It's Never "Not My Job"

I've been reminded recently of how important it is to take the initiative and make things happen.

There was this one time I was working on a project in which no one was rising up to take the lead and move it forward. At first I took the easy way out: "It's not technically my job, so I'll let someone else do it." Bad idea. I paid the consequences for NOT taking initiative. Then I (re)learned my lesson and decided to rise up and take initiative, myself. Results: project moved forward and I was thanked for going above and beyond to help get it "there."

Now there's different possible results that will come from taking initiative:

1) You move things forward successfully and reap the rewards. Could be things like praise from supervisors/teammates, feeling of satisfaction, raise, promotion, whatever.

2) You move things, but in the wrong direction, and have to pay the consequences for poor judgement. I, personally, don't think it's ever poor judgement to take initiative. But the poor judgement may be bad decisions about how, when, why, where to move things forward. So yes, they're moved...but in the wrong direction, and to the wrong place. The consequence you have to face in that situation is "course-correction" which almost always involves extra time and effort to get back on-track. Ideally, in this situation, your supervisor recognizes that you were trying valiantly but your inexperience or lack of knowledge about this project kept you from taking it in the right direction. Hopefully he/she will praise your effort, and help educate you so you make the right directional decisions next time.

So what's my conclusion? Personally, if I see something that needs to get done, I get up out of my seat and make it happen. If I don't know how to make it happen, I raise my hand and say, "Hey, I'd be willing to lead that charge cuz I see this needs to get done, but could someone please give me some guidance on how to make the best decisions along the way?"

Make it happen, baby. That's the "street" way of saying all this...

Kacha Gets Crazy

Posting to the blog? Not just commenting? Wow, the possibilities are endless...

Scion Game List:

Here's what we came up with. We'll probably end up picking one option for each category.

Overall Theme / Treatment:
We'll have a simple overhead drive that holds all of the games — each of them in their own "neighborhood" or "building — Like in Grand Theft Auto — "Liberty City." Games will unlock as they become available, earn enough points, or complete tasks / games

Product Games:
1. "Built It" — The user will learn tC's key features as they build one from the ground up. "Learn as you try" approach." Theme ideas:
— Go back in time to the tC design shop in Japan and build (Cool Magna type feel)
— Walk around through the city until you collect all of the key features for building a tC. After that, you will drive the vehicle

2. "Stand & Deliver" — Create a virtual walkaround of a vehicle to match an individual's or a crowd. Probably an urban parking lot / car show environment. Crowd applauds for good walkarounds — boos for bad or incorrect ones

Comp / Comp Games:
1. Trash Talk — Person drives up in a competitor's car and starts banging their chest (figuratively) about their vehicle while ripping on the Scion. With each claim from the driver, the user overcomes it with a WordTrack

2. Drag Race — User fuels up their tC with competitive advantages WordTracks and races it against the competition

3. Power Up — Pac Man inspired. A small tC get's chased around a game screen by large competitors. As tC consumes product advantages it grows, until it's large enough to consume the competitor

Accessories:
1. Custom Shop / Parts Counter — Customer identifies accessorizing goals and the user equips the vehicle to meet their wants / needs. The calculate the costs, the customer freaks about the price, user reconfigures to meet monthly payment requirement

Scion 101 (Selling Scion Value)
1. Cash Roll (Cab). Friends rolling around in a Scion with the user asks the user questions about Scion. Just like in Cash Cab they'll have shout outs to help them on tough questions. Win by persuading passengers that Scion is the right brand for them

2. Discover Scion. User walks around a city / dealership / warehouse and collects key elements of the Scion Brand.


So, which ones do you like most?

Scion — Game On!

Scion Mini Games — need I say more?

Two weeks ago Scion came to us with a new mission — "Bring tC top-of-mind with Scion salespeople and remind them how great of a vehicle it is." With the launch of xB and xD, the aging (yet still very cool) tC has lost a bit of its luster on the sales floor. To complicate the situation... the competition has launched exciting new vehicles while tC has remained essentially unchanged. I'm currently working on a full campaign to address the issue — feel free to drop by and take a look at the white board by my office and check it out — a key element is a full compliment of Scion mini games.

Mini Game Basics:
• 5-Minute Max Gameplay
• Fun, Fast, Over the Top Scion Attitude
• Roll out for tC first, then adapt for the full lineup
• Current Game Subjects:
— Product (Know your stuff)
— vs. Competitor #1
— vs. Competitor #2
— vs. Competitor #3
— Accessories
— Scion 101 (Refresher and for New Hires)

So, here's what I need help with:

1. What else do you think Scion tC salespeople need to know (Subject)
2. What kinds of games? Concept? Visual? Play?

Please drop your ideas here, or / and bring them to the 1PM brainstorm.

Thanks for your help.

PS. Look for this blog to get locked down soon — probably later today. So PLEASE be sure to register for this blog if you haven't already. Otherwise you'll probably get locked out. And, it's going to be a hassle for me to get you back in.

Have a great day,

Matt

Client LOVED The Themes — Thanks!

Hi Folks,
Thanks for weighing in. Welp, the Clients followed in line with your voting and selected The Legends Reborn. They also took The Dream Driveway, Dream Machines (new) and the Declaration of Dominance with them.

BTW. Our new style guide for Dodge Themes is: If Mohammed Ali wouldn't say it, it can't be a Dodge theme :).

Ram / Challenger Tour Themes

Themes are always fun AND tough. Hey could you do Kacha and I a favor and weigh in on the following theme concepts? We need to pitch the top three or four to the Chrysler client tomorrow morning. Also, if you have a new theme to throw into the mix, please do. Please comment by 3:30 ET. If you haven't participated in the Blog yet — Here's your chance!

Here goes (In no particular order):

Brains & Brawn

Don’t Look Back

Dream Driveway

More Than Power

Power to the Pavement

Out-Tough, Out-Smart

More than Muscle

The Declaration of Dominance

American Truck, American Muscle

One-Two Punch

Hang-On & Haul

Ain’t No Comeback

The Brains… The Brawn… The Brand

Shock and Awe

The Legends Reborn

Hammer Down

Old School… New Rules

Wiki Experiment

Hi Folks, 

Hey, for Scion we're experimenting on whether or not Wikis would be a good informal training tool for their retail guys. So... I set one up. Please take a look and try and make a contribution -- even if it's just a stab in the dark. I want us all to understand how they work, edit each other's posts... so we can see if there's an application for our clients.

From only dabbling a bit I KNOW there are applications for ES3. 

Here's a link that will help get you there: http://kleintastic.wikispaces.com/ES3+Wiki+Applications