Daytona 500 Winner – without a plan?

It’s never gonna happen.  Competition is too fierce, stakes are too high.

When it comes to being online, does this sound like your business? It doesn’t have to. 

This note is in response to meetings with Hendrick, Gibbs Racing, Interstate Batteries and a bunch of the Good ‘Ol Boys (and Girls) headed to the big round and round known as Americas Race. 

The Daytona 500.

There are numerous metaphors useful to describe our work – depending on the audience.   We understand all types of sports marketing and Web Strategizing – but this week I want to address the motorheads. 

 Anyone can mash a throttle and go careening off the walls.  Only those with a set of objectives and a finely architected vehicle and campaign stand a chance of winning against highly prepared competitors. 

Online is no different.  Except the environment and rules are constantly changing.  So, if you don’t have a structure and process for something as contained and regulated as oval racing, and no expertise to call on…. you should probably stay in the stands. 

Actually, that’s not fair.  What you should do is find a coach to get you up to speed at lowest risk, best bang for the dollar, and most thorough coverage.  If you want to enter the online race and be credible – do it right. 

 

 Racing is a process. Race preparation, just like planning a Web Strategy – is a constant working and reworking of variables and factors that influence change. Design is both an art and a science. So is online business. 
We just happen to be good at both.       

The value differentiator at CLS Global is that we implement a prudent and scalable business methodology (based loosely on Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey, and Accenture/Microsoft models). 

Most advertising or marketing agencies don’t have any idea what I’m talking about here.  Enterprise software designers and NASCAR crew chiefs sure do though. So does any business that has been burned by chasing hype.   

With no dicipline, you cannot possibly compete on a dollar for dollar basis. Without the dicipline, you cannot have successful market responsiveness or change management agility.   You are going to get yur ass whupped. 

Racing teams follow a process for successful campaigning.  After all – when was the last time someone won a major event without a large R&D sand planning effort prior to entering a race series? 

You don’t build a winning car with mismatches pieces, and you don’t build a profitable online business on guesstimates. 

Why would you waste your resources or risk your company online this way?  Disjointed pieces, no plan, reacting to market pressures….these are attributes of passengers, who are not incontrol of their fate.

We create winning drivers and teams who OWN their competitive space.    We build successful web strategies, online businesses and campaigns for sports and motorsports related businesses, from teams to sponsors. 

Often this entails creation of online communities around a common interest or associated interests.  Why?  Because we believe that engagement online has serious mutual value – for the Fans, and for the companies involved. 

We believe that the internet offers the richest media options, and the best experiences. Plus – it’s digital. Ones and Zeros. Completely measureable by the very computers that run it.   If you know how and what to measure.

We KNOW we are on the right track.  

When Chad Hurley joined USF1, he made no secret about the value and critical nature and profitability from using online media to build an online community of fans around USF1 and their sponsors. 

Do your research, know your objectives – then scale up accordingly. One size does not fit all.  If an agency is telling you to get on Twitter or Facebook and doesn’t have the data to support a viable business case – run away and call us.  We can walk you through this. Enter the race with knowledge and a plan.

Start by knowing exactly what you are getting into and why.  Begin with manageable components (rent a go-Kart first), then progress to the next level.  The by-product of smoothness is speed and agility/responsiveness. 

We also KNOW that companies who do not have a planned and carefully architected online presence will fail. 

If you don’t use R&D to get a planning and constructing edge, your competitors will.  The key is to hire someone who not only can demponstrate a solid methodology, but can also think outside the box.

Would you rather have us working for you, or for them?  

Design for success or get your ass kicked by someone who did.

Have fun Y’all…we’ll be in the Wind Tunnel.