Winning through impact in the new year
Why and how to incorporate social or environmental impact into your game plan
January is the official month for brainstorming, strategizing, and planning the year ahead for your brand. The feeling of having a blank canvas to work with for the next months brings a fresh perspective to achieve goals and maximize the second (or first) half of the football season.
Some goals that often appear in first-quarter planning are raising brand awareness, achieving financial sustainability, increasing and diversifying revenue, acquiring, retaining, and upselling customers, developing new products, and raising social media reach and engagement. But have you considered impact?
Incorporating impact into your brand and communication strategies can help you achieve your goals and open new opportunities for your brand. Adjusting the angle through which you look at purpose and impact and adopting an authentic and strategic approach can be a game changer for your planning.
Here are four questions to ask yourself as you factor impact in:
1. Where do I spot opportunities?
Opportunities to generate real and strategic impact tend to be found where needs and problems meet the distinct response you can give. If you want to be intentional about it, your impact strategy should:
a. Answer an existing and legitimate need (adopting a posture of listening and learning is crucial here).
b. Connect with your core values, your story, and your vision.
When you cross these elements, what opportunities can you find that would allow you to generate a positive impact and strengthen your brand?
Here is one of my favorite examples of a job well done when it comes to that.
2. What can I offer?
I always advise people to map out important dates on the calendar so their brand doesn't miss a chance to join important conversations. But I also always insist on the need to create value through that.
Why would people want to engage with your International Women's Day post in a sea of a million others? How does this specific in-kind donation to a selected organization actually help them and connect with the audience that made it possible?
If you scratch the easy and reactive responses and take one step further, what is the value you can offer through your content, communication, CSR actions, governance policies, and impact strategy? What can you add to the conversation?
The start can be as simple as rethinking your social media posts and shifting from self-centered promotion to user-centric content that offers valuable information or services to the audience. This is also creating positive impact.
3. Who can I collaborate with?
Once it's clear who or what you can positively impact and why, before you set out to create an intricate world-saving plan from scratch, look around and see if there is anyone out there doing something similar and, most likely, better.
The answer will probably be yes.
There are many trusted and competent people and organizations dedicated to generating positive social and environmental impact around the world, many of them focused on football and other sports.
Relying on well-thought-out and designed partnerships to activate your impact can advance you in the game. Plus, “partnership for the goals” is one of the SDGs - collaborating also generates positive impact.
4. How can I measure and share my impact?
How can you tell the story of the positive impact you are driving, connecting the dots above? What is the data, what are the faces, voices, or places that can help you show how it came to life and the effect it caused?
(If you are a non-profit organization, providing quantitative and qualitative data about your impact is crucial and can be key to securing more donations and partnerships.)
Promoting your impact is not opportunism. When done well and backed by a thoughtful strategy, it inspires more positive action, connects with the audience that values social and environmental action, and creates new opportunities.
Answering these questions can help you start or improve your plan to generate impact through your brand and grow as you give. If your organization is looking for someone to give you more in-depth assistance on this, contact me and we can chat about it.
If this was helpful to you, let me know in the comments or by responding to this email. Part of my own ✨2024 plan✨ includes bringing more practical brand + communication content, and getting your feedback is very important to help guide me. If you know anyone to whom this content might be helpful too, make sure to forward it to them! 😉
As I mentioned in the last edition, I am also working on the 2024 Football + Impact Trend Report, so there is more help for your strategic needs coming your way soon.
THE GOOD LINKS:
🙌 This speech by Xabi Alonso.
🎙️ When the Liverpool starting 11 was recited at the Emmys ceremony.
😲 This Sporting collection inspired by one of Ayrton Senna's cars.
👏 What Antonio Rüdiger said.
🤴🏿 These boots worn by William Troost-Ekong at AFCON.
✊🏿 When one more player stood up against racism (because, unfortunately, one more player was abused). And when Vini Jr joined the conversation (🚨 brand consistency!)
👌🏻 This grassroots women's club away kit.