Just the thought of the kind of marketing dollars the big brands will have invested in advertising for the Olympics is enough to make my eyes water. The result, millions of dollars worth of beautifully shot, feel good commercials that probably won’t sell many more phone plans or gold cards.

Awareness, not sales is their goal. The big brands pay handsomely to keep themselves top of mind. But you don’t have to.

Your goal is not to make better adverts. Your goal is to tell the best true stories you can tell about your ideas, products and services. You need to give people a reason to care, and to act, not just to make them aware.

Just like Ian Schon did with The Pen Project.

Image by Patrick Haney.