I’ve never been a fan of compromise. It’s not that I don’t want to meet someone half-way, it’s that compromise often leads to neither party being satisfied. Let’s take the classic situation of, what should we eat for dinner tonight, as an example. If I want Asian and you want Italian, we have 3 options:

1. We get Asian…in which case you aren’t getting what you want
2. We get Italian…in which case I’m not getting what I want
3. We get something else…in which case, neither of us gets what we want

There is a 4th option. DON’T COMPROMISE. In which case, I’ll order Chinese form Sang Kee (my favorite place in Philly) and you can order from the place you want, we bring it back home, and we’re BOTH happy. Think about this for a second. It’s a rather simple solution, isn’t it? Yet, how many of you compromise? Looks like, by the show of hands, it was nearly all of you.

I’ve recently fallen in love with a new commercial for the Dodge Dart. It’s not that I want to buy a Dodge Dart. It’s not that I love Dodge or the Dart. That said, I do love the message Dodge is conveying to the viewership…

To build something amazing…to change cars forever, you can’t compromise. Why can’t you compromise? Well, as Dodge so eloquently put it…visually…compromise leads to really bad cars. The problem of course is that we compromise all the time at work. Most organizations get buy (notice, I didn’t say, “thrive”) by consensus management. What’s that you ask? Well, it’s the process of making sure everyone has a chance to be heard…to have their opinion valued…and ultimately to make sure everyone agrees. That’s a recipe for disaster. It was the lack of consensus management that made Apple’s iPhone and iPad such game changing products.

When you manage through committees, you end up with compromise. When you end up with compromise, your customers certainly won’t be happy and your marketing won’t be effective. Oh…and all those good feelings everyone had because their voice was heard…yeah, those good feelings have a habit of going away pretty fast when you have unhappy customers and ineffective products or marketing.

So take a page from what Dodge is trying to do with the Dart. Stand for something. Don’t compromise. Kick out the committees and bring the RIGHT thing to market, not the thing based on everyone’s arm-chair feedback. The pain you’ll feel initially will be worth it, long-term, when the results exceed your expectations.

There’s been a lot of discussion about Groupon’s Super Bowl ad from Crispin, Porter + Bogusky.  The ads were deemed offensive.

I won’t get into a debate, here, about whether people just need to learn to laugh or if the ads were really offensive. Regardless of what I believe, enough people complained to make Groupon CEO, Andrew Mason, write:

Five days have passed since the Super Bowl, and one thing is clear – our ads offended a lot of people. Tuesday I posted an explanation, but as many of you have pointed out, if an ad requires an explanation, that means it didn’t work.

We hate that we offended people, and we’re very sorry that we did – it’s the last thing we wanted. We’ve listened to your feedback, and since we don’t see the point in continuing to anger people, we’re pulling the ads . . . .

Insensitivity aside, the real reason the Groupon ad missed the mark is because it had NO offer. Think about that. Groupon is a site that’s all about deals. It’s about giving you an amazing offer. The ad focused on telling that story through irony and humor…but without an offer. How do you take to the biggest stage in advertising and not hit the world over the head with what makes your company unique? Does this really surprise you though when you realize that Crispin is their agency? More mind boggling is this quote from Mason, defending CP+B:

The firm that conceived the ad, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, strives to draw attention to the cultural tensions created by brands. When they created this Hulu ad, they highlighted the idea that TV rots your brain, making fun of Hulu. Our ads highlight the often trivial nature of stuff on Groupon when juxtaposed against bigger world issues, making fun of Groupon. Why make fun of ourselves? Because it’s different – ads are traditionally about shameless self promotion, and we’ve always strived to have a more honest and respectful conversation with our customers. We would never have run these ads if we thought they trivialized the causes – even if we didn’t take them as seriously as we do, what type of company would go out of their way to be so antagonistic?

On one hand, I applaud Groupon for sticking by their agency. Many organizations would have thrown their agency under the bus. Well done Mr. Mason for realizing you hired them, you signed off on the strategy (if there was one) and you approved the creative. But, on the other hand, you support the work from CP+B, but basically saying, “well yeah, I mean that’s why we went to them, because they you know creative controversy.”

Well, while CP+B was busy helping you create controversy, it also helped you miss the right strategy and took you away from your brand’s DNA. You spent $3,000,000 to introduce your brand to 25 million people during the Super Bowl and you didn’t bring an offer to the table? Talk about a lack of call to action.

Stumbled on to this late last night. Chilling and inspiring.

The theory of evolution claims that only the strong shall survive. Maybe so…maybe so…But the theory of competition says just because they’re the strong doesn’t mean they cant get their ass’s kicked. Thats right. See what every long shot, come from behind underdog will tell you is this. The other guy may in fact be the favorite, the odds maybe stacked against you, fair enough. But what the odds don’t know is this isn’t a math test. This is a completely different kind of test. One where PASSION has a funny way of trumping logic. So before you step up to the starting line, before the whistle blows, and the clock starts ticking. Just remember out here the results don’t always add up. No matter what the stats may say, and the experts may think, and the commentators may have predicted, when the race is on all bets are off. Don’t be surprised if someone decides to flip the script and take a pass on yelling uncle. And then suddenly as the old saying goes, WE GOT OURSELVES A GAME!