A couple weeks I wrote about a feature in Business 2.0 called ‘How to Succeed in 2007‘. I shared Reed Hasting’s quote from the article. I got around to reading the rest of them and noticed a segment from Jeff Hicks, President and CEO of Crispin Porter & Bogusky - perhaps the best marketing / advertising agency around. I recently got a hold of their employee handbook, and it is quite the read. There are many things people outside CPG can learn and gather from this, including this great sentence:

“To be successful, we have to approach every single day like it will be our defining moment. Because that is the reality.”

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“We don’t talk about it, or have a meeting about it, or e-mail each other about it if we’re not going to do it. Brilliant thinking not executed is literally worthless. No amount of PowerPoint presentations can substitute for work not done. People who do things are the people who change the world. You are in the game here.There are no sidelines.”

You should definitely read it.

Now Jeff Hicks’ excerpt on how to “Make Your Brand Part of the Conversation“:

Make Your Brand Part of the Conversation

There are three things I think about the most when it comes to making it as a marketer these days. The first one is there’s no amount of money I can pay to get my commercial in front of you, because you can powerfully edit what you spend time with. So my job as a marketer is no longer to interrupt, but to produce content that is so relevant, interesting, entertaining, and involving that my best consumers won’t want to live without it.

The second thing is understanding that instead of brochures and trade shows, marketing now really begins with the product. Great companies are investing a lot of time and attention into trying to make products that market themselves.

The last piece is that user-generated content has made it possible for consumers to own your brand, and if they don’t, you’re not doing your job. The brands that are adopted, blogged about, and parodied the most are the ones that are going to win because they’re involved in the evolution of pop culture. If you’re scared to have your brand played with, you’re going to be left behind.

Tags: Marketing, Advertising, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, How To Succeed in 2007