In the run up to the Super Bowl this weekend, hours of airtime will be dedicated to both the data and “hot takes” that may suggest a winner: which team led in yards or touchdowns, how long was the average drive, where did competitors stack up and what plays were Sports Center worthy?
In the PR and communications world, so much of our success is measured by comparable statistics: the depth and breadth of recent media coverage, views or clicks on a campaign, messages resonance and what campaigns captured positive attention from executives, investors or the market at large.
But what about all the moments that won’t necessarily make highlight reels?
The adage is that football is a game of inches, but so is PR. In football, it’s counted by many in Super Bowl rings; in the comms game, it’s measured in platinum media placements and splashy broadcast segments, influencer engagements gone viral and the crisis averted in the public eye. In both sports, those big wins often look easy from the outside, but the reality is that they require so. Much. Hard. Work. They demand grit and ability to push through even when met with obstacles. They require a mix of passion, perseverance and practice. Many little victories over time contribute to the big wins that everyone remembers.
Here in Boston, many football fans chalk up all those little moments that lead to success up to “The Patriot Way.” A few years ago, we set out to articulate our version of that, the so-called “V2 Way.” Those qualities that drove us were something many V2ers felt and knew were inherent in our culture: shared traits that made client programs successful, employees excited to build a career here and the agency successful. But never formally articulated.
So on a very rainy day on the other side of the city, half a dozen V2ers of varying backgrounds, tenures, and levels came together and rather quickly arrived at the words that would define the values that then and still today make V2 successful:
- Collaborative – we are respectful and engaged
- Tenacious – we are assertive and ambitious
- Curious – we are in touch and have a perpetual desire to learn
- Confident – we are experienced, smart and thoughtful
- Transparent – we are honest and communicative
- Real – we are trustworthy and human
Since then, our values have become core to the fiber of the agency. We vet for them in new hire interviews; we tout them in telling prospective clients about our differentiators and workstyle; we discuss them in performance reviews and mentor conversations and we celebrate them each and every month with our Bold Mover award.
The Bold Mover award is a peer-nominated award that recognizes a V2er who applied one or more of our values to solve a problem, deliver a client result, help a colleague or otherwise make V2 a great place to work and grow. In recent months, our Bold Movers have been nominated—and lauded in our staff meeting. In January, we celebrated account coordinator Jill Austin for, among many reasons, her tenacity, curiosity and confidence in making smart connections across multiple accounts; in the past, we’ve also celebrated those who live our values of being transparent with their honest and clear feedback to colleagues and of keeping it real for ensuring we all have the latest and greatest pop culture updates and references (among more professional achievements, of course).
Rarely, if ever, do the results of a media win, a new client secured or a creative idea realized alone warrant a Bold Mover winner. After all, as the GOAT Tom Brady has said, winning “comes in a lot of shapes and forms.”