ub

uI
ty
Proven big ideas for companies with bigger plans

When brand ubiquity occurs, people search and find brands even when they aren’t
looking. The brand’s reputation precedes its presence. It garners evangelists online and
off. More important, brand ubiquity conjures up a universal thought in your markets’
minds—the single compelling reason they need your product or service RIGHT NOW!
All have a common purpose: to not
only move people to buy their brand over
a competitor’s brand, but to perpetuate an
everlasting brand that holds a cherished or
respected place in the market’s mind.
 We wrote this for CEOs, VPs, agency-types, entrepreneurs, brand managers, MBAs and
everyone else hoping to influence new business through creativity. Each spread is 300
words or less so that the big idea showcased is both a quick read … and a quick “get.”

WE HOPE YOU FIND IT:

VISUALLY STIMULATING & CREATIVELY INSPIRING

STRATEGICALLY EYE OPENING

A “GO TO” REFERENCE

WORTHY OF SHARING

STREET SMART

A BIG IDEA
BRAND UBIQUITY
The idea for this book evolved from a fascination with brands and the place they reside in our brains. Every day, we are That is what is truly fascinating.
surrounded by brands that elicit an immediate and visceral response in our heads—and sometimes not always in a good
way. But the most successful brands carve out a niche in our zeitgeist. They become a part of our universal culture and We wanted to create a single place where we can
thus become ubiquitous in our minds (if not in our media). share proven and yet-to-be-proven successes—slam
dunks, trending campaigns and total flyers alike.
When brand ubiquity occurs, people search and find brands even when they aren’t looking. The brand’s reputation Some of the brands discussed here will be as
precedes its presence. It garners evangelists online and off. That’s more than marketing gold. familiar to you as your family. Some may seem distant
That’s marketing Californium-252! cousins. And others, no doubt, may come across
as long-lost crazy uncles, who may either redeem or
But what were the single decisions that create and extend ubiquity in a market? Can we identify a brand’s Big Bang doom themselves over time.
moments? Can we trace the strategy back to find where the brand crawled out of the primordial soup of obscurity and
developed the legs that carried it toward ubiquity? Can we see when brands evolved? But all have a common trait—a conviction in an initiative,
decision or moment that became the foundation for
their brand position … and a generous predisposition
to share that strategy with all.
 UBIQUITY_ A Big Idea And don’t just print it.
Put it online. Follow
the successes. Track
progress. Sure, make
it an incredible visual
presentation. More
important, make it
We love ideas. Big ideas. come alive!
Game-changing ideas.
This book is an idea.
A big idea.
This is UBIQUITY.
Never born in a vacuum,
game-changing ideas are
sparked by a need or
opportunity—something
that makes us stop and
say “eureka!”
And we’re
certain Follow the action at
When we saw what was it will trigger microarts.com/ubiquity.
happening in today’s other ideas.
online world, we had an
idea. Write a book.

More specificly, write a book
about Internet Marketing …
about proven and yet-to-
be-proven strategies,
events, tactics and eureka
moments.
Better yet, let’s invite a brigade Together, let’s share and spark the next big idea.
of contributing authors to
participate—from young
entrepreneurs to seasoned
CEOs, each willing to share
their game-changing ideas.
Products
that speak
volumes for
themselves
By Peter Getman, Principal Branding Director MicroArts Creative Agency
Sometime the big idea that seed brand ubiquity is a campaign water bottles that don’t leach chemicals into your drink. And it is quite
theme. Sometimes it’s a go-to-market strategy. And sometimes the possibly the best-looking insulated water bottle you’ve ever seen.
big idea is the product itself.
Simply put, Bamboo Bottle Company makes a better water bottle—
This is the case with the Bamboo Bottle Company brand. the best reusable water bottle, in fact. And as the first of its kind,
that’s the only big idea this brand needs right now.
The hip little brand was founded around the idea of creating the most
environmentally friendly water bottles—clean, reusable and safe No spin, no magic and no shenanigans required. The product itself
speaks volumes. We just have to tell the story.
Design by Community. Community by Design.
By Jake Nickell The basic concept behind the way we do things at Threadless is
definitely the best thing we do in terms of Internet marketing.
That’s the one thing we did
Co-founder That is, we have become an amazingly productive, talented art that changed everything. We
community. We do very little in terms of advertising. Most of
created an environment in
Threadless our growth has been from word-of-mouth. The word-of-mouth
happens because we are a community of people passionate which a strong, fun little art
about t-shirt design and art in general in our every day lives. We
talk about it because it’s what we are interested in. Nothing is community could exist.
forced. We are friends that love to show our friends what we’re
working on. Instead of running ad campaigns or buying key-
words (though we do do some of this), we prioritize doing
awesome things that people want to talk about and be a part of.

Of course, this wasn’t all planned. Threadless started as a hobby

because I myself was very passionate about design and wanted
to make real things out of the things I saw my friends creating
on their computers and posting online. The true power behind
Threadless is that it is rooted in people’s passions and hobbies.
Take your friend working his creative job at the local design
shop making flyers and logos for the local plumbing company.
He goes home and starts working on personal projects. Well,
now he can actually do something productive with his hobby
and post his work up to potentially be made into products.
And you better believe he’s going to go tell you to vote on his
work. That’s how you build a community, create an inspiring
environment in which people want to participate as part of their
personal lives.
 al
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By Joe Pulizzi | Founder | Junta42 | Content Marketing Institute slice
, no

PITCH YOUR NICHE

t th
ew
ho
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it.
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.
There are so many tactics to make Internet marketing work for a company; but for me, one overall strategy made the difference—choosing
a niche area to own. This meant finding an area within my expertise that Junta42 could own and position our brand as THE thought leader,
THE industry expert, THE go-to resource.

So many times, brands go too big or too broad when it comes to their online marketing strategy.

An accountant shouldn’t say they want to be the experts in accounting. That’s too big and, frankly, impossible. A more reasonable strategy,
for example, would be to position himself or herself as the leading accounting expert for small, retail-based businesses.

So what about online marketing? “Internet marketing” is huge and way too crowded. Wouldn’t it be better to find a niche, such as “search
engine marketing practices for Fortune 500 companies?”

Once that decision is made, the tactics make more sense.

For us, we chose the content marketing industry. Some of the tactics included:

• Repositioning the industry in all our content from custom publishing to content marketing
• Being where our customers and prospects were everywhere online, including LinkedIn groups, Facebook, Twitter and on key blogs
• Ramping up the creation and promotion of valuable, relevant and compelling content—often many times per day
• Writing the industry handbook
• Giving away as many trade secrets as possible (where others were charging for it)

All of this helped position us as the go-to resource for content marketing,
especially with the launch of our new membership site,
The Content Marketing Institute (http://contentmarketinginstitute.com).

Any brand can do this if it knows who its customers are and where they hang out;
realizes its content point-of-view; and truly acts like a publisher
(without the advertising revenues, that is). cb
TODI IS FOR
Todi USA, Inc. (www.TodiUSA.com) manufactures résumés are hosted and updated regularly at roes.

après athletic shoes, a new market category and www.TodiUSA.com. Also, friends and fans of each athlete can lever-

certainly a big idea of its own merit. Made exclu- N o w, i m a g i n e w h a t y o u c o u l d d o w i t h a age their social networks on Facebook, MySpace

sively for aggressive souls, Todi™ symbolizes the “Facebook” of athletes, as it were. You could spon- and Twitter to drive participation—whether to drive

THOSE WHO
spirit found deep inside an athlete’s core. sor scholarships for eligible athletes as determined scholarship and contest voting, game attendance or

Working with Todi leadership, our brand ubiquity by public voting; you could help athletes raise money plain old social fun. The goal? To create the viral spread

big idea was to seed the Todi brand via athlete to attend specialized camps; you could build aware- of Team Todi watching through www.TodiUSA.com.

scouts who find the hardest charging undiscov- ness about upcoming tailgates at events and tourna- It could prove invaluable to Todi brand awareness.

BEAT THEIR
ered athletes in the USA. These aggressive souls ments; moreover you could follow promising athletes In the meantime, buzz for this new athletic lifestyle

will serve as our brand ambassadors. They are at the naissance of their careers—and interact with shoe is deafening. Month over month revenues

not necessarily the best players on the field, pitch, them. are doubling.

court, ice, or slope. But they are the gutsiest. To encourage public participation, Todi announces But even shoe companies take baby steps. Led

FEET.
And they make up Team Todi™. each athlete’s naming to Team Todi via press releas- by a 22-year general manager who is also a tri-ath-

To highlight these ambassadors, the Todi scout es, posted on Twitter, Facebook and www.TodiUSA. lete, Todi is proving the model in New England first.

interviews athletes and creates comprehen- com and submitted to hometown newspapers, radio Then, watch the brand really kick ass nationally.

sive athletic résumés. All Team Todi athletes’ and TV stations eager for good news about local he-

CREATING COMMUNITY TO KICK START Todi. It Takes A Pair™.

A BRAND.
By Peter Getman, Principal Brand Director, MicroArts
 BY JAMIE GROVE As a pure play, there isn’t much about our company that
isn’t game changing. However, I think the one thing that
sets us apart is our authentic voice. So many companies
VP, EVIL SCHEMES struggle to find a way to speak directly to their
customers; but because we’re all geeks here, that part
& NEFARIOUS PLANS comes naturally to us.
(aka Marketing) Most people point to our product copy as the best

ThinkGeek example. But it goes much further than that. When we

write the introduction to our newsletters, we’re writing
a letter to our friends. We talk about what’s going on in
the geek world (games, movies, tech) in a fun way,
because that reflects who we are.

This is how the company started from day one. And,

for us, the struggle is to maintain that sense of friendly
geeks serving geeks as we grow at a frenzied pace.

We do that primarily by hiring other geeks. Those geeks

are expected to bring and mix their geekiness into the
giant petri dish of ThinkGeek. The result of this ongoing
experiment is Awesomeness. It’s how we generate
custom products, crazy videos, clever shirts, and pure
fun that we share with others.

I heard someone the other day say that coming to work

at ThinkGeek is like hanging out with your best friends.
They’re talking about co-workers, of course, but also
about the customers.

ll Inheri
If you strip away all of the geekiness of our business,

ha
we’re not that different from many other retailers.

S t
However, there IS something different about us. Some

k t
retailers focus on sourcing tens of thousands of

e he
products and lose their personality in the process.

e
Some retailers really tighten down their product

G
selection and tone as to control every aspect of the

E
conversation. In the middle, there’s us. We’re sort of a

e
cult retailer in that way. We find amazing product that
keeps people coming back to see what’s new but we also
know how to put on a great and fun show.
th

ar
In the end, we’re just a bunch of over-caffeinated
monkeys flinging boxes across the world. I think

th
people like that. I know I do.
d
An
TURNING MOMENTUM INTO A MOVEMENT
Last year, I made a movie. That movie had a website. And that website had
a place for fans to subscribe for email updates.

Pretty basic stuff, even for a guy who, until a year ago, thought AWeber was
the nickname of an NBA player.

The film was a documentary called “Lemonade” about 16 people who got
laid off and went on to do the most rewarding work of their lives. To
create initial momentum, I posted segments of the movie over the course of
the five-month production.

Because of the year it was released (2009) and the subject matter (hope), a
majority of subscribers tended to be victims of the economy themselves. To
me, it just didn’t make sense to charge the unemployed to see a film about
unemployment. So we decided to make it free to watch on Hulu in early
2010.

But that meant it was free for anyone with an Internet connection, which
wouldn’t have been much of an extra reward to the loyal subscribers who
were there from the beginning, many of whom donated money to the
effort despite being laid off.

So the weekend before it launched on Hulu, I held a digital premiere for

By Erik Proulx / Founder / Please Feed the Animals
email subscribers only. For three full days, “Lemonade” subscribers could
watch the film in its entirety, at their leisure, for free on a password-
protected site. If they liked it, the only thing I asked in return was that
they mention it on Twitter with the #lemonademovie hash tag.

And you know what? Many of those same people who were rewarded with a
free film ended up buying the DVD anyway. And because of the thousands
of Twitter mentions, there was a built-in buzz for the launch.

It was the right decision, too, because for three days in February it was the
#1 film on Hulu; and it also got press on CBS Evening News with Katie
t h i s c areer in
pen
y who s ision and print
Couric, FastCompany.com, and NPR’s “On Point” with Tom Ashbrook.
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OhMiBod is a music vibrator that pulsates in sync to the music on your iPod®.
Feel the music.™ Inside and out.

OhMiBod combines the hottest product of the decade with the hottest topic on the
Internet. iPod meets sex.

The company set out to be the first vibrator to be openly discussed in social circles.
After all, it is just sex.

Its big idea was simple. Invent and own a new market category of music vibrators.
As the brand launch agency, we positioned the OhMiBod brand to be the Coca-Cola,
Xerox, FedEx of music vibrators in the minds of women all over the world. We seed-
ed the brand by launching a highly personalized Internet public relations campaign,
leveraging perhaps the largest, most viral topic of conversation on the Internet: sex.

Initially, we reached out to a select few hundred influential bloggers.

We did so INDIVIDUALLY, personally inviting them to beta test OhMiBod in the most
silver spoon manner possible. We fostered sincere ongoing relationships with each of
them. After all, bloggers are people, too. We nurtured them; and they became our first
brand advocates.

Today, bloggers are your first customers. Treat them well. Treat them like royalty … and
they will introduce you to ROI.

We gave our bloggers the regal treatment. And OhMiBod went viral. The inbound hy-
perlinks to OhMiBod.com on both “music vibrator” and “vibrator” are in the thousands.

When you Google “Music Vibrator,” OhMiBod is the first organic search result. In fact,
Google just “Vibrator,” and it is organically fourth out of 90+ million competitive pages
for this term.

Today, OhMiBod successfully symbolizes “music vibrator” on 17,000+ blog pages,

260,000 web pages, and hundreds of mainstream publications—including O, the Oprah
Magazine. Many bloggers posted their favorite playlists and even created iMixes on
iTunes®.

Within the first 30 months, OhMiBod sales have reverberated in 28 countries—leaving

fewer people to lament that they “can’t get no satisfaction.”
On Avvo.com, you can find more than a thousand
lawyers rated with a prominent EXTREME CAUTION.…
We rate lawyers. And if they have been disciplined by
their state bar, we bring that information to light
in bold orange text.
Prior to Avvo, the legal directory business model was
dominated by pay-for-play advertisingthinly veiled as
a superlative directory. A small group of “elite”
lawyers, who were willing to pay the most, touted
their “Best” or “Super” designations. Avvo turned this
model upside down by providing detailed profiles of
all lawyers, showcasing the good, the bad and
(occasionally) the horrendously ugly in the
legal profession.
And in a litigious society, sometimes if you Today, 65,000 of the practicing attorneys in the
provide ratings, you get sued. Just nine days country have engaged with Avvo—still the only legal
after launch, Avvo was sued by a sanctioned directory that rates lawyers on a platform where
attorney who was aghast that we had the lawyers cannot censor negative reviews. And they
temerity to rate him with a CAUTION. Instead are getting more business than they can handle.
of folding, we went to court. The case was
thrown out by a judge. Turns out, we—like If that’s not a case for authenticity, what is?
everybody else—have the right to provide
authentic ratings on any product …
even attorneys.
Our users know they can get guidance
untainted by financial influence. The end result?
Avvo is now the largest, most trafficked legal
directory in the world—surpassing established
competitors (with lawyers who all seem to be
great) with multi-million dollar
advertising budgets.
When what we now call “the social web” was in its infancy, I had taken a keen interest in the
changes that were happening right in front of my eyes.

I was also well aware of the need to surprise and delight our customers with unexpected
developments; and my early interest in blogging allowed me to connect with people who
were early blogging innovators.

At that stage, one of the emerging brand challenges (and this challenge continues),
was the way in which brands were being incorporated in user-generated content.

As a way to surprise and delight the assembled crew of marketing directors,

I would ask a leading question. What do you think your customers think of
your brand? Generally, people would respond with the key elements of
their messaging: the three pillars, the four core messages and
so on. The more enthusiastic would refer to focus groups
or market research.

I would then ask other questions. What do you think your

customers would write about your brand on the web?
What stories do you think they’d tell their friends when
discussing your brand? Again, the
response would be on-brand, on-message.

“Shall we take a look?” I’d ask.

I’d type in a few brand keywords and

sit back. But rather than look at the
screen, I’d watch my clients— their
eyes widening. I’d watch their
mouths gape. I’d watch them
reel back in their comfy
boardroom chairs.

There’d be outrage. There’d be

shock. And then it would
transform into fascination There’d
be calls to “shut it down” or “refer
it to legal.” But the great human
folly written large is a compelling
thing to observe. Pretty soon, we’d
compare photos, stories and
anecdotes—all with brands,
products and logosthere
on the center stage.

Social media—it’s a circus without a

ringmaster—and maybe, even for the
most conservative brands, that’s part
of its attraction.
Healthy Branding for Small Fries
Jill Litwin, Founder
Peas of Mind

When Jill Litwin began cooking meals for her friend’s son as an alternative
to canned green beans, she had no idea she was on the path to launching a
business. Her goal at Peas of Mind is to “better feed kids today.”
That’s why today you’ll find Peas of Mind creating foods that are a spin on
childhood favorites. Realizing kids will be kids, this San Francisco-based
company develops new products that creatively blend (some might even say
disguise) healthy ingredients in familiar foods such as fries and pizza.
“You will never get your kids to stop eating fries and pizza. So we make
them but with different ingredients.”
It’s no wonder parents are stuffing Peas of Mind products into lunchboxes.
And it’s no wonder kids are stuffing their faces with something that is ac-
tually good for them—whether they know it or not.
So here’s some food for thought. Sometimes, branding is not always about
changing behavior, but discovering new ways to leverage existing behavior.
You just may have them eating out of your hands.
Anna Street™ is the original customizable fashion handbag.
You design it—create it. They sew it.
You sel ect the bag shape, style, strap, hardware, fabrics and bow
styles to capture the look in your mind. The combinations are
infinite. www.AnnaStreet.com.
Initially, customers would come in to the Portsmouth, N.H. studio
and create their look by selecting all the various options. Then,
Anna Street’s seamstresses would sew their one-of-a-kind bag.
The company expanded to three studio locations on the “Rodeo
Drives” of New England and found the brick and mortar rents to
be crippling.
Then they nailed it. At least, we think they have.
Anna Street is recreating the customization aspects of their stu-
dios in an electronic form and launching Anna Street Designer
Studio online. Customers will soon be able to drag and drop dif-
ferent handbag looks until they design just the right one.
But here’s the big idea. Instead of investing aggressively into
driving traffic to the Anna Street website, let’s use that Designer
Studio to monetize other websites’ traffic.
Working with our web team at MicroArts, Anna Street will pilot
a Designer Studio in Barneys New York, as well. Barneys selects
fabrics that are exclusive to their stores. It’s great for high-fashion
retailers like Barneys because they take on no inventory. They
simply link customers to the Barneys Designer Studio for Anna
Street handbags. Customers design and pay for custom handbags
at Barneys online; Anna Street sews and delivers the handbags
one short week later.
Additionally, this chichi handbag shop is partnering with popu-
lar fashion bloggers that love the brand and have the traffic, fans
and followers already in place. Instead of simply advertising on
their websites, Anna Street will partner with them by placing the
Designer Studio directly on their site. The bloggers leverage their
traffic and share in the financial success of any sales generated.
We anticipate tremendous success for both Anna Street and its
blogger partners, whereby reported revenues will far and beyond
exceed banner advertising in the same space.
When you start with a sexy brand, enable endless possibilities and
add one big idea to make your brand ubiquitous on the Internet,
increased revenues are in the bag!
STAT:
Brand Anna Street
Market Category Fashion Accessories
Product Custom Handbags
Revenues < 1 Million
Big Idea Monetize other people’s traffic
via hand bag customizer
INNOVATION IS A PITCHED BATTLE
Some brands are products. Some are pure attitude.
NEMO is a spirit.
It is not a rah-rah spirit. Nor is it a candy-coated line in a marketing campaign.
NEMO Equipment, Inc. exudes an authentic, sincere and honest spirit—
one infused throughout the company, which makes state-of-the-art
mountaineering tents. It is a living breathing culture. And you’ll feel it every
time you interact with the brand, at every touch point and with every employee.
For NEMO, design and speed of innovation are built into its DNA.
The brand is about taking customer feedback, needs and ideas and
turning them into implemented innovations … now! This spirit urges its
employees to constantly advance and execute improvements within one
season. It’s a nimble process that is not laden with interoffice memos,
meetings, multiple formal presentations and multi-level approvals.
Rather, it’s a can-do attitude facilitated by impromptu conversations,
stand up huddles, over-the-weekend engineering and “let’s go” approvals.
As a result, NEMO tents were named among the 100 best
inventions of the year by TIME and Popular Science magazines.
(Their air-supported tents require no poles. How cool is that?)
Accolades are great. Customers are even better. Most brands don’t
even recognize customer feedback with a reply. But for NEMO,
proactive responsiveness becomes contagious. It’s only human nature.
When customers realize their feedback has been considered and
actually implemented, their affinity for the brand grows instantly.
And they’ll tell everyone they know about it. Being ultra-responsive
yields brand evangelism.
Given the brand’s responsive spirit, it’s no wonder even U.S. Special
Forces rely on NEMO innovations.
NEMO is built to innovate on the fly.
(And sometimes, it’s literally a fly.)
 ®

Competitive spirit is good. It can be the difference between sound strategic

creative and game-changing creative.

Sound strategic creative supports a brand that

Recognizes a consumer need

Addresses that need with a superior offer of value

Differentiates its offer from competitor offers

Entices the purchase

But game-changing creative wants to beat the snot out of the competition. So it
does all this while simultaneously repositioning all other brands in your market
category ideally in one sentence.

For example, cat litter is estimated to be over a $1 billion industry in the U.S. …
and growing. The number one reason consumers buy cat litter is for odor control.
World’s Best Cat Litter™ truly does control odor the best. Its name is already
a tagline. But its slogan?

Buy the Best. Or Smell the Rest. ™

Here’s one big idea—one single line—that repositions the rest of the market
as inferior. Plus, its cadence has phonic stopping power, significantly aiding
consumer recall.

Let your competitive spirit keep pushing you past strategically sound creative
toward game-changing creative. Even in the cat litter market, it’s a dog-eat-dog
world. Be the top dog. Tell your market why.
TREAD FAST.
You can’t always be the brand that invented the market category.
But here’s what you can do: when you follow in someone else’s
footsteps, improve the footsteps. Fast.

Take the case of Chaco shoes. They didn’t invent the world’s first
sports sandal. (Teva owned that position.) But they improved them.
They made them fit better.

Chaco, then called Gecko, improved the sports sandal by focusing

on function and creating a brand truly fit for adventure™. “We never
tried to fake you out,” says Brandan Hill, “with design elements that
suggests performance but don’t actually perform, suggests comfort
but aren’t comfortable, suggests eco but aren’t eco.”

Chaco shoes featured sticky rubber outsoles, a strap that pulled

through the midsole to allow for a customized fit, and ladder lock
buckles that wouldn’t get ripped off in white water—a problem with
prevalent Velcro straps.

Think of what they were up against. They were second to the market.
They changed their name. Yet, the Chaco brand still trail blazes and
dances in the minds of its consumers because it was a successful
“fast follower”—the very next to leverage, build upon and improve
the original product or service.

There’s always room for a brand to own second place—and create

a distinguishing niche there. Third place, however, is typically way
back in the dust. For example, there is Coke and Pepsi. …
There is Hertz and Avis.

Not the first in your market? That’s OK. … But step lively.

www.chacousa.com
Should a brand target a narrow market and build momentum from there?
Or should it try to appeal to nigh on everybody?
I would have bet on the former. So while in conversation with Kevin
Williams and Jenie Fu at OgoSport, we tossed this subject around.
Designers of “active play” toys, OgoSport bounced its brand into the
$20 billion toy market with the idea that the true value of a toy is the
gazillion things your imagination can do with it. “Look at the toy
industry today,” says Fu. “They’ve taken imagination out of play.”
Video games dictate rules. Toy manufacturers dictate ages and genders.
And no longer can a plastic stick transform into a sword with which to
slay a dragon, or a bat to hit the game-winning homer, or a magic wand;
it’s a highly mechanized light saber to fight Sith Lords. And that’s it.
But look at what a red rubber ball can be. It’s a kick ball, dodge ball, bat
ball, wall ball, roof ball, peg-the-kid-in-the-head ball and myriad other
kinds of ball—dependent only on the rules and imagination of the user.
OgoSport’s toys are the modern-day version of the classic playground
ball. Except way cooler. The company’s brand is based on the very
wide appeal of “open play,” meaning there is no wrong way to play.
The founders position the brand as a leader of open play inventions.
And I was sure they were missing the point.
For me, the sweet spot of this brand was its ability to bridge generations.
I was the youngest in my family. My next older brother was 13 years
older—practically a generation. My happiest moments of catch were
between me and my much-older brother or my dad. I could imagine
an OgoSport tagline of “Play between generations.”
Then I realized I did exactly what they wanted me to do: I placed my
own values onto OgoSport toys.
On the other hand, show OgoSport toys to people with closer siblings,
and they’ll think otherwise. They won’t imagine tossing a disc with
grandma, but making up all sorts of games—and changing the rules to
ensure whipping the snot out of their siblings.
OgoSport is changing the rules of branding. … And, as they grow,
they’ll probably change them again—just like their market.
 TAG
—suddenly, you’re not it.
Let’s face it. Sometimes, your name can be the most influential element in your brand position.

And sometimes, it can represent the biggest risk.

Take, for instance, the company called Incentive Systems. It made, not surprisingly, “incentive
management systems for large sales enterprises.” And that might have been dandy … until a
competitor’s tagline becomes, advanced incentive systems™ or proven incentive systems™.

With that name, the company marketed the entire market category and not their unique value
within it. In turn, you could use the company name, Incentive Systems, as a tagline under the
top three competitive logos. And it would have been true.

If that happens, your name is mud.

“ “ Yet, arguably, Incentive Systems invented the category. It couldn’t afford to let this happen.
To avoid its thunder being stolen, the company evolved its brand name to Centive.

If a competitor can claim or modify your name as a tagline, consider changing it.Your employees
won’t mind changing the stationery. Your vendors won’t mind changing the invoices. If done right,
your customers will be delighted. And your competitors? They just might hate it.
The issue:
World Series of Poker is the world’s
biggest poker brand. As big as it is,
however, interest in the brand was
cyclical, centering around two major
events.

The solution:
To leverage seasonal interest into
year-round brand experience, you
have to work your ass off all year.

The quote:
My strategy is to take up as much
online real estate as possible. If you’re
doing just SEO, you’re failing. If you’re
not doing PPC, local, search, news,
video, and images—if you’re not cov-
ering all your bases—you’re giving
business away.
Olivier Amar, SEO Consultant, Over-
ank / Whiteweb Marketing

The results:
Through online and viral engage-
ment and groundbreaking alliances in
broadcasting, digital media and cor-
porate sponsorships, the World Series
of Poker has maintained interest in the
off-season.

In fact, the World Series of Poker

brand was named the 7th most ad-
mired sports brand in North America
by the Turnkey Sports Survey, trailing
only the more established NFL, MLB,
NBA, NHL, NASCAR and PGA Tour
among sports properties.

Are you all in?

Their new challenge:
Keep fans interested.

Your new challenge:

Want to build a brand online?

Ante up.
Doing that whole brandy verby thing.

The Holy Grail in brand ubiquity is when your brand name symbolizes an entire
market category—and becomes a verb!

Xerox it. FedEx it. Google it.

Fax it?

In 1843, Alexander Bain patented the basis of what would become the fax machine. Yet we
don’t Bain it … or HP it … or Brother it … or Cannon it … or Panasonic it … or Anyone-Else-
Who-Makes-Fax-Machines it.

It’s a shame.

In 2010, the latest craze in water sports is stand up paddle boarding, commonly know as SUP
or going SUPing. Originating in Hawaii from Beach Boy Surfing, the modern day SUP market
is still fairly unclaimed. In fact, Google (there’s that verb again) “stand up paddle boarding”
and you’ll get entries for:

Standup paddleboarding | Stand up paddle boarding | Stand-up paddleboarding

Stand-up paddle boarding | Stand-up paddle surfing | SUP surfing
Paddlesurfing | Paddle surfing
The market can’t even decide how it wants to spell itself. So until someone catches
that wave, we’ll have to go SUPing.

When you’re ready to enter a market, can your name be a verb? Ask around. Twitter it, even.
Taking a Page from Our Own Book
Educational leadership as a brand strategy
By Peter Getman, Principal Brand Director, MicroArts

UBIQUITY, this book, is it a big idea in of itself?

MicroArts Creative Agency is a brand strategy agency specializing
in Internet marketing. We’re also publishers of this book. For a long
time, we were comfortable with our size. We selected our clients
as carefully as they selected us. And by remaining nimble, we re-
mained laser-focused on providing a high level of service to an elite
number of clients poised for hockey stick growth.
Do the math. Our hundreds of contributors have millions of fans, follow-
ers, and connections on Facebook, Twitter and Linked-in alone. So, as a
result, the process of creating the book itself has skyrocketed our current
referral network—something that has taken me 25 years to earn.
Crazy really. It is a simple idea.

When clients shared their success stories, we are happy to have
played a part. But recently, we decided to grow our referral network.
Aggressively. Systematically. Smartly. And we brainstormed dozens
of ideas to do so.
This book matured into our big idea. (We hope.)
Additionally, we’re creating The 222™, a private society of UBIQUITY
contributors and an inner circle sharing and discussing marketing ideas,
strategies and tactics.
That’s going to prove to be an invaluable resource for the 222 of us who
participate—as well as all the individual brands we support.

Moreover, we believe this book could be an integral part of all its Knowledge is power. It’s also powerfully exciting. Hold on to your socks.
participants’ big ideas—another way for them to achieve brand We’re just getting started.
ubiquity, as well.

Think of it. We are tracking 222 game-changing brand ideas to be

shared in this book by rebel entrepreneurs, proven CEOs, marketing
gurus and downright crackpots. Each individual idea lives in a two-
page spread, both in e-book and printed formats. So in theory, we’ll
have 222 evangelists who are sharing links to their eureka moments
within their social networks—their peeps, tweeples, fans, followers,
homeys and curious bystanders. Being published is great for their
personal brand (not to mention our agency’s brand awareness).
INTER
NET By Peter Getman, Principal Brand Director
The Economist reported in 2006, that Internet marketing totaled $9.6 billion in 2001, $27
billion in 2006 and is expected to top $60 billion next year, which looks now to be a low

MARKET
estimate.

Dell attributes more than $3 million in sales revenue directly to Twitter. Ebay found in 2006
that participants in online communities spend 54% more than non-community users. It's

ING
no wonder that a recent study showed a direct correlation in companies' financial perfor-
mance and their online engagement levels. (The top 10 companies are global leaders in
technology. Imagine that.)

ROI
So how can your brand manager increase and measure Internet Marketing ROI?
1. Create benchmarks.
2. Increase conversions on current web traffic.
3. Increase traffic.

Trackable drivers of Internet Marketing ROI are dynamic and vast, but you can
start by establishing your brand’s Internet Marketing benchmarks by answering
questions such as:

• What's the current web traffic generated by each search word?

How many conversions per visit? … So what is the conversion value of that word?

• Is this web traffic data resulting from SEO or PPC?

• What's the current conversion value of each inbound link to your website
(blogs, viral programs, social media, partnership sites, email, etc.)?
• How many visitors choose online services that save your business
time and dollars?

Once you answer these questions, work at increasing conversions with your current
website traffic levels via A/B testing of your website, alignment with your sales process
and landing page creative that includes specific strategies and tactics, fine-tuned why-to-
buy statements, user click-path scenarios, prospect self-qualification tools, better targeted
demographics and relative branded creative.

This matrix gets large fast. But by honing your message and your user interface, you'll end
up with increased conversions to new revenues.

So now all you have to do is increase traffic to your website to really maximize conver-
sions. How?

/ Create content around high performing search terms. / A/B test pay-per-click programs and search words. / Invest in viral and
social media initiatives to pique interest and clicks. / Reach out to bloggers to encourage brand evangelism. / Create new land-
ing pages to support high performing search terms. / Get on Twitter and Facebook to deploy a series of customer engagement
programs. / Optimize your inbound links by nurturing relationships from related websites, associations and partners.

Lather. Rinse. And repeat. Internet Marketing is never static. Never stop engaging. And
never stop testing. And never accept the status quo. The potential here is too great.
 By Peter L. Getman

lessons I’ve learned

in 22 years in the brand agency business
I suspect these lessons are viable to any business and not exclusive to branding and Internet marketing agencies.

Selecting the right clients is equally as

important to your success as hiring the
Don’t dread “walls.” Walls challenge you
everyday, all day. It’s business. Some
If you have a tumor in any area of your
company, be a surgeon. Being a shrink,
Be open to
right teammates. days, you sidestep them. Some days, cheerleader, coach or friend does not more lessons.
you hurdle them. At other times, you work. If it’s not a cancer, then be all of
tunnel under, smash through, pole vault these, just not the surgeon.
over or claw up. And some days, you
simply run into them and go nowhere
but to Headacheville. But in the long
run, walls are good; they keep the weak
from catching you.

CRIT: 1.0
BY LOREM IPSUM

“Going above and beyond” to create You can make endless mistakes in Most importantly, what’s worth doing, is MicroArts critique text by author
customer loyalty doesn’t have to be ex- business and still ultimately succeed, worth doing passionately. Achieve this goes here.
pensive; but it does have to be thought- except for one mistake: running out of money. and work is not work.
ful, unexpected and ideally surprising.
Just yesterday, our pest control com-
pany came to … well, control pests. My
six-year-old daughter, Zoe, follows him
around as she usually does and is in-
quisitive as per usual. But she then pro-
ceeds to talk about her birthday party on
Friday. Today, the pest control gentle-
man had to come back to finish up the
treatment. Zoe runs out to say hello and
is presented with a birthday card from
her friend, the pest man. Wow.