Incoming transmission.
This month's cheat code is inspired by Metroid, c. 1986.
The challenge.
Pressing start, your fingers jerk as your Power Beam takes out metroids above, below, from seemingly every direction, before they latch on and drain your energy.
Entering a new market or starting a new campaign can feel like wandering an alien landscape with no map, no one to guide you, and unproven tactics.
To make it through this uncharted territory, you'll want to think non-linearly. You need some power-ups with staying power, and popping in a Justin Bailey wouldn't hurt either.
Power-up #1: explore and get creative.
To survive and expand into new territory, you need to explore. And get creative. Your reach expands as you acquire new tools — better planning software, partnerships, and AI. These new abilities allow you to tackle problems like never before. Now you have the power-ups to outmaneuver the competition.
Don't be afraid to leap to the next platform.
Power-up #2: find your long-term powers.
Trying to tackle your significant marketing challenges with quick fixes? Feeling outgunned, your team overrun, you might resort to short-term solutions. Maybe you boost a stray post or two on social media for a quick fix.
Just like Metroid pioneered the concept of building up a character's strength as the game progresses, your business needs a long-term game plan to get from your pre-campaign objectives to your post-mortem meeting.
Instead of throwing money at a one-off post, make a content calendar and decide which posts to boost in advance. Soon enough, you'll stumble across a power-up — a social media post that resonates and performs well organically. Time to engage your new weapon and put some money behind that one.
Power-up #3: think non-linearly.
To successfully play Metroid meant moving backwards just as much as moving forward. Rather than sending players through a rigid, step-by-step storyline on a left-to-right axis, players were challenged to retrace their steps to already explored areas to uncover secret paths and power-ups.
Metroid was a game ahead of its time, so be ahead of your time. Toss aside the standard marketing funnel pipeline, and use partnerships and collaborations to bring in customers you might not normally target. Stuck in a marketing rut? Retrace your steps back to your company's mission statement.
Topping off an already unique gameplay experience, Metroid's ending screen displayed one of five outcomes based on how much time the player took to beat the game. Emulate this in your marketing by including easter eggs or a blooper reel at the end of your next video to keep viewers engaged up to the final frame.
The cheat code: password please.
For a solid leg up in your game, enter cheat code JUSTIN BAILEY to arm Samus with every move from High Jump Boots to Screw Attack.
Metroid users will remember all sorts of cheat codes, from the innocuous to the favorable to ones that challenged their skills by increasing the game's difficulty. Is there a lesson to be had in choosing the easy route versus the hard one?
Embrace some quick cheat codes that make life easier. Train your team to get comfortable using AI tools for help with grunt work like transcribing meeting minutes or transforming a dense job listing from HR into a short, punchy social media post.
So who would choose the more challenging path from the start? And why?
Those who love the game and want to win big against the marketing mother brain. No risk, no reward.
