Win, place or show?
One of the biggest brands in the world is getting ready to go online, and they're aiming to not win.
Sure, they've been online all along, but now it's become clear to them that the web is a real thing, and that a placeholder website and a few gimmicks aren''t sufficient. They're trying to generate online income and respect and audience.
Now, the choice: The safe thing is to organize to show. Showing up without glaring error and a major meltdown is something you can organize for. You say, "well, if everything goes well, we'll be in the top ten in our industry, and perhaps we'll hit the top three." In our industry. That means that when the overall global winners online are tallied up in a list at the end of the year, there's no way you're going to be on it. It means that the very things that made you one of the most powerful brands in the world will be missing, because all you're striving for is pretty good.
The challenge of shooting for a win is that it brings apparent risk with it. Not actual risk (the actual risk is in being mediocre, overlooked and on a slow death spiral) but apparent risk. The thing is that you overcame that risk when you built the original brand. You didn't set out then to be pretty good, good for your category, sort of important. You set out to matter.
So, Mr. Big Brand: organize to win. To do anything else is a waste of your time, your talent and your momentum. Ignore apparent risk, buy the assets you need to matter, avoid the compromises that your competitors have made and do something worth doing.