Being based out of Indiana, I find myself with an interesting opportunity this year. In case you have been living under a rock, the Super Bowl is being held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana… or as I like to call it, my back yard. Those of you who have found yourself within close proximity to a host city will undoubtedly be able to relate to the sense of electricity that we feel in the air. There are ads on television and in the newspapers talking about all the events taking place in the city leading up to the big game. We don’t even yet know who will be playing, and already the excitement is palpable. I think it’s important to note that the Indianapolis Colts are not even in the Super Bowl this year. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be a host city with your team in the actual game! I attended a conference over the summer in downtown Indianapolis shortly after we discovered that we had won the bid for the Super Bowl, and already the increase in infrastructure work in the downtown area was astounding. The most impressive construct has to be the two or three block stretch of heated walkway that will house the “Super Bowl Village”. I won’t lie; I am almost as excited to try out those massive infrared heaters as I am to get into the game.
I don’t have anything to do with the Super Bowl, and in fact, if it weren’t just right down the road this year I wouldn’t really even be interested. Still, you can’t help but have at least one conversation with someone about it every day. It truly is amazing if you think about it, that an event can be put on in a state that won’t even have representation at the game, and the excitement will still make it an undoubted success. It just goes to show that getting people excited about a project is a brilliant way to ensure its success. You can’t argue with 46 Super Bowls!
Ensuring my client’s success with their portal is the core function of my daily job. One conversation I find myself having more and more is how to get users to buy-in to this new project. An intranet solution or Board Portal should be an easy sale for your users. The practical applications are clear from just a simple overview of the product, and yet, this battle seems to be one that is constantly fought. In drawing a parallel to one of our repeated solutions to this problem with the Super Bowl experience; I am only reminded that excitement is such a huge part of the process. The response to my encouragement to hold a naming contest, or lunch party, and other “fun” activities is almost always the same “we don’t really have time” or “we don’t want to put effort into something like that.” We understand that “fun” isn’t always something that bodes well with management in the workplace at first, but every customer that takes our advice and spends the extra effort to make their portal implementation process exciting has ended up being our biggest success stories. Ask Betty House at Circle Bank how much all of their users loved the little cakes and balloons they sent to all their branches to celebrate the launch of their portal, Blink? Or ask Amy Rector at Y-12 Federal Credit Union how happy the branch that won the naming contest was when they got to wear jeans to work for a full week! The examples of this practice are countless (though you can read about more of them at Community .Passageways.com). This is one reason we usually suggest that a Board Portal or other intranet solution be owned by a variety of departments as opposed to just your IT group. HR, Marketing, Accounting, Operations, all these departments are made up of individuals from different backgrounds and experiences that can be invaluable to increasing the internal excitement surrounding your portal project.
It is not a slight to the IT department; in fact it could probably be viewed as more of a compliment. The IT department “gets it”. They use a variety of software on a daily basis and typically aren’t the types resistant to change, primarily because you can’t be resistant to change in the tech world as it is constantly changing. It’s the nature of the beast. These groups are used to being presented with a new piece of software that is created to accomplish a certain set of tasks and then using it to complete those predetermined tasks. To the technical brain, there just isn’t really another way of thinking about it, that ideology just makes sense. The brilliance of an intranet solution or Board Portal, however, is that it isn’t just a clear cut set of tools to accomplish a specific set of activities. The possibilities are endless with just the basic tools, and the more you add to your solution the larger those possibilities grow. One of the best parts of my job is when a client shares a new use for one of our tools with me that I had never thought of. It is the other departments that are less inclined to just try to go from point A to point B with this project without any stops in the middle. Assemble a team that is willing to think outside the box and generate excitement, and the possibilities are endless. Not to mention that your team’s excitement will generate excitement everywhere. Like with the Super Bowl, the more excitement is generated around the event, the more people will be interested, the bigger the success of the event itself. I don’t have anything invested in the 2011 Super Bowl, but I can assure you that I will be taking part in the fun leading up to the big day.
Try the Super Bowl tactics with your organization. Excitement spreads like wild-fire and if you get a good portal team that is excited about what they are doing, and willing to put in the extra effort to add some fun to the project, you are sure to succeed. The excitement surrounding the Super Bowl creates opportunity surpassing just those on the surface apparent to the football stadium and the NFL themselves and a successful implementation will do the same for you. It’s no secret that the host city for the Super Bowl is a sought after honor for the business it brings to that town in the year surrounding the game. Your portal team positions should be sought after as well, because it is this team that will help show eventual success in every department of your organization.
What pre-launch marketing strategies have worked for your team? We thank you for sharing your nuggests here with us by leaving your comments!