Effective Naturally

Have you ever seen an event advertised where they say "and now smaller and worse than last year!" or hear a product advertised where they say "Now smaller and we're helping to take the world backwards"? Obviously not, it would crush excitement in whatever it was they were promoting.

Just as bad as going backwards is going around in circles and that's why an aspirational vision is so important to give you clear momentum forward. Across the globe any living breathing thing wants a vision for the future and that's why a clear Vision is critical.

In January we'll help you to get the year off to a flying start by helping you refine your vision so that your target customers and employees are fully engaged in helping you achieve it.

A vision should be in your mind day in, day out. It shouldn't be a burden, it should excite you and give you strength and direction when times are tough.

One of the hardest things in life is to keep things simple so sometimes it's hard to break away from all your daily tasks to ask yourself "why?"

Our vision has never really changed but I must admit we've refined the wording recently to better communicate it.

Here it is...

Every Tasmanian reaping the rewards as a brand people love.

We say every Tasmanian because we include individuals, business, not for profits and even the state itself!
For those of you who live outside of Tasmania, it's ok we'll share the same secrets with you too.

Will we ever get to 'every' Tasmanian? Well we're having a fair crack at it and so far we're including schools, community workshops, arts, corporates and all sides of government. We've developed strategic partnerships to roll out in 2012 to help us get the message farther, wider and clearer and shhhh...secret...we've got some some not for profit assistance grants coming in the new year! Personally, nothing excites me more (well nearly nothing) than knowing my home state is full of people punching well above their weight (and selected favourites across Australia).

Ok stop it, I'm getting excited...I'll get to the point...

If you can't even remember your vision then this Christmas is the perfect time to think about it. What makes your heart tick? What can you show your teams that will get them excited simply because you're sharing your passion? What can you do to create buzz about why you exist?

Don't worry about the wording of your vision, just think about the intent and where you want to be. Why do you do what you do? What's your bigger picture? We'll help you narrow the wording down with our first Perspectives back in 2012.

Whatever you're doing and whoever you're doing it with over Christmas, I hope it's amazing.
Thanks for reading and your support. I really do appreciate the chance to share what I love.

Christmas Cheerio!

Rick Marton
Brand & Culture Architect

New Brand LoveBites!

These blog posts will come out at random and will usually be more of a rant on something that is topical. They won't generally hit your inbox but will be available on our website and of course the Facebook news feed.

The first topic: Are musical festivals and retail both dead?

Touchpoint Awards

The individual moments that leave the biggest impressions

WooHoo of the Week - Debit Mastercard Priceless Music
I was listening to the radio recently and heard the announcers talk of the Debit Mastercard series of musical performances. With stars such as Florence and the Machine, DM have aligned themselves with the behaviours of their target audience, leveraged off their 'Priceless' brand and are presenting events that leave deep positive impressions on their audience. In conjunction with promotional campaigns on radio and online (see Facebook page here) plus extra elements of competitions and donating money to charity at Christmas. It's good at so many levels and made me want to be a part of it just by listening...now here I am spreading the word!

BooBoo of the Week - Senator Stephen Conroy
The Australian Federal Minister in charge of Broadcasting standards dropped the F word on a daytime live broadcast. Obviously the glaringly obvious problem is that he should be setting the example. In addition to being shown on the ABC, just before a popular children's TV show, it was also aired live on Sky News. It went something like this "If a tax goes up, God, that is sovereign risk. But if a tax goes down, f***ing fantastic." He quickly added: "Excuse me." Whoops - it will certainly make it harder for him to question anyone else on not upholding broadcast standards.

Storming Controversy - Sir David Attenborough
Ok this was a couple of weeks ago and to tell you the truth, I'm really not that surprised. The point here is not to discredit someone who in Britain is seen as a national treasure, but simply because the recent stories will now taint the 'trust', credibility or ability to immerse yourself in the nature, knowing that what you think you're seeing is not necessarily real. But having said this, the devotees of the shows (i.e. millions of viewers) have come out saying of course some parts are re-enacted! So it goes to show what could have been an issue for an up and comer has been won over because of the trust and credibility he's built with his target audience over many, many years! One version of the media story is here.

Interesting fact - did you know that David was originally a radio host for the BBC but when offered the chance to do this 'new thing called TV that probably won't be around for long', he was originally not keen because he thought his teeth were too big! He is now 85 and still doing what he loves.