Contact: Art Reid
Phone: +1-678-637-3264
Email: artreidmkt@gmail.com
May the Farce Be With You:
The highly anticipated Stand-Up Strategist Top 23 Rankings just made public!
Stand-Up Strategist (SUS) is the first rating platform to recognize and celebrate the important role of humor in corporate leadership, strategy and culture. The inaugural, 2018 SUS Top 23 List selects, ranks and applauds the most outstanding April Fools’ Day campaigns from companies around the world. The annual selection culminates in a high-profile awards ceremony event.
Top winners for 2018 include Swiss-based Logitech Business-Speak for BS Detection, US-based Life Storage with Howie the AI Bot, and Australia-based ME Bank’s debut of disposable credit cards. All 23 finalists are ranked on 5 key factors: entertainment value, opportunistic absurdity, quality of execution, strategic relevance and the likely positive impact on internal culture. An explanation of ranking criteria, as well as the full list of finalists and rankings, can be found at www.standupstrategist.com
Core inspiration for SUS was a quote by Albert Einstein: “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it”. Accordingly, the humorous probing of the absurd through conceiving and executing April Fool’s Day campaigns, enables companies to unleash the creative potential of their staff, and lay the seed for new, future-shaping, strategic directions.
About Stand-Up Strategist
Stand-Up Strategist (SUS) is the first rating platform to recognize and celebrate the important role of humor in corporate leadership, strategy and culture. SUS is the premier resource for leaders interested in re-imaging their market boundaries and internal culture through the strategic use of humor.
About Stand-Up Strategist Top 23 Rankings & Awards
Each year, the SUS Top 23 Rankings and Awards selects, ranks and applauds the most outstanding corporate April Fool’s Day campaigns from around the world, culminating in a gala ceremony event. Selection of the campaigns is based on 5 criteria:
- Entertainment Value: How universally funny, original and clever is the underlying concept? To what extent does it make you laugh, ponder, and make you want to share it with others?
- Quality of Execution: How well is the underlying concept presented, what is the level of execution, attention to detail and overall campaign quality?
- Opportunistic Absurdity: To what extent does the underlying concept actually capture the seed of a new business idea or potential market offering?
- Brand Relevance: To what extent is the underlying concept consistent with, and can help propel the brand essence and market positioning of the company behind it?
- Cultural Impact: To what extent can the underlying concept serve to unify and align the staff of the company behind it around optimal strategy and culture?
Who is Talking Humor among Thought-Leaders?
- “Extraordinary leaders understand the strategic importance of humor as a vehicle to embed key points and concepts within the hearts and minds of their people”
Daniel Burris, One of the world’s leading futurists
- “What could possibly be better for a business and the people it serves than leadership that embraces the most desirable, attractive, unifying and model-able human quality, humor?
Ken Schmidt, Former Director of Communications for Harley-Davidson, Marketing Maverick
- “The best leaders are those who recognize that laughter can connect people and drive performance better than any corporate team-building exercise ever could.”
Libby Gill, Executive Coach & Leadership Expert
- “The magic about a good laugh is that it takes away any kind of distance or any sense of social hierarchy between people. It’s time to not only recruit people based on their ‘IQ’ and ‘EQ’, but also on their ‘HQ’ (Humour Quotient).”
Patrick Leysen, VP for Innovation at BPOST FutureLab, Belgium
Click here to see this year’s winners!
