Playing Your Own Game

In the past 6 months, we have been approached by four different companies wishing to acquire some part of 33 Interactions. Naturally, I would do the same in their position – it makes sense to get in on the act when companies are in their infancy. Needless to say, it’s also quite flattering and a little surprising – we have been in start-up mode and staying under the radar – or so I thought.

Temptation

I have visited with two of these companies and was quite taken with wonderful office spaces and wonderful people (our space and people are also wonderful). The point is that I was tempted to sell a chunk of 33 Interactions and partner with one of these companies. It did take me back to my time in the agency world, and while advertising is under much more scrutiny these days, working for one of the largest and most illustrious global agencies was a defining point in my career. I could very well walk into my old agency (if they would have me) and proceed as though nothing had changed in ten years (except the street address).

Now, I do know that the agency in question, has evolved and has gone from strength-to-strength, but we are human beings, and a part of being human, is being comfortable with the familiar – the tried and true. Even though it may seem counter-intuitive, we will go with flow. We want to follow others even though it is not the direction we need to take.

That is the key – “the direction, we need to take.”

We founded 33 Interactions with a specific dream in mind. Great offices, functions, perks and awards are all attractive – but not at the cost of a dream, and we do have an amazing dream – a dream to revolutionise marketing, and to do that on our terms – where our team has the opportunities to be true to themselves, and to determine their individual futures.

Our strategy is to design ground breaking strategies for a network of partners who give us access to all segments of the market. We are architects of a new marketing future – a future where all our partners benefit – a new marketing future with the customer as our co-collaborator and partner, as opposed to an “eyeball for marketing messages.” That is the direction we need to take – and there is too much at stake to forgo our direction, and take the road more commonly travelled.

Playing Your Own Game

I learnt an important lesson from my late grand father when I was quite young. We were discussing football (the round ball variety), and as a young child, I was adamant that all teams should play the Spanish way or the Brazilian “joga bonito” way. Joga Bonito is “play beautifully” in Portuguese and the Brazilian national team have captured the imagination of many – young and old. My grand father’s lesson was very simple – most non-Brazilian players could not match the skill and flair of the Brazilians, and attempting to do so would be futile – so play your own game, you have a better chance of winning your game versus someone else’s game.

Blue Ocean Strategy

If you want some practical advice on winning at your own game – look no further than “Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant” by W.Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. Every marketer, no matter their specialisation, must read this book.

With global oversupply, shrinking demand, media proliferation, and savvy customers in control of their interactions, companies need to break out of the red ocean of bloody competition “by creating uncontested market space that makes the competition irrelevant.” Instead of dividing existing demand, we need to break out from the competition and grow new demand – and that is at the heart of the 33 Interactions strategy – we help our partners create new demand by addressing the current crisis in marketing.

More Work to be Done

It has taken time and expertise in marketing communications, digital marketing, one-to-one, social marketing and customer relationship marketing to create Transdigital Communication Planning, a framework and philosophy that goes “Beyond Digital” to integrate traditional media with non-traditional, and incorporates one-to-one and social marketing.

In addition, we have developed the 33 Customer Advocacy Ladder, which says that the organising principle of marketing must be the creation of positive customer relationships that result in customer advocacy, or referral and recommendation from customers. Companies with the highest number of advocates versus detractors garner the highest shares of industry growth.

While Transdigital Communication Planning and the 33 Customer Advocacy Ladder are powerful tools, and have yielded great success for our agency partners and their clients, there is much more work to be done to achieve the dream. The dream is a movement – a movement that places respect for the customer at the forefront of everything we do in business and marketing, and if this is to be more than lip-service, we need to engage our partners and their clients, and our friends in this movement. That is not an easy task but we have a dream, and a very worthwhile one at that.

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Jeeva Sathurayar is a founder and current Chief Executive Officer of 33 Interactions. Jeeva offers and advocates a transformative vision of marketing that is contrary to traditional marketing practise. His analysis of global marketing issues suggests that we are seeing a level of change not experienced since the Industrial Revolution, and contends that the methods used to formulate business and marketing strategy are not significant or fast enough to deal with a marketing climate where the empowered customer is in control. Jeeva can be contacted via e-mail

The 33 Way is not so much “a way,” as it is the personal musings of a CEO and an executive team dedicated to helping their people find individual freedom and growth, which allows for creativity.

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