What Marketers Can Learn from G.I. Joe
Just saw G.I. Joe. I knew it would be all spectacle and no substance, so I got what I wanted out of it. If you go in knowing what you want, what you get will live up to your expectations. But watching all those big explosions, ridiculous CGI graphics and mind blowing stunts it got me thinking about marketing and in particular, getting the word out about our company/product/service. Too often we start our sentences with "If only..." If only the budget was a few thousand dollars larger. If only we had a few more weeks to prepare. If only we could afford this. If only we could get this person to talk about us. The "if only's" go on and on. There are endless "if only's" that we use as excuses when we can't get people talking about us in the way we want.
Yet for all the if only-ing, the best successes, most memorable companies/products/services are rarely those with the biggest budgets and endless supply of resources and money. G.I. Joe reminded me of that. A movie that costs $200 million to make (close enough to an unconstrained budget in the real world) is not the best movie ever made. It's got a better shot at being considered for the worst movie ever than the best. And for all the money spent it can't earn your attention. It can buy it for a minute, but it can't automatically make G.I. Joe important and relevant to you. It can't make itself an ongoing part of the conversation. And it can't say "if only."
For me it proved that without any "if only's" your job is infinitely more difficult. Because without any "if only's" it's too easy to become unfocused. You get in a "bigger is better" binge where the things that really matter get lost in favor of the flashy objects that don't add value to what you're really trying to accomplish. Priorities can be lost. Creativity sapped.
A constraint is not a negative. A constraint should be looked at as a positive and an opportunity to get creative. To do something remarkable that will get people to ask "how'd they do that?" No one asks that with a $200 million budget. Constraints need to be embraced. Marketers need to stop thinking in terms of what they don't have and think in terms of what they can do to maximize the resources they have available to create something truly worth remarking on.
Yo Joe.
