We need to talk …

It’s not me …

It’s you.

I think it’s time to commit.

At BrandHook, we’re not afraid to commit and we love examples when brands show real commitment to what they stand for.  The team have seen some fantastic examples recently and wanted to share.

SF BatKid

San Francisco committing to a cause and executing a brilliant end to end experience.  It was a case of business working together for a common good – Make A Wish Foundation, the San Francisco Chronicle, social agency – the Clever Girls Collective and Twitter – creating handles for the Riddler, Penguin and of course, our hero – @SFBatKid with this own hashtag #SFBatKid.

When businesses commit to their brand, they deliver the results.  An estimated 10,000 people came out in person to support the event and over 50,000 tweets were shared per hour of the event.  After President Obama tweeted his support, mentions of #SFBatKid increased by 700%.

Game of Thrones

We loved this picture as it post-it notes every character death in George Martin’s ‘Game of Thrones’ – and we’ve just recovered from Red Wedding.  We also liked when HBO came out said this about piracy after it was revealed that it was the most pirated show.

“I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but it is a compliment of sorts,” he said. “The demand is there. And it certainly didn’t negatively impact the DVD sales. [Piracy is] something that comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network.”

Commit to a concept, deliver quality and the audience will still respect you for it.

So what does this mean for brands and the business we work with?  We talk a lot about brands needing a point of differentiation – their brand hook.  The hook which is the brand essence, the brand DNA, the uniqueness of the brand.  And when we discover the hook of the brand, we recommend committing to it.  It’s the old adage – if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing properly and that’s commitment.   It’s commitment at every customer touchpoint, every communication, each channel, via all the people who represent the brand.  It’s not an easy thing to execute, but when you get it right, you get the results.

Do we need to talk?