It’s finally here. The start of the 2012 NFL season debut’s tonight when the Dallas Cowboys take on the defending Super Bowl Champion New York Giants from East Rutherford, NJ. Everyone will be watching. Everyone.
I reference sports fairly often in these Digital Briefs, so you really didn’t think I would pass on the opportunity to do more of the same with the kickoff of America’s greatest game tonight did you? Why else do you think they asked me to post today? But I don’t want to just talk NFL believe it or not. Rather the lineage between the NFL and Digital Marketing; while Tom Coughlin and Jason Garrett are finalizing their team’s plays on both offense and defense for the game tonight, for those of you running your company’s marketing teams, you are likely drawing up your own X’s and O’s for your media strategies for fiscal year 2013. So let’s have a little fun with the analogy here shall we?
It starts on offense with the “quarterback” (QB), played by the CMO/SVP/VP/Director of Marketing, who’s calling plays in the huddle to the “team”, played by a client’s marketing department, that your “coach”, played by your marketing agency, is sending in. The QB has the option to audible at the line of scrimmage before he takes the snap, providing he doesn’t like what the “defense” is doing, which for this example is played by the client’s top competition in the marketplace. There are very few QB’s in today’s NFL that can effectively audible into plays that yield success on the field. Here is my point: 99% of the time it’s good to listen to your coach versus trying to call your own play. The problem I feel is that is too many QB’s think they know the game in spots better than their coach. So much so they are willing to audible out of the plays sent into the huddle far too often throughout the year. I believe this is in direct correlation as to why the average tenure of today’s Chief Marketing Officer is less than 18 months. If the “team” is studying the “playbook” (Big Data, a.k.a Analytics) and they can effectively internalize the plays being called by the “QB” which are sent in by the “coach”, then the result should be a well executed game plan equaling a win against the “competition”. Your marketing agency is in place for a reason; you trust this coveted partnership for the creative genius they bring to the table, for industry best practices and to drive innovative and strategic ideas for your company’s growth into tomorrow.
Now that I have rattled a few cages let’s get to this season’s NFL predictions, which of course are sure to be dead wrong. If you want to bang on my take or my season’s predictions please do so in dropping in a comment or two below, or feel free to say hi @timamiller. Enjoy the game tonight!
AFC South Winner: Houston Texans
AFC North Winner: Pittsburgh Steelers
AFC East Winner: New England Patriots
AFC West Winner: Denver Broncos
NFC South Winner: Atlanta Falcons
NFC North Winner: Chicago Bears
NFC East Winner: New York Giants
NFC West Winner: San Francisco 49ers
AFC Wild Card #1: Baltimore Ravens
AFC Wild Card #2: Kansas City Chiefs
NFC Wild Card #1: Green Bay Packers
NFC Wild Card #2: New Orleans Saints
AFC Conference Winner: Baltimore Ravens
NFC Conference Winner: Atlanta Falcons
Super Bowl Champion: Atlanta Falcons