Startup COMMS: The Backup Quarterback Principle
- Charley Arrigo
- Apr 6
- 3 min read
Updated: May 2
Introduction
He’s tall. He’s got those California good looks. And he pairs them perfectly with that "I'll have your daughter home by midnight" smile. For TV sponsors and football wives, that alone was enough for love at first sight.
He’s got a cannon for an arm. He’s a gunslinger at heart. But sometimes, he doesn’t always see the whole field. So when he throws that first quarter interception to the other team, remind yourself to stay calm, and stay the course.
After all, startup communications is a four quarter affair.
With The Backup Quarterback Principle—think of it as one high stakes marketing game of does the risk exceed the reward?
The Backup Quarterback Principle
There's nothing wrong with coming up short. But there is something wrong about not giving your team every chance to win.
Because if losses stand for anything in startup marketing, they give us a chance to remember what we did wrong.
A loss forces us to look into the mirror. It challenges us to dig deeper into the playbook. The memory of coming up short on the scoreboard, has a special way of stripping away ego. And when that happens, we can turn off our tunnel vision—and start asking questions. Especially, to those who have skin in the game.
"The Backup Quarterback Principle" is about giving a team every chance to win. The definition is as follows:
"In every startup marketing program, there lies an undiscovered insight or advertising asset that can change the game—in your favor."
Maybe this is a good time for a story.
Once upon a time, there was a young marketer who just started his first paid marketing gig. It was a staffing startup in Washington DC. They never had a marketing department until that point.
They had a slogan that sounded corporate. And had worked with consultants who seemed okay squeezing the brand into the DC corporate staffing image that was industry standard.
The first six months on the job, the marketing was still at a flatline. And this marketer, began to worry about his job.
Then one day, the phone rang. It was a candidate. Such calls were usually about putting out fires. Like explaining to someone why a recruiter didn't follow up with them about a job (that sometimes, they weren't qualified for).
This was different. When the marketer picked up, the candidate talked happily about the career workshop they attended with the startup founder.
Only, she had a gripe. We ran out of "I Love My Job ♥" coffee mugs which were promised as a gift to candidates who finished the workshop.
"Sure, we can send a mug to you. What's the address?"
As recruiters relayed to the marketer that day—that wasn't the first time someone asked about those mugs. In fact, it was maybe the only constant in candidate communications.
Within two years, "I Love My Job ♥," became the communications. Photos with employees holding the mugs made up the images across website and social. The slogan was stamped onto every message, at every touchpoint, everywhere in the marketing.
Meanwhile, candidates asked for more mugs.
Engagement went from zero to a point where the marketer no longer had to worry about his job. But landed a new one because of the success of the campaign.
This is an example of "The Backup Quarterback Principle."
Let it be known that reward in communications cannot come without risk. In this situation, the founder and CEO of the staffing startup, was at heart, a risk-taker by nature.
Success came in direct proportion to her comfort with "what's the worst that can happen?" For example, would more corporate clients not take them seriously? (That didn't happen.)
In reality, fear in marketing is irrelevant to most startups. Because if one cannot build, generate, or engage an audience to begin with—below rock bottom, is only rock bottom.
Here's a few things to keep in mind:
If your startup's communications fits seamlessly into the industry's corporate status quo, that's a problem that needs to be addressed in the execution of the creative marketing.
Risk in communications is negligible if the company is unable to build, generate, or engage an audience to begin with (below rock bottom is rock bottom).
Diamonds in the rough won't be as visible to the executive team as they will to those manning the trenches: Let social and frontline marketers bring insights to bear.
And remember, when all else fails, and you're in need of a spark—you just have to bite the bullet, throw in that backup quarterback, and let him air it out a bit (maybe even throw that first quarter interception).
