It’s the funniest thing, companies (and even associations) think that corporate events are only about communicating information. They might also believe that events are about networking or about selling stuff. Wow, if this is their perspective, they are missing 90% of the real value of a company event. The real value of an event is to give every attendee a massive shot of full-throttle brand adrenaline.

Our reputation for injecting brand adrenaline right into the heart through corporate events is hard-earned. We’ve made mistakes and learned from them. We’ve shunned the typical and taken risks to achieve the extraordinary — without breaking the bank. We’ve earned our clients’ trust in our vision and in our ability to produce exceptional results.  The payoff is big in terms of every metric you can think of.

Heart & Mind® Branding is the key to creating true, lasting brand adrenaline, and here’s how you can make it happen through your corporate events:

10 Keys to Injecting Heart & Mind Branding Adrenaline into Your Corporate Events

1. Go for the emotional connection first - When you connect with people’s hearts, they will let you into their minds.
2. Make your theme heart-based, not mind-based – If you don’t feel it, no one else will either. Thinking has nothing to do with theming.
3. Throw out any themes that don’t have legs - If you or your CEO can’t get up and talk about the theme for hours, then it’s not a good theme.
4. Produce videos that aren’t “talking head” parades – Those are so 1990s. Today’s videos are not about telling; they are about entertaining and through entertainment, inspiring.
5. Be demanding – Don’t settle for ordinary or just okay in anything you do at an event. Your show is a showcase of the behavior you want to inspire in others. If you want excellence in others, you must demonstrate it yourself.
6. Make an impact – Your corporate event should literally make people laugh and cry, as well as learn. You can achieve these results through what we at HEASLEY&PARTNERS call Moments.
7. Spend less money on plants and more on production – Seems obvious, but instead of spending money on flowers and ficus trees, focus your spending on your stage and show. Do what wows!
8. Plan a unified program – Make sure your speakers’ presentations aren’t repetitive. They should build on each other. Unity of message at a corporate event is critical.
9. Build an ideal world – Your corporate event should be your attendees’ world. Make it high-service and unforgettable. If attendees leave the world you’ve created, you’ve missed an opportunity.
10. Don’t cheap out - You’re spending a lot of money, for sure, but if you cheap out — even on seemingly insignificant details — that’s what attendees will notice and that’s what they’ll remember.

Corporate events are a significant investment, so instead of plowing your resources into the same old exercise, instead of merely conveying information, you should look at your corporate events as an outstanding opportunity to inject Heart & Mind Branding adrenaline.

What is branding? Heart & Mind® Branding.

In our very abbreviated world of soundbites, you’d better have “a line.” That one thing that you can say in no seconds flat that is just second nature. For HEASLEY&PARTNERS, that’s easy. We shape businesses into brands. TM. Done.  It’s that simple. But it is not simple to come up with taglines for companies, movies, people, books or anything else that needs to be recognized and remembered.

So many marketing execs and CEOs sit down and say, “Okay, let’s come up with our tagline.” If I’m in the room, believe me, I’m not afraid to say, “Hold up. That’s the last thing that gets created when developing brand messaging, not the first.” In the old days, they’d often look at me and keep up with their futility (nothing ever came of the effort, not even once). But now when the need arises, I speak up. Knowing the HEASLEY&PARTNERS track record and what we can do, they take heed. They put their effort into things that will bear some actual results.

Sure, you might think you have “the line” and on rare occasions, you might be right. But great brand messaging doesn’t come from just some fun lines and some clever statements that you dream up in the shower.  There’s more to it than that. Like, for example, will your clever line hold up when you really start creating your company’s “movie” or will it crumble and turn to dust like the countless ghouls in The Mummy?

When you check out these great movie taglines, ask yourself not what your tagline is, but rather, “What is my company’s movie?” If you don’t know that, if you can’t feel that, you’re not ready for the tagline. Job one is to write your brand screenplay, then start promoting it. Not the other way around.

What is branding? Heart & Mind® Branding.

You can have your own Heart & Mind Brand, let HEASLEY&PARTNERS help.

Since the release of the video, Invisible Children has received a lot of backlash regarding their finances, the legitimacy of their organization, and the detainment of co-creator Jason Russell. All opinions aside, there’s no denying this video’s power to capture the attention of millions overnight. As a college student, I see peers trying to bring different problems, news stories, and politics to people’s attention all the time. Usually their Facebook post about saving dolphins receives a few likes—and then it’s over and done with. Their hearts are with the cause, they are just not fully revealing them, so they don’t getting traction. That’s where Heart & Mind Branding’s concept of “Moments” comes in—those small instances of time that touch our hearts. Kony effectively created a “Moment.” My peers posting on Facebook never create “Moments,” they post. Moments go viral. Posts don’t.

Within hours, several Facebook friends had posted about Kony 2012, shared the video, or changed their Facebook profile picture to the ad in support of the cause.

The Kony craze didn’t stop at Facebook, it took over other social networking sites such as Twitter and Instagram. I thought that by the next day the hype would have dwindled, but I was wrong. The hype was still going strong—and continued for days.

What made this video so popular? Why did it have the power to attract so many people? It’s because the creators of Invisible Children made a video, a “Moment,” that captured the world’s heart. They also used their minds to develop a plan of action that was structured and effective. This video turned everyone into a social activist. Their heart and mind mindset, is what made their video so widespread. Normally, how many people would sit to watch a 30-minute video, the whole way through? I sure wouldn’t! Most YouTube videos over 5 minutes generally aren’t worth watching for the first 3 minutes, let alone the entire time.

Regardless of whether or not you think Invisible Children promoted this world-wide issue the wrong way, or if you think Jason Russell has a serious PR problem, the video accomplished the seemingly impossible goal of going viral. When you use your heart and your mind and create “Moments” you can win people over. Invisible Children did just that and won 80 million people over in just two weeks.

The San Diego non-profit organization is not a new company, it’s been fighting the issue in Uganda for nine years. Joseph Kony is not a new criminal either. He has been using children for his soldiers and “wives” since about 1986, with an estimated 66,000 children abducted. Obama deployed 100 soldiers to central Africa in fall 2011 to help remove Kony from the battlefield. Invisible Children is fighting to find Kony this year, before the troops are removed form Africa. They have raised awareness through their heart-and-mind based viral video like no news report ever could.

This post is by Melissa Fittro, an Arizona State University Student and intern at HEASLEY&PARTNERS. Through her projects including writing this blog, Melissa is learning about business, gaining an introduction to Heart & Mind Branding and working hands on with the tools of marketing and communications.

What is branding? Heart & Mind® Branding. Get started NOW!

Is this commercial shocking? Maybe compared to the typical “cute baby ads” of the diaper category. Is it funny? I challenge you not to laugh. Is it surprising? My mouth was agape watching it. Is it memorable? I just recounted the entire ad. Does it generate buzz? The proof is we’re talking about it.

But what is most important about the Luvs ad is it made my husband who runs the TV in our house to actually remove his finger from the FF button and watch this spot–not once but twice. He watched it, then he made me watch it. You can watch it here.

After I laughed, then said, “Ewww,” I thought FF isn’t just on our TVs. FF happens daily as we rush by plenty of things well worth noticing but that fail to engage us. We all live FF lives.

Branding can stop us in our FF tracks. Are you, your company and your brand doing anything to make people stop and notice you, not once but twice? Three times, four or more? Are people talking about you? That would be even better. You may say, “Well we don’t advertise on TV.” I’m not really talking about commercials here. I’m talking about taking the risk to make yourself stand out. Luvs sure did it, boldly and bravely. I’m sure they are getting some nasty comments online–that is to be expected when you break tradition and put yourself out there. It takes immense bravery to not be swayed by the few, even though they can sound quite loud. It’s impossible to be different and not get criticized.

A friend of mine told me, “No one ever erected a statue to a critic. If you walk through the park and look at the statues of heroes, you’ll notice they have been crapped on a lot.” Those heroes were risk takers and they took their lumps then as they are still taking the dirt now.

It’s never been more important to take risks than it is today if you want to get anywhere. Just sitting there, saying the safe thing and using safe stock images, stifling creativity, being too stodgy or patrician to find a relevant connection to popular culture, or just being too chicken to be different, you automatically lose. The reason is you haven’t forced us customers to slow down our FF lives and notice you. Do you have to wear a raw meat dress like Lady Gaga did a while back? Most likely in your world, no. In hers, yes.

Understand, most of us operate our businesses in an environment of blasé sameness. It isn’t hard to stand out. I’m not talking to the creative folks with this blog. I’m talking to the CEOs who are afraid of what their stockholders might think. Start moving that stock price up and they’ll get over it. I’m talking to the CMOs who don’t want to lose their jobs. Maybe the reason the average CMO lasts less than three years in any one post is because they are afraid of losing their jobs. I’m talking to the CFOs who can’t understand why different sometimes costs more money. To them I say, if being different was easy or cheap everyone would be doing it, and being really different would cost even more money, so count your blessings!

Take your finger off your FF button right now and watch the Luvs commercial. Let your jaw drop and then think about how you can in your business connect with some aspect of humanity, rather than just “promote your business.” That’s the power of Heart & Mind® Branding. If you can pull it off with diapers, believe me you can do it with anything.

What is branding? Heart & Mind Branding.

Even the most stubborn of us who say, “I purposely don’t buy based on brand,” are still influenced by brands. But people like that are in the minority. Most of us are brand loyal whether we’re talking shampoo, cars, clothes, software or sports teams. Yes sports teams are brands. When you cheer for the Packers or the Lakers, you’re supporting brands masquerading as teams.

What everyone wants to know is “How do these brands get inside our head?” The better question to ask is “How do they get inside our heart?” The answer to that second question not only reveals what a brand is, but also how to create and build one for your company.

Caution: these truths that once and for all answer the question “What is branding?” are actionable!

What you’re about to learn is not a theory. It comes from 20 years of doing this work in practice, not through branding mumbo jumbo. Ironically, or perhaps, naturally, we’ve given it a name. A brand name. It’s called Heart & Mind^® Branding and it is field tested, measurable, proven and powerful. With it, you may for the first time believe branding can actually happen within your company.

Truth 1: A brand is the Promise you put out there. People develop their first perceptions of your company on all the stuff which precedes you, like your website, your Google presence, your promotional material, your social media, your blogs, your press and what others say about you, which is the most important kind of promise. If your promise is funny, outlandish, startling, annoying or otherwise memorable, people may talk about it. But they might not; people have seen and heard just about everything.

Truth 2: A brand is the Experience people have with you, your company, your products and services. Once the promise gets people to give your company and its products or services a try, they experience it and that is what gets them talking. Keep in mind they either talk nice about a brand experience or bad about it. People never talk mediocre about it. And their talk about an experience is much more powerful than their talk about a promise, no matter how memorable that promise was. In most cases, people talking about the experience is what gets others to give the product or service a try for themselves.

Can it be that the definition of a brand is simply two words? Promise and Experience? Can it be that simple? Yes it can be that simple, and it is. What makes these two words so powerful—beyond the fact that they answer the question “What is branding?” is that they are actionable in every nook and cranny of your company.

Branding, then, is the act of creating promises and experiences for the people you wish to serve.  Lots of people in your company are responsible for creating brand promises—your marketing team, your sales team, your receptionist, and anyone who else who has walked through an airport or played golf wearing a shirt with your logo on it.  Every contact with your brand creates a perception and those perceptions add up to the promise. Think about that the next time your company settles for “good enough” or you pitch a fit because the airline lost your logo-emblazoned duffle bag.

There are also lots of people in your company responsible for creating brand experiences. Your marketing people, of course, and your sales people, but also your operations, supply chain, training, customer service, and all the people who connect with others—which means everyone is in the brand experience business. Can you see now how branding isn’t just pretty pictures? It’s not just catchy slogans? And it is not your logo!  It’s everything you do in your company, so it is measurable.

In other words, your brand is your culture and your culture is your brand.  The best brands are no different outside their four walls than they are inside them. And that leads to the last three truths about a branding—which answers the question:

“Now that I know what branding is, what should my brand be?”

Truth 3: A brand is genuine. You have to feel your brand and believe in it if your expect anyone else to. When a brand is true to who you are, it comes alive inside and outside your company.

Truth 4: A brand is meaningful. If what your brand is about does not connect with people, you’ll never be a brand because no one will care enough to talk about it.

Truth 5: A brand is different. If your company is not much different than the one down the street, then you are not a brand. You must “own” something unique, otherwise you are a commodity.

So there you go, five simple truths that will change the way you think about brands forever. But I hope you’ll do more than just think about them. I want you to act on them.

What is branding?  Heart & Mind® Branding. Get Started NOW!

Why do many of us have such a strong preference?  When it comes to soft drinks it truly the taste?  Is it the perceived status of wearing one brand of jeans over another? How about cars, colleges, sports teams? Is the connection the people who also drink, wear, attend or cheer for your brand of choice? Brands somehow affect us at our very core.

It’s is no accident that both Coke and Pepsi work hard and spend a lot of money to create an emotional connection with us. Whether it is through sponsoring American Idol or the X-Factor, hiring A-list celebs or sports figures to endorse or simply drink their products, or supporting charities that make a difference,  their motives are the same:  establish an emotional connection to drive us toward their brands.

At HEASLEY&PARTNERS, we believe that there is a heart side and mind side to all companies.  Our Heart & Mind® Branding brings the heart and mind of the company together to form the brand. Then we work to bring it to life.  Same old, same old marketing doesn’t work anymore.  Success takes building a brand with heart that people care about and generates buzz. You may think it is TV or the Internet, but it is BUZZ that actually causes a brand to breakthrough. Last time I checked, I didn’t see Pandora advertising on TV or having much of a presence on the Internet. Buzz–people talking–has built their personalized radio station app into a powerhouse.

Coke and Pepsi routinely build buzz, simply through the decades-long competition they have created between each other. The fight is fierce, no matter how tame those polar bears look on TV.

Now, think about why you connect to the brands you love.  Are you connecting through the heart side? Is the brand somehow in your DNA? Is it an emotional thing for you? Many will say that their purchases are strictly rational, but I can assure you they aren’t. Every purchase we make, we make with out hearts–even when it comes to a can of soda. The best brands know this, we would hope, but building brand connections isn’t just for big brands. Small brands must make the heart-to-heart connection too. HEASLEY&PARTNERS can show you how.

Will there ever be a clear cut winner in the cola wars?  Will one of them ever come out on top and be crowned the best soda forever?  That’s highly unlikely, and I don’t see the battle slowing down anytime soon.  Coke and Pepsi will continue to fight for bigger market shares through commercials, sponsorships, endorsements and aggressive business practices. But in reality they are fighting for our hearts.  Coke has definitely won my heart, and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon!  But more important, for your own business what is in your heart and how are you connecting with the hearts of others? Think about it over your next Coke, or would that be Pepsi?

What is branding?  Heart & Mind® Branding. Get started NOW!

How she has managed to remain on top for so many decades is a feat few brands can achieve, even Toyota. But she does, and last night’s halftime show proved it. From her songs–old favorites and catchy new tunes–to her staging, dancers and special guests, she hit it out of the park. Oops! wrong sport. She put it through the uprights.

Take a look for yourself. Maybe you went out to get more chicken wings or buy more beer and missed it or you want to just watch it again. You may think as I did, Madonna wins.

What is branding?  Heart & Mind® Branding.

Who would have thought when the confectionary giant Mars launched a new campaign in 1995 for computer animated “spokescandies,” it would become the center of a Super Bowl commercial 17 years later—and all the hype to go with it.  These color-animated candies recruited some of the biggest names in Hollywood as celebrity voices.  Including Jon Lovitz, John Goodman and the late Phil Hartman.

What is it about these colorful little characters that makes us want to purchase everything from coffee mugs and apparel to collectibles and racing gear.  The answer is easy—the brand.

Mars brings the M&Ms brand “personality” to life through animated characters who speak to all ages and create funny, clever even a little racy moments that we can all connect with. All that and what we are really taking about is just candy-coated chocolate!

At HEASLEY&PARTNERS, we believe that great brands are built on three essential brand elements.  The first is a brand must be genuine, so you can’t fake it.  The second is meaningful, it must mean something to the people it serves.  And, the third is a brand must be different—different from anything else out there.  The M&M’s brand, and its lovable little characters, has all characteristics and they own this product segment.

Hershey has candy coated chocolates similar to M&Ms, but few would know it. And who cares? They’re the “kiss” people. In Hershey, Pennsylvania (also known as Chocolate Town, USA) the street lights are kisses. Hershey is genuinely about kisses, just as Mars is about M&Ms. Of course this should lead you to ask, “What am I about? What’s my product about? My company?” Do you think Mars would be spending the big bucks on Ms. Brown unless they knew their brand? Of course not. How much money are you wasting promoting your business without knowing what you stand for? Even one dollar is too much.

So, what will Ms. Brown have to offer?  Will she show us her vulnerable side? Will she connect with fans?  How will she be different? I think she wears glasses? From her close friends and colleagues, “Ms. Brown is very intelligent and has a sharp wit.”  She has been behind the scenes as “chief chocolate officer” for decades, and has finally decided to come out of her shell (no pun intended).

All we know is…if she is anything like her colorful counterparts, I’m sure she will not disappoint us.  We will have to wait until February fifth to find out.   Until then…

What is branding?  Heart & Mind® Branding.

• For making every football Saturday during my four years at Penn State unforgettable, whether we won or lost, and we mostly won.
• For all he did for the “kids” who towered over him as his Penn State players.
• For  his selfless contributions to support excellence at Penn State.
• For his commitment to academics and the achievement of his players.
• For the way he ran on the field with the team.
• For the thrill of winning a national championship my senior year.
• For giving me a sense of pride in my school that began at age 18 and is still with me today.
• For scaring the crap out of me when I walked down my dad’s basement and glimpsed from the corner of my eye a life-size “pop-up Joe” in the shadows.
• For being a fellow Italian who made my dad proud.
• For being a role model of perseverance.
• For the way 50,000 people in Beaver Stadium would shout “Jopa” and the other 50,000 would shout “Terno.”
• For his rolled up pants, white socks and black shoes.
• For the way he screamed at players who taunted the opponent or celebrated too much.
• For being carried on the shoulders of his team more than once, and the joy on his face.
• For being strong while being humble.
• For his fight and his unwavering loyalty to white and blue.

Thanks for the moments. We’ll miss you, Joe.

What is branding?  Heart & Mind® Branding.

The Promise... a cactus 14" x 17" in a 6" pot with a bow.

Because it is the holiday’s we’ll give the national flower network and the local delivering florist the gift of not mentioning their names.

After about an hour of calling customer service at the national flower network and the local florist who delivered the plant, I got them to agree to send out something that is worth the $40, plus tax my sister paid for a cactus that we could have bought from Home Depot for about a buck-ninety-eight. She’ll be visiting in just a few days and the whole thing would be embarrassing for everyone. Who needs more stress around the holidays?

When you think of a brand, please, keep it simple and use our definition. Just two simple words: The Promise and the Experience. When you think in terms of this, the Promises you put out there and the Experiences you deliver should be equal. In other words, what you promise, you simply should deliver. As I have said many times in this blog, the Experiences we have with a brand do far more to make or break it than any Promise we put out there. Paying attention to the experience your customers have with your brand is the most critical aspect of brand and business building.

The Experience…a cactus 2" x 4" in a 6" pot with no bow.

This is the point that too many people miss. An Experience with your brand is more than just an opportunity to deliver what you promised, and it is more than just an opportunity to wow. It is a “moment” with your brand. That “moment” can be stellar, or it can be horrible–which this one was. Did I really need to spend an hour of my time dealing with a bum flower delivery? Of course not. Will I ever buy from either of these companies? You’ve got to be kidding!

This is the kind of brand experience that gets you blazed on Yelp!, flamed on Twitter, and blasted on Facebook. And it sure demonstrates the importance of enlightening everyone in your company to the higher purpose, the true heart of your brand. I’m sure the CEO of the flower network and the flower shop owner would both be shocked by all this. In all our businesses, it only takes one person who doesn’t care, doesn’t get it and who doesn’t understand the true business you’re in to mess things up. Before you start firing people, it’s not their fault in most cases. It’s the leader’s fault for not enlightening and inspiring them.  Do your employees know what business you are really in? Do you?

As we approach the New Year, make a resolution to not just think of branding as a logo or an ad or the hook that you put out there to snag customers. Think instead of the experience you deliver. When you deliver on your promises you’ll be shocked at how many customers you will attract and how quickly your brand and your business will blossom…just like a Christmas Cactus.

What is branding?  Heart & Mind® Branding.