In the span of about 10 hours this past weekend, both of my favorite teams lost games that I thought they were in. Well maybe could have been in. On second thought were kind of in. Being totally honest, they were never in. I listened to both coaches (for purposes of this discussion, let’s call them the “Heads of Marketing”) post-game press conferences and heard the usual reasons. We didn’t tackle very well. Costly penalties. Turnovers killed us. Too many third and outs. Poor base running. Left too many runners stranded. Swung at too many bad pitches.

Kind of made me realize that no matter how good your game plan is going in, it’s the little things that make or break you. In my business the age old question is “What’s the big idea?” That’s the question that marketers and advertising companies spend countless dollars and hours trying to answer every day. But when that idea is finally presented, tested, presented to senior management, re-tested, focus-grouped, re-presented, shot, edited, re-edited and aired… is that really the most important component of winning “the game”?

Maybe? More times than not however, the devil is almost always in the details. I like to think (and receive confirmation regularly from the brands we represent) that we’re very, very good at solid positioning and, just as importantly, the little things. When it comes to consumer touch points, are you really leaving no stone unturned? Even the pebbles?