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People Powered Brands: Empowering a TRIBE of Internal Advocates
The document discusses the concept of creating a 'people powered brand' by empowering internal advocates and finding common passions among employees. It highlights the importance of fostering a strong organizational culture and community, as well as the role of tribal leaders in enabling transformation. The author reflects on their own experiences and challenges in maintaining this ethos within an agency while emphasizing the need for authenticity and human connection in marketing.
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People Powered Brands: Empowering a TRIBE of Internal Advocates
- 1. People Powered Brands: Empowering a TRIBE of Internal Advocates Photo Credit | Flickr: iammikeb
- 2. Agenda • The Brainson Fire Journey – finding our Tribe • WHY matters • Creating a People Powered Brand • Brands that let their Freak Flag Fly • Q&A
- 3. Takeaways • Unlearn theWHY behind your brand • Finding a common passion among your employees that will empower them to work towards a common goal • How to lay the groundwork for a People Powered Brand
- 4. t: @GenoChurch who are you? Are you a brand manager, hello … a CMO, a social media consultant, a community manager, maybe your a tribe leader?
- 5. WHY do youdo what YOU do?
- 6. In 2003 Brainson Fire was a very successful advertising agency… we mashed a mix of strategic services; branding, traditional advertising, and research, for an eclectic group of clients.
- 7. My role atBrains was art director. Thankfully a client came, DHEC SC with a project that challenged our thinking. With our home state being a leader in TEEN smoking rates, our task was to lower teen smoking rates, without attacking the tobacco industry… SC is a tobacco friendly state… but that's a story for another time. We made a decision to invest and empower teenagers to be the message not OUR work. It was hard, and it worked RAGE against the HAZE still exists today, because we empowered teenagers to lead, and lead they did.
- 8. RAGE left amark on the SOUL of BOF. The work challenge us to define what it is that we did, and maybe more to the point… WHY.
- 9. RAGE, showed us,up close, the power of PEOPLE, and their voice, the power of leadership, that those leaders can be infectious, that infection can change lives, when change happens, people start to believe, and a beautiful things happen… a movement can happen.
- 10. we started tolook inward… divided into two teams to define what it is that BOF does… are we an advertising agency, an identity company, what the hell are we… My team was the underdog team, the other team consisted at the time of two of BOF's five managing partners. They took a smart strategic approach, we took a very different path. We took a visual approach. We wanted change, we visioned an agency that fought for the voice of the customer, the advocate… we wanted to turn BOF into a pirate ship.
- 11. Both teams wereset to present several weeks later to the entire team, ok you might think I'm going to tell you our team won, blah, blah, blah… Well we never made to the presentation, we got bought out. The other team using their manager position bought us out, and claimed our idea. Game over… In all honesty we were pissed… but looking back it changed the direction of Brains on Fire for the company and for me.
- 12. I became aBOF tribe leader, the way we worked changed, we became more connected with each other. Work became more communal…
- 13. we shared rituals;tequila shots
- 14. flying the skullflag,
- 15. and we evenwrote a book.
- 16. Photo Credit |Flickr marcp_dmoz I share this not to put us on some tribal pedestal, but to share a bit of our history, and share how hard it is to keep that ethos 10 years later. Inside a brand, an NGO, an agency… people come and go… eventually leaders leave and with them goes some soul, some culture, experience, and some of your why.
- 17. “A tribe isa group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.” - Seth Godin Our culture changed to allow for a TRIBE to form, let's look at Seth Godin's definition from Tribes: “A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.” - Seth Godin
- 18. As I chatwith you today… I'll be honest. In the last two years we've had 50% turn over in staff… as I said early PEOPLE come and go for many reasons. Our culture, our tribe was so strong for so long that… we took it for granted. I guess you could say we became lazy about the internal stuff. Far to often we see change as swift, but most change happens slowly over an extended period of time, our nature is to not address it till it's broken or a crisis happens. Where have our rituals gone; when's the last time we rang the bell, flew the flag, had a tequila shot for breakfast, a company wide pool tournament… the things that connected us to each other and the idea of what BOF stood for.
- 19. Photo Credit |Flickr ashley rose Our tribal belief is that we stood for something more than the stuff we created; campaigns, logos, t-shirts, brochures… we believe that we helped change happen for brands and organizations. We believe in people, in storytelling, in tribal identities, and tribal rituals.
- 20. We want tosave the day for our clients. We're going through a Re-Tribalize at BOF… bringing everyone into our processes ranging from, old rituals, new rituals, early immersion into projects, we're sharing at lunch our ethos, and how we mix the old with new thinking. I believe that its far easier to find another customer tribal leader (that is if your having conversations that include your customers) than it is to find your next internal leader for your tribe.
- 21. The BOF journeywas a long a winding road - I wish we would had this earlier in our adventure… Simon Sinek's "The Golden Circle," from his book Start with Why.
- 22. The Golden CircleModel Simon Sinek WHAT Every company and organization on the planet knows WHAT they do. This is true no matter how big or small, no matter what industry. Everyone is easily able to describe the products or services a company sells or the job function they have within the system. WHATs are easy to identify. WHY HOW Some companies and people know HOW they do WHAT they do. HOW HOWs are often given to explain how something is different or better. WHAT WHY Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. WHY explains your purpose, cause or belief. It explains WHY your company exists. WHY you get out of bed every morning. WHY people should care. when most companies or people think, act, and communicate they do so from the outside in, from what to why. From the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing. But not the inspired companies and leaders, they think, act, and communicate from the inside out.
- 23. people powered brand Creating a people powered brand…
- 24. Find your handraisers requires finding your hand-raisers (tribal leaders so to speak), this also creates communities.
- 25. Being a partof something bigger than themselves Because it creates a sense of belonging. Being a part of something bigger than themselves.
- 26. Communities connect the unconnected People Powered Brands create Special communities… the ones that people are wanting - but didn't know it until they found it. Communities connect the unconnected.
- 27. Being a partof a great story compels us to share. Being a part of that great story, is a journey, compels us to share = a people powered brand
- 28. Let your TRIBE fly its freak flag Photo Credit | Flickr: Derek Bridges A big note… you can’t just choose your Tribe… you have to accept them for who they are… warts and all. We’re talking humans after all. You’ve got to let your TRIBE fly it’s freak flag… Embrace the weirdos. They may just be your loudest, proudest, most passionate fans.
- 29. Who’s a memberof a fitness club… virtual show of hands? Who’s a member of a fitness club, yoga studio, the YMCA… virtual show of hands? So, any guess what percentage of Americans are members of a club or gym?
- 30. 15%… Sadly thefitness industry has fought for the same 15% over and over and over.
- 31. 65% of the85% of Americans that aren’t working out in a gym are interested in fitness, but remain non-users of a club/gym. What about the 85%… 65% of that 85% that aren’t working out in a gym are interested in fitness, but remain non-users of a club.
- 32. Meet Chuck andDave owners of Anytime Fitness… you might remember them from Secret Millionaire. Chuck and Dave run the largest fitness franchise in the world… they’re successful but they felt there was a lot of work left to do.
- 33. We want to change the self-esteem of the world the why…
- 34. They challenged usto do something about that 65%. Can we change the conversation?
- 35. the existing convo= we all know it… diet pills, bikinis, biceps, 100 lb weight loss stories
- 36. The current conversation… treatsexercise/fitness/weight loss like a "goal" to be achieved, which sets it up as a failure… We decided to flip the convo on its head by celebrating the little things, little wins, the start.
- 37. So, how doyou start that conversation to those folks? You become human, yes a brand can become human… it starts by not being so concerned about being in control, trying to get your point across, selling more gym memberships… what good is it if they never come back after one day, ten days, thirty days…You will draw people to you by creating a safe place, a nurturing place, a place that has two-way conversations, a place where people can feel like they can be themselves. Sounds easy huh… not exactly. To do this we need to retrain franchisees and their staff's to not look for the grande and instead look for the small, the starts…
- 38. Who's heard ofJared, show of hands? Jarred just didn't happen… He created his own diet, a franchisee started to notice pound by pound this guy losing weight eating fast food. The franchisee sent in the story, the ad agency noticed, sadly Subway thought it was to unbelievable, so the ad agency did a commercial on its own dime. It connected with people, Jared became an overnight hero for many, many people.
- 39. For Anytime Fitnessto have any hope… of changing this conversation we have to train the franchisees and staff to spot these beginnings, hell they have to appreciate these beginnings. A big challenge for an industry built on testosterone and bikinis. We asked for help, 25 Anytime fitness clubs to join us, by being open to a new conversation to engage those left out of the current fitness conversation.
- 40. We had hundredsapply, we choose our 25 hand raisers… brought them to Minnesota and trained them and empowered them to become our tribe leaders. … the beautiful thing is they all ready knew this needed to be brought into focus.
- 41. Meet Josh Cox…one of our tribe leaders. When we met Josh this is the business card he put into our hands. Josh’s story
- 42.
- 43. Josh took thischallenge to heart… he wanted to build fro people what he wished he’d had… a group accepting of all. Which is what we need, a place for everyone to be able to step into. Look at the visual nature of what Josh has created…
- 44. This is ashot of the current Fitness Rebellion challenge… Rebel vs Rebel… not in competition but inspiring each other to never give up.
- 45. I mentioned… rituals. Eachrebel participate in Josh’s boot camp style Fitness Rebellion gets a hand crafted shirt… they war it to every class… I saw it first hand. The shovel.
- 46. We're just gettingstarted… but conversations are happening not just on fitness rebellion.com but on Facebook. People are sharing they're vulnerabilities, their hopes, their fears, their challenges, their dreams.
- 47. To make adifference, you've got to get your hands dirty. Your people have to get their hands dirty.
- 48. That's the onlyway you can earn people's trust… it's by being real, walking the walk, not just talking the talk.
- 49. you must unlearn what you have learned -yoda As a marketer or a brand, our challenge is to motivate PEOPLE to share on our behalf. Sadly… most of the time the place to start is for… a brand, or organization, to unlearn, all the marketing and shiny social media tactics and be human again.
- 50. unlearning isn’t rocket science Unlearning isn't rocket science.
- 51. marketing is about people Marketing is about people. If you don't believe in relationships, you probably need to get out of the business.
- 52. People Powered Brands are not perfect and don’t need to be. people powered brands, are built on the honest principle that we are not perfect and don't need to be.
- 53. Let your freakflag fly. Embrace your weirdos. let your TRIBE freak flag fly. Embrace the weirdos. They may just be your loudest, proudest, most passionate tribe leaders.
- 54. If your goingto walk with them, you have to talk with them. Really get to know your advocates…If you're going to walk with them, you have to talk with them. Know their dreams their hopes.
- 55. •Walk, listen, andtalk with your TRIBE •Show them you Care about them •Value what they have to say •Put what you’ve learned into Action •Empower your hand-raisers to become Tribal leaders Walk, listen, and talk with your Employees and Customers Show them you Care about them Value what they have to say Put what you’ve learned into Action Empower your Hand-raisers
- 56. Q&A t: @genochurch e: geno@brainsonfire.com