U.S. Soccer Federation Shows ...

MENU

I often refer to levity as the killer app in business communications.

Why do so few organizations go this route?

It takes guts as much as creativity to insert levity into an organization’s storytelling. As a great philosopher once put it, “One man’s levity is another man’s trash.”

Zappos showed guts bringing levity to its communications last year when the brand counterpunched Kanye with his own words.

Likewise, the U.S. Soccer Federation had some fun with its communications before the match with Germany last Friday – in case you’ve been in a submarine without WiFi, Germany won 1 to 0  – tweeting out the following message.

U.S. Soccer Federation Tweet

The tweet included the following “excuse me from work” note ready for easy printout. If you just filled in the blank with your name, you were good  to go.

World Cup Letter - excuse to get out of work template

Nice touch adding the seal from the U.S. Soccer Federation in the upper right-hand corner of the letter.

It would have been easy for the Federation to just stick with the script, offering the typical quotes from the players in anticipation of the big match, statistics on the team’s performance, historical context, etc.

Instead, it deviated from the status quo.

By bringing out the organization’s humanity, it helped people to connect with the U.S. soccer team.

Of course, nothing would connect with the audience like actually winning the World Cup. Then again, just beating Belgium tomorrow would be an achievement.

Go USA!

For more posts that address storytelling on the pitch, check out:

 

 


Comments

Leave a Reply