Are you a symphony or merely part of the cacophony?

As of late, I’ve personally experienced the din of information overload (tweets, broadcast, video, blogs, email, mail, billboards, status updates, you name it) as a cresendoing cacophony.

My personal sense of overload has also reminded me of a crucial professional marketing challenge that can sometimes get buried in organizational bureaucracy and to-do lists. The challenge — If you aren’t remarkable, don’t show up to the party.

Yes – marketers are plugged into the cacophony, but we must not allow ourselves to become a part of it. So here’s a late new year’s resolution list from me. I welcome all remarkable party-goers to join me.

• I will challenge myself to make my products and my client campaigns and messages worth talking about. If they don’t stand out, I’m making noise not music. Check out this Child Soldiers video from John St (second video down). This certainly isn’t your standard charity fare and should serve as a remarkable example for us all.
• I will ask my clients and staff to participate in creating remarkable experiences. Everyone wants to be noticed. Everyone has ideas on how to stand out from the crowd. We sometimes just need permission to unleash those ideas.
• I will take risks. Rather than pitching an idea that I know will be well-received and non-controversial, I will throw in some remarkable wrenches that might take some arm-twisting and extra effort.
• I will push myself to explore what makes a product or a message first, best and only. I will ask myself what sets my work apart?
• I won’t fall prey to creating stunts simply to be noticed. I will be believable, credible and relevant.

Paul from Idea Sand Box gave a presentation last week that digs into these last two bullets. Check it out here.

So yes – being remarkable is tough work. It takes creativity. It takes reinvention. It takes guts. But the alternative is being average. And who the hell wants that?