The most dangerous place in business isn’t on the edge of a cliff; it’s in the middle of the herd. If you aren’t disrupting the status quo, you’re just funding it. Be the exception.
Event season in the Valley isn’t just a calendar of games and galas; it is a battlefield. As crowds swell in Scottsdale and broadcast ratings spike, businesses scramble like frantic stock traders to capture a sliver of that attention. But here is the brutal truth: While the spotlight gets brighter, the competition gets dumber.
Brands pile into the same spaces, scream the same platitudes, and utilize the exact same playbook. This is why they fail. In a season defined by chaos, predictability is camouflage. If it looks like an ad and sounds like an ad, the human brain — which is hardwired to filter out noise — will delete it before it even registers.
If business owners want to skyrocket their business with a massive influx of new customers, they don’t need more volume. They need contrast. They need to be the glitch in the matrix.
The Art of the ‘Glitch’
Take the World Series. Arizona was watching. Suddenly, a 72SOLD commercial appeared to “glitch” right in the middle of a pitch. Our website lit up. It became a statewide conversation piece. Luck? Yes. But only because the brand had the audacity to be in the arena.
We paid for several spots. We put ourselves in luck’s path. When a company puts its brand in a high-stakes environment, it isn’t just buying exposure; it’s buying the potential for magic.
The Sound of Silence
It was the 2023 Super Bowl. Companies spent millions on CGI explosions, celebrity cameos and loud music. The result? A wall of noise where little truly stood out.
So, what did 72SOLD do? We zigged while others zagged.
Our commercial was a study in sensory deprivation. A single, echoing doorbell sound. Then? Silence. No talking heads. Just the ambient sound of a front porch.
Dogs across Arizona started barking at the TV. People in kitchens, hearing the doorbell, walked back into the living room to see who was there. We didn’t try to out-shout other advertisers; we hacked the environment. When the world is deafeningly loud, the loudest thing a company can be is quiet.
The ‘Server-Crashing’ Strategy (Or: How to Sell by Not Selling)
But the ultimate lesson in maverick marketing happened the year prior, during another Super Bowl slot. This is the story of how we crashed the GoDaddy servers and took down our own website in minutes.
We had the stage. We had the eyeballs. We could have thumped our chests. We had the data to prove 72SOLD was selling homes for 5.8% higher prices than the MLS average. We could have screamed about our industry-shattering offer: agreeing to buy any home we couldn’t sell in 30 days with a 100% full-value guarantee. Most real estate tycoons would have killed to broadcast those stats.
We didn’t mention a single one.
Instead, we looked at the camera and made a promise. We offered to make 72 consecutive months of house payments for one needy Arizona family … regardless of the cost.
We didn’t ask for business. We asked to help.
The response was a tidal wave. Tens of thousands of people flooded the site instantly to nominate deserving families. The servers melted down. And true to our word, 72SOLD is still making those payments today for a family whose son, a military veteran, perished as a result of his heroic act saving his fellow soldiers.
Why did this work? Because it wasn’t salesy. It was significant. It cut through the cynicism of the modern consumer. It wasn’t a pitch; it was a purpose.
How to Be the Maverick
So, how does a company apply this to its brand during high-stakes event season?
- Murder the ‘corporate’ voice: Stop sounding professional. Sound human. Be likable. Be edgy. If marketing doesn’t make a company slightly nervous, it’s too boring to work.
- Weaponize the unexpected: Don’t just buy a billboard. Look at the wristbands, the parking tickets, the hydration stations. Ambush the consumer where their guard is down. When a brand appears in a surprising spot, the brain has to process it. That split-second of processing is where the win happens.
- React in real time: The massive corporations are slow. It’s important to be fast. A message tested at a Spring Training booth on Tuesday should be refined and dominating social media by Thursday. React to the mood of the crowd in real time.
Cutting through the noise isn’t about spending more money. It’s about having the guts to be different. It’s about changing the temperature of the room.
As we head into this event season, remember: A company can be safe or it can be legendary. It cannot be both.
Greg Hague is the founder and CEO of 72SOLD. Under his leadership, 72SOLD achieved the No. 211 ranking on the 2024 Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies and was recognized as the fastest-growing real estate firm in the Western U.S. A licensed attorney, Hague earned the top score on the Arizona bar exam. Before founding his companies, he was ranked by Realtor Magazine as the No. 19 top-selling agent nationally, No. 1 in Arizona.
Did you know: Speaking of Event Season … The Cactus League spring training in the Phoenix area draws nearly 1.7 million fans across its 224 games, with an average attendance of approximately 7,567 fans per game.
Photo courtesy of 72SOLD
