Passion Does Not A Brand Kill

Passion does not a brand kill.

But process flows, corporate management hierarchy, systematic rational thinking, organization for the sake of organization… all of that… will.

I don’t know if you have seen the YouTube video about Grand Rapids yet.

If not… here is the link… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPjjZCO67WI

Watch it.

But know that in less than one week, there have been 2,453,145 others that have as well… it’s on YouTube.

In fact, the YouTube video made the Major Net’s Nightly News on Friday evening this week so I guess we can toss in several million more that have watched it in the last week.

It’s a great video based on the song Bye, Bye Miss American Pie.

The production of the video was sparked by a young twenty-something who discovered that the city was cited in a Newsweek article of the Top 10 dying cities in the U.S.

He was so passionate about his city roots, that he raised $40,000 in donations and rallied together about 5,000 folks to be part of the video.

He staged and filmed the video in 3 hours with a single camera and film truck he rented.

The kids filming it, the local citizens, the mayor, the police chief, the fire post and the local high school band were all passionate about it.

Passion does not a brand kill.

Here in Atlanta-land, home of corporate giants like AT&T Mobile, Coke, UPS, Georgia-Pacific, InterContinental Hotels and AFLAC, the city was hell bent a few years ago with building a brand for the city.

Those MBAs and Corporate Cultured Leadership got together with the Chamber of Commerce and raised a pool of funds to hire an ad agency and do a research study to identify the rational benefit pay out of the Atlanta band experience.

Did they hire a local Atlanta shop to assist?

No. They hired the New York-based ad agency Grey that serviced what was then BellSouth.

Did they find a team of passionate local folks to bring the brand to life?

No. They played out their MBA models to craft a brand story.

Did they decide to tap into the online social networks and go viral with the brand message?

No. They believed strongly in using the local television network affiliates, the Cox radio stations (local Corporate “good ole” boy), the Cox-owned (and dying on the vine) Atlanta Journal Constitution and last, but not least, the local outdoor billboard giant.

I bet, if you’re reading this Blog- dialogue from anywhere outside I-285 (outside the perimeter – OTP), you have no idea what was the Atlanta brand campaign.

Well here is the link to the Atlanta brand campaign on YouTube…

http://www.youtube.com/results?search=Search&resnum=0&oi=spell&search_query=Brand+Atlanta&spell=1&suggested_categories=26%2C17%2C24%2C10%2C25%2C27&sa=X

That video has been up posted on YouTube for more than a week.

It’s actually been up on YouTube for more than 156 weeks.

And in 156 weeks, that video is posted a total of 1,216 views. That’s not a typo.

Those MBAs and Corporate Cultured Leadership crafted that campaign around the tagline… “Everyday Is An Opening Day.”

The day it premiered, about 2,000 folks over at Coke Corporate received pink slips and a few days later AT&T merged with BellSouth and announced that the headquarters was being moved to Texas.

The annual budget for the campaign was over $6 million. That’s not a typo.

I knew the woman that served as the “marketing director” of the Brand Atlanta team. She raked in more than $150,000+ per year for a couple of years.

The agency got its share of the dollars and so did Cox media, the local outdoor company and the local network affiliates.

I’ve posted stories on this blog before about interactions I have had with area Chambers and business organizations.

I have highlighted and shared how they see the world around them, define opportunity and believe that business will build in the future.

I have used adjectives to describe them and won’t retype those adjectives again, but you can go back and discover the type of adjectives I have used.

In one week, another city city that was on the death list is now back in conversation about cities which are taking on the challenge of change and paradigm shifts. Passion is moving that city forward, not a business model or the communication of a rational benefit.

A few days ago, I conducted a set of conference calls with some great travel agencies in the Midwest and the Northeast about how they can tap into targeted market potential sitting right in their own backyards.

We talked about using online newspaper and identifying new Millennials that see the travel agent in the same perspective as they see their “helicopter” parents.

One of the travel agencies is owned and managed by two Baby Boomer women that work out the basement of a house just outside the Philadelphia metro.

They both got excited about what was shared and said “Wow, we can share our passion for our those great resorts with some cool folks right here in our backyard.”

I am going to Email them this afternoon with a link to the Grand Rapids YouTube video.

Passion does not a brand kill.

But process flows, corporate management hierarchy, systematic rational thinking, organization for the sake of organization… all of that… will.