How to Miss An Opportunity
By: Zach Neuman
Tags: Creative, Innovation, Change, Opinion, Opportunity

How to Miss An Opportunity

Missed it by THAT much. Photo by Miikka Luotio on Unsplash

A good strategy is like happiness; it arrives when least expected.

Sometimes, it can come in through an epiphany, like a lightbulb turning on in your head (like the way Dan Wieden discovered the “Just Do It” line for Nike).

Other times, a strategy can fall into a company’s lap, and if they follow the trail, it can grow a community of people who believe in them. Mess up the chance, and it can lead to a bunch of exasperated huffs online and little regard for their brand.

Here are some examples of what NOT to do when confronted with something new.

Exhibit A- Nintendo

Final Destination, no items. Photo by Ryan Quintal on Unsplash

For those who don’t know, there’s a massive community online surrounding a Nintendo franchise called Super Smash Brothers, where players control famous Nintendo characters as they try to knock each other off of the screen. One entry, called Super Smash Brothers Melee, is still played across the world 19 years after its release.

One event players battled in every year was called Big House, the biggest and longest-running Super Smash Brothers competition. Players would duke it out in one location, using multiple game consoles to play against each other.

That was going to happen this year until COVID-19 hit. Suddenly, the competition was shifted to online. The only way they could play the game while social distancing was to emulate multiple copies of Super Smash Brothers Melee and play them using a web server called Slippi Online (since Super Smash Brothers Melee doesn’t have online support).

Here’s Nintendo’s problem: Online support for an almost 19-year-old game can be tough. On the other hand, people will be using ports of your game, which might be illegal.

In what would have been a better response, Nintendo would begin work on porting the game to the Switch so that people can play online using Nintendo’s already-existing web service. In the meantime, they’d put their full support behind Project Slippi and promote the competition on their own website. In fact, they’d even hire the Project Slippi team to work on the new port.

Yeah, we wish.

In reality, due to the nature of using alleged pirated versions of the game, they sent a cease-and-desist letter to Big House, forcing the competition to close.

While I do understand the reasoning for this behavior, as video games are highly pirated, there’s one thing Nintendo didn’t take into account:

OPTICS.

Look at that tunnel vision! Photo by Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash

Think hypothetically about how your community would react to the news. In this case, these people play your game enough to go pro, yet you don’t support them when the going gets tough? What does that tell the players who care immensely about your products?

Making a statement against piracy towards people that care about your game won’t help. In fact, trying to stop people from playing your game illegally might push you towards some crazy idea.

What about online support for Super Smash Brothers Melee?

Here’s the thing. Remember what I said about “bad” ideas: they can lead to great things if worked through. However, throwing them away because they may not work doesn’t give you an excuse to keep to the status quo.

In conclusion, please take notice of the community’s needs and try to collaborate with them instead of immediately pushing them away. Delve into unheard-of ideas, and try to make something great with your community instead of against their wishes.

Exhibit B- Sherwin Williams

I believe that most businesses using TikTok are treating it like old Youtube. They haven’t found a decent idea of how to use it, and it will take a minute for marketing people to get better at it.

Enter Tony Piloseno, also known as Tonester Paints on TikTok.

Such soothing colors… Property of Tonester Paints, TikTok

This man worked part-time at a Sherwin Williams paint store in Ohio when he had a brilliant idea.

Why don’t I film myself mixing paints and post them on TikTok?

People loved the videos. They were soothing, and the repeat function on the app allowed people to sit and stare at the mesmerizing colors blending into each other like a smoothie.

Not surprisingly, it worked, with him gaining over 1 Million followers and attracting millions of views to his paint mixing. He actually got people interested in something people don’t normally talk about, and that’s a pretty big deal in my book.

Here’s Sherwin Williams’ problem: Someone was using their paints to make videos online. We can’t have people wasting our paint. On the other hand, it’s bringing people’s attention to paint mixing, and we could do something about it.

The best response would’ve been to see the potential he could bring to their brand. They could invest in his enterprise, send him some paint mixes to experiment with, and even hire him as a marketing coordinator for TikTok.

I wish that happened. Instead, they fired him. FIRED HIM.

This sort of thing blows my mind, particularly because I’m in the marketing field. If I ran a company, and someone got us a way to attract new people to my brand, especially on a platform I don’t completely understand, I’m hiring that man. New strategies can come from anywhere, and to shrug them away in some stubborn need to “stick to our guns” is upsetting.

Also, they didn’t just send him a cease-and-desist as Nintendo did. They tossed him out like trash.

This tweet says it all: https://twitter.com/Casey/status/1330899103182536704

Thankfully he got hired by another paint company, but the fact that this happened upsets me.

Companies care too much about the short-term. Meanwhile, some great ideas can come from breaking a few walls down and allowing ideas to help innovate the company.

Whether it’s for new products or marketing tactics, companies can’t afford to turn down opportunities that arise. It may just be exactly what they need.

Music used to write this:

Transition- Elora Bonilla; Suji- Hein Talbot; Nocturne in Green- Rand Aldo; Their First Time- Lanai String Section; Sleeping in Seattle- Max Ellion