M’s the word: Practice makes (marketing) perfect
Take a little extra time, get a more valuable result
By on Feb 21, 2012I rashly suggested that we should hold a Global Launch Team meeting in Switzerland. These things have a way of happening, though, and the travel company has come up with an excellent deal, sandwiching us on the end of a promotional season, when the hotel would otherwise have been empty. So there I was, in Wengen, about 2 hours south of Basel, as the team roared in.
This is a picturesque village, reached by a rack and pinion train, about 15 minutes beyond the edge of civilisation. The venue is peaceful, and we were scheduled to have a day to work together, building the backbone of strategy for a challenging year. With a number of new people in the team and a relatively small team, I felt it was important that we start the year with good alignment. There will be grumbles about the journey, of course, and grumbles about the venue after the event, but that always happens.
Our Swiss host managed to engage a light artist, who projects pictures onto large surfaces, such as the Jungfrau. He was just packing up after a weekend show and generously agreed to share his photographs with us. A wiry, wire-haired guy on crutches, he explained that his accident had taken place while walking on the cobbles outside the Norwegian Royal Palace and not half way up the mountain. I confess I stifled a little laugh. Then I felt guilty as he went on to explain how pleased he was to be with us.
‘I like your humility. You do not seem to blow your own trumpet the way a lot of other companies do.’
He did not charge us for the show; he even joined us for dinner and spent another hour explaining the process by which he constructs his scenes. He uses enormous projectors that have been rescued from defunct cinemas; he suspends them from helicopters or builds container-sized lodges in the mountains and braves the rain and the snow for the moment when the air is cold enough and dry enough to stop the condensation that leaves droplets dancing to diffuse the beam and destroy the illusion. I know that nothing is ever as simple as it looks, but I was startled by the attention to detail that is involved in this act.
They say nothing happens without a purpose. You do not have to be superstitious to believe this, perhaps just a little reflective, to take the facts and read them as carefully as you can. Because usually there is a nugget in there that just might cast a little light for you. I was struck by the professionalism of this artist. He joked with one of the team, teasing that even his work required a level of forethought. And he was right.
I am lucky that usually I can think of something to say when pressed. But if I take a little extra time, I can think of something more valuable. Something that might last slightly longer than it takes to fall out of my mouth. And so it was here. I would like to think that the extra hour I put into planning my presentation, at midnight when I left dinner, produced something slightly more memorable. Not perhaps as fabulous as the light show, but at least I was happier with myself.
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