Details Are Key in Digital: Know Your Ball

By Bill Zoelle, Chief Creative Officer

Published: February 5, 2016

“The biggest problems in business stem from ignoring the smallest of details.”

This sentiment echoes across an array of business considerations — from interacting with colleagues to developing actionable strategy to communicating with customers via digital channels.

Detail-oriented content, specifically, makes all the difference. It goes beyond advertising and brand identity and is the crux of really connecting with your target audience. It’s this reason and our focus on detail, that led to an amusing realization that is particularly timely with the ‘Big Game’ right around the corner.

Know Your Ball

Football. Arguable by many as America’s favorite sport, America’s true pastime. You’d be hard pressed to find a television on Sunday afternoon not tuned into the game of the week (especially in Green Bay).

But with many Americans watching football each week, you’d think they’d find themselves familiar with the prolate spheroid, pigskin ball that flies through the air — the one everyone has their eyes on.

Yet, many still don’t know what it looks like. A vast majority of advertisers, especially this time of the season, leverage football images in communications and advertising. A surprising number of those advertisers are using the wrong ball.

A Professional Football vs. A College Football

In the big leagues, the football must be a “Wilson,” hand selected, bearing the signature of the Commissioner of the league, in a pebble grained, leather case (natural tan color) without corrugations of any kind.

In college games, the football must have a cover consisting of four panels of pebble-grained leather without corrugations other than seams, one set of eight equally spaced lacings, a natural tan color, and two 1-inch white stripes that are three to three and one-quarter inches from the end of the ball and located only on the two panels adjacent to the laces.

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While the definitions are clear, many get it wrong in promoting the professional support and the final matchup this weekend. Instead, they feature a college football.

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College ball.

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College ball.

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College ball.

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College ball.

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College ball.

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College ball.

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College ball. 2016-02-05_1601

College ball.

Details are crucial to making contact with your desired audience. The fast-paced, interconnected world in which we live provides ample outlets and opportunity to put your best foot forward from the get-go. Make sure to ‘know your ball,’ so your company is well-represented and your customers trust that you know what you’re talking about.

Do you need someone who can catch the little details? Let’s chat!