Nate is out this week, so I am filling in.  Next week, he will be back and the political coverage will resume.

Last week, I had the great opportunity to go to the XM offices (the COOLEST offices I’ve ever seen – even cooler than the Turner Broadcasting offices in Atlanta) and meet the band Safety Suit .  Their first hit song, ‘Someone Like You,’ has been popular since even before they officially released their album mid-May.

I was blown away by how nice, friendly, humble, and appreciative all four guys were.  But, I was more surprised by what I experienced.  The band was there as sort of a ‘meet and greet’ for some of the Program Directors from some of XM’s 170 digital channels.

After being friendly and gracious to everyone they met, the band eventually ended up in a conference room with their acoustic instruments.  After introducing themselves to a room full of strangers, they performed a few songs.

When they were done, they immediately began to work the room.  I am not saying that in a negative or condescending way.  Each band member made sure that they introduced themselves to each person in the room, and not just with a passing ‘hello’ but with a decent, funny, interesting conversation.

I’ve seen a LOT of concerts and up till now, I had always figured (like I assume most people do) that famous bands have some combination of talent and luck.  That may have been true at one time, but not today.  With all of the competition, the only way to be a hit (or frontlist) and not part lost in the tail - a band must have:

• Talent – Listening to any song on the album, you will hear the talent

• Personality – Funny, funny, funny guys

• Willingness to work harder than they ever imagined – The first time I heard of Safety Suit was back in April when I was driving through Columbia, SC.  They had stopped by a radio station there to do an on-air performance.  If you Google Safety Suit, you will see that the station in Columbia is one of MANY.

• Embraced the concept of networking/marketing in a traditional sense – Using their funny personalities and humility to win over person after person as they tour and promote their album

• Embraced even more the concept of social marketing – MySpace, Facebook, YouTube – they have it covered

In talking with Doug, the singer, he mentioned that if he weren’t ‘doing what he was currently doing’ that he’d be in Advertising/Marketing.  Then, he laughed and said jokingly… ‘Well, I guess this is being in advertising.’   Not only could a lot of bands learn a lot from these guys, so could a lot of companies.

My wife and I have been watching the Olympics whenever we could over the past two weeks.  We’d watched almost any sport that was on and usually enjoyed it.  But on Saturday, NBC did something I couldn’t believe.  They aired about two hours and ten minutes straight of the most boring TV I have ever sat through (and why I did, I’m not totally sure).  They aired every minute of the men’s marathon run.

Now, I have nothing but respect for anyone who can run 26.2 miles straight.  I’d be hard pressed to run 26.2 feet – let alone recreate Pheidippides’ historic run.   But, that doesn’t mean that I’d like to spend 2 hours watching someone else do it.  I’d have been fine with watching the first ten minutes, cutting back to it every twenty minutes, and then watching the end. 

But seriously, why would you televise the entire race?  Show me something, anything else!  Watching linoleum curl would have been more interesting (if nothing else for that cool/geeky science aspect).  Plus, commentators run out of interesting things to say in an exciting sport so you can only imagine what they came up with during this riveting spectacle.  “Look they’re at a water station.”  “It really cools them down when they pour it on their heads.”  “Yeah, they sure like water, Bob.” or “These runners are really… running…”  I was on the edge of my seat.

So, why would NBC in its infinite wisdom show such fascinating TV during prime time? (Granted it was on Saturday, which is not a historically high-rated TV night).  I can only come up with two reasons:

1. They thought live-and-boring would trump taped-and-interesting or…

2. They didn’t think it through.  In either case, I think number 2 applies.

So, the moral of this story?  When you spend billions (or just hundreds) of dollars on a marketing campaign, think through how the audience will see it/hear it/understand it.  Throwing  money at anything only makes you poor.  Make sure your campaign is thoroughly thought through (say that three times fast). 

Try to look at it from the perspective of your target audience.  If I was X target audience demographic, how would I interact with Y marketing materials whether it’s a print piece, a Web piece, or a TV/Radio piece.  Don’t assume they’ll jump through whatever hoops you’ve laid out. 

Think about how you would react to the same sort of materials if you were in someone else’s target demographic.  If you take the time to think through every aspect of the life cycle of your campaign, you’ll see better responses, happier customers, and possibly a blacker bottom line.

Remember slow and steady (and thought through) wins the marathon (sorry, I just had to).