The Marketing Lesson 19,084 Businesses Learned This Past Weekend

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To date, over 515,000 people have viewed my branding presentations on Slideshare with 350,000 of those since January of this year. Two have made it to the 100,000 milestone and another is only few hundred away.

So last week I figured it was time for a new one since it had been a while.

I based the presentation on a discovery I made about brands that had gone real BIG.

I worked the concept over, edited it, art directed the imagery and did more homework to refine the message and clarity. I deliberated over several titles and cover images since those “sell” any Slideshare presentation to potential viewers so it catches on. I finally settled on “How to Make Killer Brands and Influence People” with a notably different type of cover image and uploaded it midweek on Wednesday morning.

I figured, this one’s gonna go big.

A Total Marketing Dud

Within a day or two, I think it made it to 192 views.

Wow.

I figured, total dud. Damn.

By the end of the week, I was planning on taking it down.

Then Saturday morning came around. I received an email from Slideshare with this message:

OK, Top Presentation of the Day, I felt a little redeemed.

Then, the tsunami of tweets started to go insane with the accompanying tune of 19,084 views as of Monday morning.

So what marketing lesson did everyone find so compelling? See for yourself below.

If you’re new to Slideshare, simply click on the right-hand section of the presentation screen below for it to advance forward. If you have a mobile device that is being anti-social, click here to view the presentation on Slideshare.

The Lesson and the Anti-Lesson

As you see by now, you have to own all sides of your brand. Yours. Theirs.

A great athlete owns all sides of the court, their own as well as their opponent’s.

Failure to do that and only “play one’s side of the court” leaves one losing more and more. Part of going big is seeing all sides so you can act intelligently and with a better estimation and anticipation of what moves may be made by your opponent. The winners can think like “each side of each team.”

I’d love to get an email from you ( david @ risingabovethenoise.com ) to hear how you apply this to your brand.

Want some other case studies to go with that coffee?