This content was created by Tim Draper. This content was uploaded by Tim Draper. This is a YouTube talk (published Sept 12, 2015) titled "Here are Companies that are AWESOME at Marketing | Head of Brand Strategy at GS&P, Andy Grayson." It is a presentation by Andy Grayson (Head of Brand Strategy at GS&P) about defining a brand's "why" and how action-driven purpose informs marketing. Grayson analyzes examples including CVS (stopping cigarette sales), Nike (the "Find Your Greatness" Olympic campaign), Airbnb ("Belong Anywhere"), and the Bay Lights project/Illuminate the Arts, and includes quoted ad/voiceover excerpts. Tim Draper is mentioned in passing but is not a speaker in the excerpt.
Chapters
A couple brands I just thought I'd mention, and I'm gonna show you a couple things that I've worked on. But the first one is probably not a brand you think I'm gonna put up here. It's not the sexiest brand in the world, but I think they're killing it with their why. And that's CVS. I know that's your favorite brand in the world. But CVS is— does anyone know why I'm putting CVS up here? Because they stopped selling cigarettes. Because they made a decision that they're going to be an alternative to doctors' offices, that they're a health company, that they have all those locations and they can really service the world and be an alternative to doctors' offices with the simple things they can service with a pharmacy and nurse practitioners. That's why people come into a drugstore. It's because they need things, but they also need something simple for their health. If they're in that business, How can they sell cigarettes? So they sacrificed $2 billion in sales to not sell cigarettes anymore, and they dropped out of the Chamber of Commerce. You know, a couple weeks ago, there's an article in the New York Times because they— the Chamber of Commerce doesn't take that stance against anti-smoking. And they said, well, we're— why would we be a part of that organization if we fundamentally believe that we're a health and wellness company and that's where we're going? And they're making decisions based on their why. And that's something for you to remember is your behavior, again, as Simon talked about, if it comes from your why, if it comes from your ultimate why you exist and your vision, it helps your brand have a behavior and make decisions that ultimately can be better marketing and better branding for you than anything you create and put out into the world. Because people believe in action. And action spreads. So I was also, as Prahal mentioned in the introduction, I was lucky to work on Nike. And what I'm gonna tell you about Nike is that obviously, you know, you think Nike's a good brand for communicating their why. But Nike kinda lost its way when I started working on Nike. You know, Nike had become less about kind of their ultimate vision that if you have a body, you're an athlete, and achieving awesome things is inside of every person, you just have to kind of go for it. They'd become about winning and elite athletes only. And when I was working at Nike, as we went around the world and we talked to youth about sports and about Nike, they weren't looking at Nike in the same way anymore.
They were.
They were feeling a little removed from the world Nike had put themselves into, that it was all about elite athletes, that it was all about the number one player on every single team who got signed for a gazillion dollars because they were the best of the best. They were born with this talent. And as the 2012 Olympics came around and we were telling Nike we needed to get back to championing that everybody has it in them to be great. The Olympics became the perfect opportunity to kind of spread this message. Because if you think about the Olympics, it's when we do look on the TV screen and we're like, man, those people are just like freaks. They're God-given talent. But it's also very democratic games because there are people that come from nowhere to become gold medalists and heroes. And so that was the insight into Nike's why. And the moment they seized, we seized to tell the world a different message about Nike and kind of get back to Nike's roots with the Find Your Greatness campaign of the Olympics. And I just have sort of the anthem spot commercial from that effort for us to watch again. I think this is just a really good example of kind of getting back to your why and Nike finding it again.
There are no grand celebrations here. No speeches. No bright lights. But there are great athletes. Somehow we've come to believe that greatness is reserved for the chosen few, for the superstars. The truth is, greatness is for all of us. This is not about lowering expectations. It's about raising them for every last one of us. Because greatness is not about the Greatness is not in one special place. And it is not in one special person. Greatness is wherever somebody is trying to find it.
Yeah. I also think Airbnb is doing a great job right now. A little closer to home maybe than Nike at the moment for you guys. Airbnb could have easily just talked about how they're an alternative to a hotel room. The Uber of hotel rooms. As I heard Tim saying, don't do that in your pitch. But they found a why, which is about that people can belong anywhere. people feel more welcome in all the places they want to go. And they've been telling that story. They have different marketing messages that kind of all emanate from that same why, which is about the fact that hosts are people that shouldn't be strangers. And you can get to know someone new in every city. And you can stay in their home and look out of their windows. feel like you belong in that city, like you wouldn't if you stayed in a hotel. I found this slide on the internet, which is total vindication for my speech, because I did not write this slide. And it shows you that I'm not kind of full of shit. But, you know, they talk about their why that a little bit more. What I mentioned is that, you know, they want the world to feel welcoming wherever you go. and that you belong anywhere. And the world is actually a community, and we've kind of gotten away from that. How they do that, obviously, is the technology and the way they do it. And what they ultimately give you is unique places to stay that you couldn't have stayed in before. But they don't really talk about that. They talk about the bottom part, because that's what kind of inspires people to use Airbnb and get out there and travel, because that's what people have wanted to do. My final example just here on the why is that you don't have to be an enormous, huge brand to be communicating your why and kind of get your why right. This is the Bay Lights Project. And it was funded by one of our small pro bono clients, which is Illuminate the Arts. It's really— it's a foundation run by a few people. Yeah. That find projects that have to do with illumination, art projects that have to do with illumination, and help try to find funding for those projects. And that's where the Bay Lights came from. And they came to us because they were having trouble convincing philanthropists and people who were gonna fund them why should they fund this kind of art versus another kind of art. And as we talked to them and we talked about why they're in business, why they were, you know, why they had created Illuminate the Arts. We kind of came on this really great notion that what they're about is, is about light, and that light is one of the greatest sources of art and one of the greatest sources of humanity. And they believe that we should be doing more with light, and that's where some of the great art comes from, and it really connects with people because it's so visual and so powerful. And we thought, that's so simple, that's such a great why that you should be telling people that that's what you're— that's the business you're in, that's why you want people to fund them. So we created this film, which I think does a really good job of just communicating what they're all about.
We are all made of light, and all life on our small blue ball is its creation. From the tiniest single cells to the mightiest forests, it is our mother and protector. Light is hope. Light is love. Light is energy. No wonder we're drawn to its power.
It's alive!
We speak of the light in your eyes. You're the light of my life. The fire inside. We sing, you are my sunshine and this little light of mine. We have bright ideas, brilliant ones, flashes of inspiration, and when we spread understanding, we illuminate. And what do we call the highest state of being? Enlightenment. Light is the first and the last art form. Our goal is to do nothing less than alter the arc of human history through the creation of transformational works of public art. We are Illuminate the Arts.
Cool. So really simple. Part 1, you get it. Simple message. Why do you exist? Why are you creating this company? What's your story? Make sure you build that into your brand.
