product launch. How to pull all of the agencies together upfront with a robust brief at the start of a campaign. How to track and act on the results of campaigns in flight. How to create a pool of investment purely for innovative testing. How to rethink the way to measure ROI to include brand investment, social amplification, and owned media.
It may not make sexy fodder for stage presentations, but we can certainly bring it into online discussions. What major moves have you made to change your marketing operations?

World's 20 Most Earthquake Prone Cities...... Kathmandu at Number 1.....

There are several major city hotspots for earthquakes. Targeted quake prone cities with poor infrastructure suffer the most devastation and loss of life.

MEXICO CITY EARTHQUAKE 1985

2010 Haiti Quake Caused More Than 220,000 Deaths

Some areas of the world, many of them isolated, register small tremors on an almost daily basis. Other regions get small to medium size earthquakes on a regular basis. Most closely monitored are areas where earthquakes could cripple cities, shipping and oil production, or paralyze governments.




The Most Vulnerable Cities

Cities in poor countries are most vulnerable because they often contain widespread sub-standard housing and a weak infrastructure. As people in poor countries continue to stream into shanty town areas of already densely populated cities, the potential for loss of life increases exponentially.

In 1897, a magnitude 8.3 earthquake hit Shillong in northern India. It now has 8 times as much population as then, but it is estimated that now an earthquake of the same size would cause 60 times as many deaths. Why? The replacement of single-story bamboo homes with poorly constructed multistory concrete structures, many on steep slopes, makes the population more vulnerable. (Example from a 2004 paper by Brian E. Tucker of GeoHazards.)

In more developed nations, building code improvements in earthquake prone regions have factored in preventive measures. Disaster preparedness is also better organized.

The Top 20 Ranked Cities for Number of Fatalities

The lethal potential of seismic disasters in Asia and the Americas has been ranked by nonprofit research group GeoHazards International. Variables taken into account were building frailty, fire and landslide potential, and the rescue and medical care abilities of local authorities. The results are based upon a 6.0 level quake.



Ranked in order of how badly they would fare were:

• Kathmandu, Nepal, population 1 million and growing; possible 69,000 deaths
• Istanbul, Turkey, population 10 million; possible 55,000 deaths
• Delhi, India, population 14 million; possible 38,000 deaths
• Quito, Ecuador, population 1.8 million; possible deaths 15.000; volcanoes are an even bigger threat here
• Manila, Philippines, 1.6 million population; possible 13,000 deaths
• Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Pakistan, population 1 million; possible 12,500 deaths
• San Salvador, El Savador, population, 2.2 million; 11,500 possible deaths
• Mexico City, Mexico, 2.2 million people; possible 11,500 fatalities
• Izmir, Turkey, 3.5 million people; possible 11,500 fatalities
• Jakarta, Indonesia, 18.4 million (and expected to hit 24 million by 2025); an estimated 11,000 fatalities

Due to continued growth, all of the above Third World countries could expect fatalities in the tens of thousands from a 7.0 or higher earthquake. The most modern cities at risk, all in Japan, were Tokyo, Nagoya and Kobe. Their fatalities were estimated in the hundreds.
The next layer of cities which can expect high fatalities of earthquake victims (ranking 11-20) are: Tokyo, Japan (most vulnerable First World metropolis on the list); Mumbai, India; Guayaquil, Ecuador; Bandung, Indonesia; Santiago, Chile; Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Tijuana, Mexico; Nagoya, Japan; Antofagasta, Chile, and Kobe, Japan.

Ecomonic Impact of Earthquakes

The economic impact of earthquakes also varies markedly between Third World economies and those of more developed nations, Brian Tucker reports. The economic cost of the Northridge, CA, earthquake was about 1% of the regional gross domestic product and the cost of the 1989 Loma Prieta quake was even less. By contrast, the cost of the 1972 Nicaragua earthquake was close to 40% of the country’s entire GDP and cost of the 1986 El Savador quake was 30% of its GDP.









Sources: GeoHazards International; Luck, Tiffany M., “World’s most earthquake-vulnerable cities,” Forbes Magazine’s Financial Post, May 23, 2008

Three Differences Between Managers and Leaders

A young manager accosted me the other day. "I've been reading all about leadership, have implemented several ideas, and think I'm doing a good job at leading my team. How will I know when I've crossed over from being a manager to a leader?" he wanted to know.
I didn't have a ready answer and it's a complicated issue, so we decided to talk the next day. I thought long and hard, and came up with three tests that will help you decide if you've made the shift from managing people to leading them.

Counting value vs Creating value.
You're probably counting value, not adding it, if you're managing people. Only managers count value; some even reduce value by disabling those who add value. If a diamond cutter is asked to report every 15 minutes how many stones he has cut, by distracting him, his boss is subtracting value.
By contrast, leaders focuses on creating value, saying: "I'd like you to handle A while I deal with B." He or she generates value over and above that which the team creates, and is as much a value-creator as his or her followers are. Leading by example and leading by enabling people are the hallmarks of action-based leadership.

Circles of influence vs Circles of power.
Just as managers have subordinates and leaders have followers, managers create circles of power while leaders create circles of influence.
The quickest way to figure out which of the two you're doing is to count the number of people outside your reporting hierarchy who come to you for advice. The more that do, the more likely it is that you are perceived to be a leader.

Leading people vs Managing work.
Management consists of controlling a group or a set of entities to accomplish a goal. Leadership refers to an individual's ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward organizational success. Influence and inspiration separate leaders from managers, not power and control.

In India, M.K. Gandhi inspired millions of people to fight for their rights, and he walked shoulder to shoulder with them so India could achieve independence in 1947. His vision became everyone's dream and ensured that the country's push for independence was unstoppable. The world needs leaders like him who can think beyond problems, have a vision, and inspire people to convert challenges into opportunities, a step at a time.
I encouraged my colleague to put this theory to the test by inviting his team-mates for chats. When they stop discussing the tasks at hand — and talk about vision, purpose, and aspirations instead, that's when you will know you have become a leader.


Agree?

Motivational Focus Drives Performance

 

Every person is motivated differently. Great managers know this and adjust their leadership style based on motivations. In her book Focus, As per my view I identify two types of motivational focus that drive behaviors.

• Promotion-focused:- People motivated by promotion want to advance and avoid missed opportunities. They see goals as a path for advancement. They are eager, comfortable taking chances, work quickly, dream big, think creatively, and play to win. Unfortunately, they can be prone to error, may not think things through, and can be unprepared if things go wrong.
• Prevention-focused:- These individuals see goals as responsibilities and concentrate on staying safe. They worry what might go wrong and play to not lose. They work slowly and meticulously, aren't the most creative, but often have excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.

By understanding your focus and that of others, leaders have the power to better motivate themselves and everyone around them.

Build a Career Worth Having

1. See your career as a series of stepping stones, not a linear trajectory.
There's an implicit view that careers are still linear. Sure, many people accept that the career ladder is broken, but most still attempt to somehow increase the "slope" of their career trajectory.
They wait until they are unhappy, look around for opportunities that seem better than their current job, apply for a few, cross their fingers, and take the best option that they can get. Then, they toil away until they are unhappy again, and the cycle repeats. Though this approach can increase your salary over time, studies show that, once you make more than $75,000, more money doesn't correlate to happiness or emotional wellbeing.
Most people end up with a career path of somewhat arbitrary events that, at best, is a gradually improving wandering path, and, at worst, is just a series of unfulfilling jobs
The solution to this dismal cycle? Let go of the idea that careers are linear. These days, they are much more like a field of stepping stones that extends in all directions. Each stone is a job or project that is available to you, and you can move in any direction that you like. The trick is simply to move to stones that take you closer and closer to what is meaningful to you. There is no single path — but rather, an infinite number of options that will lead to the sweet spot of fulfillment.


2. Seek legacy, mastery, and freedom — in that order.
Research from authors such as Daniel Pink (Drive), Cal Newport (So Good They Can't Ignore You), Ben Casnocha and Reid Hoffman (Startup of You), and Tony Hsieh (Delivering Happiness) shows that there are three primary attributes of fulfilling work:

• Legacy. A higher purpose, a mission, a cause. This means knowing that in some way — large or small — the world will be a better place after you've done your work.


• Mastery. This refers to the art of getting better and better at skills and talents that you enjoy using, to the extent that they become intertwined with your identity. Picture a Jedi, or a Samurai, or a master blacksmith.


• Freedom. The ability to choose who you work with, what projects you work on, where and when you work each day, and getting paid enough to responsibly support the lifestyle that you want.

The order is important. People are fulfilled most quickly when they first prioritize the impact that they want to have (legacy), then understand which skills and talents they need to have that impact (mastery), and finally "exchange" those skills for higher pay and flexibility (freedom) as they develop and advance.
People don't typically have just one purpose. The things you're passionate about — women's health, early childhood education, organic food, or renewable energy — are likely to evolve over time. And it's important to develop a high degree of freedom so that you're able to hunt down your purpose again when it floats onto the next thing. This means being able to do things like volunteer on the side, go months at a time without getting a paycheck, or invest in unusual professional development opportunities.


3. Treat your career like a grand experiment.
In my experience, people who are successful in finding — and maintaining — meaningful work approach their careers like a grand experiment.
All of the things you think you know about what you want to be doing, what you're good at, what people want to hire you to do (and at what salary), how different organizations operate, etc. are hypotheses that can be validated or invalidated with evidence — either from the first-hand experience of trying something (including bite-sized projects), or second-hand from asking the right questions of the right people.
The faster and cheaper that you're able to validate your career hypotheses, the sooner you'll find fulfillment. You don't have to take a job in a new industry to realize it's not for you. You can learn a ton about potential lines of work from reading online, having conversations, taking on side projects, and volunteering.
And a bonus — by doing your homework on what's actually a good fit for you, you won't waste your time applying to jobs that you aren't competitive for. And like any good scientist, you'll achieve a healthy detachment from your incorrect hypotheses — they are just par for the course, after all.
I use the word "grand" to describe this experiment because the reality is that your career is not just a way to earn a living. It's your chance to discover what you're here for and what you love. It's your best shot at improving the world in a way that is important to you. It's a sizeable component of your human experience, in a very real way. As such, it should be an adventure, with a healthy bit of magic and mystery along the way.
So if you're one of the many who find themselves on the path to meaningful work — remember to enjoy the journey, don't give up, and don't settle.

All the happiness you ever find lies within you.

Happiness is a choice.  

For every minute you are angry or irritated, you lose 60 seconds of happiness.  Be happy.  Be yourself.  If others don’t like it, then let them be.  Life isn’t about pleasing everybody.
If you have the courage to admit when you’re scared, the ability to laugh even as you cry, the nerve to speak up, even if your voice is shaking, the confidence to ask for help when you need it, and the wisdom to take it when it’s offered, then you have everything you need to get yourself to a happier state of mind.
Begin today by taking responsibility for your own contentment.  Here are ten ways to choose happiness:

1. Choose to be the best YOU can be. – Give it your all in everything you do, commit to your goals, and don’t compare yourself to anyone else.  John Wooden once said, “Success and happiness is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”  Never try to be better than anyone else, but never stop trying to be the best you can be.  If you feel called to compare yourself to someone, compare yourself to an earlier version of yourself.
2. Choose to be around the right people. – Spend time with nice people who are smart, driven and likeminded.  Relationships should help you, not hurt you.  Surround yourself with people who reflect the person you want to be.  Choose friends who you are proud to know, people you admire, who love and respect you – people who make your day a little brighter simply by being in it.  Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you.  When you free yourself from negative people, you free yourself to be YOU – and being YOU is the only way to truly live. .
3. Choose to focus on what you have, not on what you haven’t. – When you appreciate what you have, what you have appreciates in value.  Being grateful for the goodness that is already evident in your life will bring you a deeper sense of happiness.  And that’s without having to go out and buy or acquire anything new.  It makes sense.  You will have a hard time ever being happy if you aren’t thankful for what you already have.
4. Choose a good attitude. – What often screws us up the most in life is the picture in our head of how it’s supposed to be.  And the reason so many of us give up is because we tend to look at how far we still have to go, instead of how far we have come.  Remember, life is a journey, not a destination.  This moment, like every moment, is a priceless gift and an opportunity.  Be positive, smile, and make it count.  Pretend today is going to be great.  Do so, and it will be.  Research shows that although we think that we act because of the way we feel, in fact, we often feel because of the way we act.  A great attitude always leads to great experiences.
5. Choose to smile more often. – A smile is a choice, not a miracle.  Don’t wait for people to smile.  Show them how.  A genuine smile makes you and everyone around you feel better.  The simple act of smiling sends a message to your brain that you’re happy.  And when you’re happy, your body pumps out all kinds of feel-good endorphins.  This reaction has been studied since the 1980’s and has been proven a number of times.  Bottom line:  Smiling actually makes you happier.
6. Choose to take care of your body. – Taking care of your body is crucial to being the happiest person you can be.  If you don’t have your physical energy in good shape, then your mental energy (your focus), your emotional energy (your feelings), and your spiritual energy (your purpose) will all be negatively affected.  Recent studies conducted on people who were clinically depressed showed that consistent exercise significantly raises happiness levels in the near-term.  Not only that, six months later, the people who had continued to exercise were less likely to relapse into depression because they had a higher sense of self-accomplishment and self-worth.
7. Choose honesty. – Start being honest with yourself and everyone else.  Don’t cheat.  Be faithful.  Be kind.  Do the right thing!  It is a less complicated way to live.  Integrity is the essence of everything successful.  When you break the rules of integrity you invite serious complications into your life.  Keep life simple and enjoyable by doing what you know in your heart is right.  Don’t get involved with drama that doesn’t affect you.
8. Choose to help others when you’re able. – Care about people.  In life, you get what you put in.  When you make a positive impact in someone else’s life, you also make a positive impact in your own life.  Do something that’s greater than you – something that helps someone else to be happy or to suffer less.
9. Choose to let go when you know you should. – Sometimes you have to be strong for yourself.  Love is worth fighting for, but you can’t be the only one fighting.  People need to fight for you too.  If they don’t, you eventually have to move on and realize that what you gave them was more than they were willing to give you.  Some relationships and situations just can’t be fixed.  If you try to force them back together, things will only get worse.  Holding on is being brave, but letting go and moving on is often what makes us stronger and happier.
10. Choose to embrace the next step in your life. – You can hold on to the past, or you can create your own happiness today.  Never let success get to your head and never let failure get to your heart.  Every day is a new beginning and a new ending.  Embrace it, make the best of it, smile, and keep looking straight ahead.  And don’t forget, a smile doesn’t always mean a person is happy right now; sometimes it simply means they are strong enough to face their problems going forward.
    

And remember, your mind is your private sanctuary; do not allow the negative beliefs of others to occupy it.  Your skin is your barrier; do not allow others to get under it.  Take control of your boundaries and what you allow yourself to absorb from others.

Never let someone’s opinion become your reality.  Never sacrifice who you are because someone else has a problem with it.  Love who you are inside and out.  No one else has the power to make you feel small unless you give them that power.  You are the only one who can create your happiness.


The choice is yours.  Choose happiness.

THE PROMISE

Promise Yourself

To be so strong that nothing
can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity
to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel
that there is something in them
To look at the sunny side of everything
and make your optimism come true.

To think only the best, to work only for the best,
and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past
and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,
and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world,
not in loud words but great deeds.
To live in faith that the whole world is on your side
so long as you are true to the best that is in you.