A New Perspective on Marketing Assets
My trusty sidekick, ChatGPT, defines a Marketing Asset as, "anything created and used to attract, inform, engage, or convert your target audience".
So what are YOU creating and using?
Logos? Brand Guidelines? Taglines? Templates? Imagery? Social Media Posts? Blog Posts? Emails? Testimonials? Videos? Podcasts? Infographics? Whitepapers? eBooks? Webinars? Brochures? ROI Calculators? Demos? Proposals? Ads? Websites? Campaign Briefs? Tracking Links? Dashboards? CRM Procedures? Keyword Lists? Testing Frameworks?
Maybe some; maybe all of the above.
And, if so, you probably consider yourself as having a LOT of assets?
But do they FEEL like assets?
Like, would you say they have monetary value to your organization?
For real now. Remember, lying to yourself is worse than lying to me through an article 😉
Most of these so-called "marketing assets" are NOT adding monetary value to your organization. In fact, they are COSTING you money to create, which is contributing to your Marketing Department operating as a cost centre.
Because that original definition? It's limiting you.
It's distracting you from what REALLY matters in your marketing efforts
The creation and usage of ENERGY.
Which leads to CONNECTION.
You know, the things that ACTUALLY drive a brand experience.
So today, let's explore what it looks like to create THOSE things; and USE those things, in order to generate the most meaningful asset...your Brand Experience.
Creating & Using Energy
For the purpose of this article, let's talk about Brand Energy, or "how alive or magnetic your brand feels".
If we look at the basic principle of Physics that says, "energy can't be created or destroyed - only transformed", when we're talking about creating brand energy, what we're really doing is capturing, transforming and transmitting energy.
We CAPTURE that energy from: the founder's passion, the team's culture, customer love and feedback, your bigger mission or movement. It's the RAW energy - emotional, social, intellectual and even spiritual - that FEEDS the system.
We then TRANSFORM that energy by shaping it into something visible, shareable, and resonant; turning enthusiasm into storytelling, insights into thought leadership, community buzz into conversations, customer love into testimonials, and purpose into your brand narrative.
And then, we need to TRANSMIT it, which happens through: voice and tone, design and motion, events and experiences, rituals and rhythms; micro-moments when people don't just SEE your brand...they FEEL it.
In other words, you convert your REAL passion into brand momentum.
You become a CONDUIT, not a generator.
Which also makes the output feel more human, more sustainable, and more authentic.
Creating & Using Connection
Now, if energy is what animates a brand (think Frankenstein, but in a good way 🤣), then connection is what happens when that energy LANDS in another human being.
Energy is the SPARK.
Connection is the RESULT.
And we're not talking about a vanity metric result like a follow, a click or a like.
We're talking about people seeing themselves IN your brand.
We're talking about people feeling emotionally aligned WITH our values and story.
We're talking about people developing TRUST and belonging.
All the things it takes to enable them to CHOOSE to return, refer and rally behind us.
The "creation" here is about facilitation. Enablement. Multiplication.
A DEEPENING of the relationship.
Which doesn't happen if you're "just posting content".
It DOES happen though if we are:
Channeling OUR pre-existing human desire for belonging into our interactions with others
Designing experiences that enable connection between two humans as the desired outcome
Strengthening those connections with "us" and "we" narratives and solution co-creation
If we are turning shared energy into shared meaning 💖
What Makes Your Brand Experience a REAL Asset
If we go back to the financial definition of assets, let's assume that something only becomes valuable when: 1) it's repeatable, 2) it drives results and 3) it can be designed, activated and amplified, ideally by multiple people within your business.
Brand experiences that come into existence through creating and harnessing the energy and connection of PEOPLE aren't one and done; they are continually being created on behalf of the business and are impossible to effectively copy.
Because they are YOU. Being YOU.
I often say, "you don't want to get into a battle with me on who can be the best Tracy Borreson. I will win every time."
Equally, no one wants to get into a battle with YOU in the zones where you OWN it.
But you have to OWN a zone.
And that level of ownership never happened when you were too busy "generating assets".
It's starts with a CHOICE.
A choice to own your position.
Once you choose to BE you, it's by nature repeatable (because it's what YOU would do).
That allows you to clear away a TON of clutter, which leads to the results driven component. Because you get to do only the things that MATTER, and let go of the rest.
And finally, once that's CLEAR, the processes to activate and amplify that in others also becomes clear.
Yeah, there's actually not a lot of DOING that has to go into it💡
So, if you find yourself in a time where you're DOING so much you can't do what matters, well then, maybe it's time for a chat✨
