What can we learn from the World Cup?

Watching the World Cup has reminded me of some marketing home truths. There is no magic formula for winning football matches anymore than there is delivering a winning marketing campaign. We have come to expect that there is a secret formula or one special ingredient - Wayne Rooney and Twitter both have there place but there are more forces at play. The expression we use at Size 10 1/2 Boots to describe success formula is “intelligent elbow grease”. ‘Intelligent’ relates to making the smarter choices, say choosing a permission based marketing approach ahead of traditional interruptive techniques, like cold calling. ‘Elbow grease’ is a more old fashioned concept that has been lost, as we have been duped into believing that instant gratification is possible. Well, in marketing and on the football pitch hard graft is still valuable. Did you see how New Zealand won a famous point against Italy? “Intelligent elbow grease” was the key ingredient here, not expensive sponsorship.In marketing too much has been said and written about digital media at the expense of face to face communication over a bacon sandwich or pint of beer. In football there is a place for both the giants and minnows, as in marketing coffee is as important as blogging. Anyway, my money is on Holland to lift the big prize.