5 Things I Learned from Setting a Guinness World Record

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the highs and lows of my career journey, and the lessons learned along the way. 

The good news is that I’ve had a lot of highs! I’ve had both corporate and agency experience working with amazing companies, including: Intuit, AT&T, The Coca-Cola Company and Macy’s.  I’ve spearheaded innovative, award-winning campaigns. I’ve spoken at over 30 conferences around the country, and look forward to more speaking opportunities that are coming up!

I have a memento from one of my career highlights that hangs on the wall in my home office, in the form of a Guinness World Record. It’s a great conversation starter whenever guests stop by and ask me “Is that real?” It is real. And they ask me, “What’s the story?” So here’s the short version of the story. 

During my time at Cricket Wireless, I spearheaded a 24-hour livestream that achieved the Guinness World Records title for the Longest non-TV promotional/advert commercial.  The campaign also helped Cricket Wireless to be awarded as the “Best Consumer Brand” in the 9th Annual Shorty Awards, which recognize the best in social media and digital. 

I wanted to share a look behind the scenes of that accomplishment, and five key lessons that I learned along the way.  

Lesson #1: You need the right team to build the dream.  

They say that “teamwork makes the dream work.” And that’s true. But you also need the right players on your team to make the dreams happen. I worked with an amazing agency partner to bring this campaign to life, and I couldn’t have done it without them. The agency played a critical role in bridging the gap between ideation and execution. We broke our 24-hour production run time down into shorter segments, and programmed the entire event in 15-minute increments. The agency introduced fun programming ideas that aligned with our business goals and audience insights, to plan a range of content segments that included product demos, musical performances, celebrity appearances, and a puppy cam. They designed and built multiple sets, secured a studio location, hired crew members, created social assets to keep audiences engaged throughout the production, and more. 

If you have the right team, you don’t have to have all of the answers.

Going into the project, I didn’t have a clear sense of all of the moving parts that would be needed to pull it off. I learned a lot along the way! I realized that, if you have the right team, you don’t have to have all of the answers. Your team will help you fill in the gaps with their own ideas, experiences and connections. If you have an all-star team, every team member will contribute to building the bridge from big idea to big impact.  

Lesson #2: Build relationships before you need them.  

It’s not unusual for a large-scale campaign like this to be planned and executed over a timeline of 6 - 8 months. We did it in a matter of weeks! 

To pull off this ambitious project on such a tight timeline, I needed quick-turn approvals and input from key stakeholders from across the business. In large companies like Cricket Wireless (which is a subsidiary of AT&T), it can be especially hard to navigate the corporate hierarchy to wrangle feedback and approval from senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders. 

Behind the scenes, I worked a lot of long days and late nights to: 

• Get concept and budget approvals from the VP of Marketing

• Secure celebrity talent through the Sponsorships and Partnerships teams

• Align on set design feedback and approval from the brand team

• Borrow devices from the product team for use in product demos

• Borrow product display stands from the retail merchandising team to build out a set

• Snag branded swag from our experiential agency for set design and Surprise & Delight giveaways

• Wrangle legal approval on everything from music licensing agreements to talent contracts

• Sweet talk legal into joining the team on-site to provide real-time approvals during the 24-hour extravaganza

• Collaborate with the PR team to announce the livestream and amplify the world record with a press release

• Convince my former work husband to join the team on-site so that I could snag 2 hours of sleep during the production

I’d built relationships with all of my key stakeholders well in advance of kicking off this campaign. Those relationships enabled me to secure an incremental budget to fund the campaign, move quickly, call in favors and leverage the kindness of my colleagues to deliver a record-breaking campaign.

Lesson #3: Push for Plan A, but build a Plan B.

Surprises happen. I hate surprises. Given the tight timelines and high visibility of this project, I worked with the team to develop Plan B contingency plans to keep in our back pockets in case critical Plan A concepts fell through. 

For example, we had identified a celebrity that we really wanted to bring in for two special segments of the live stream. The contract negotiations with the celebrity’s manager went down to the wire. I asked the team to identify another option for talent, just in case negotiations with our Plan A celebrity fell through. Thankfully, we were able to come to a win-win agreement with our Plan A celebrity and we moved forward with segments that ended up being two of the highlights of the event. I was thrilled that we were able to move forward with Plan A. But I was also grateful that we had a Plan B in mind, just in case.

Lesson #4: When you go above and beyond for people, they’ll go above and beyond for you. 

I have a tendency to go above and beyond for the people in my circles of care, and my circles of influence. 

I’ve helped co-workers who weren’t savvy with PowerPoint build out presentations. I’ve mentored junior team members and recent college grads who have reached out to me for advice, out of the blue. I’ve workshopped copy and creative with agency partners. I’ve jumped in to help with community management during crisis situations when my social care teams were overwhelmed. I’ve sent celebratory birthday flowers and condolence cards.  I’ve worked late nights, weekends and holidays to move projects forward. I’ve rolled up my sleeves, stepped into the trenches and advocated for the needs of my team. 

I don’t keep a scorecard in my head to tally what I give and what I get. But I have found that my approach of giving generously has created a reservoir of generosity that has helped me to weather tough times in my personal life and execute ambitious projects in my professional life. 

The 24-hour livestream was one of the most ambitious projects of my career. And my internal colleagues and agency partners really went above and beyond to help me make it happen. I really believe that part of the reason that my teams went above and beyond for me, is because that’s how I’ve shown up for them.

Lesson #5: Do work that you’re proud of, and have a little fun along the way. 

I had a lot of magical moments during our 24-hour extravaganza. I did a pose-off with wrestling superstar John Morrison. 

I met Kel Mitchell and resisted the urge to say “Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger. Can I take your order?”  I had my first In-N-Out Burger. Double-Double. Animal Style. (In case you were wondering). 

I got a behind the scenes look at some really beautiful musical performances. I met a lot of great people that worked behind the scenes and in front of the cameras to bring this livestream to life. 

The entire experience led me to define and adopt a key philosophy that continues to inform my approach to my work life: Do work that you’re proud of. And have a little fun along the way. 

Here's a highlight reel that encapsulates the best-of moments from the 24-hour livestream extravaganza in 13 minutes.

Thank you for reading! I hope this article provided some helpful insights on what it takes to bring a record-breaking campaign to life. 

So, what do you do now? Share this article with someone you know that is actively trying to become a more innovative marketer. Oh, and of course, go do work that you’re proud of. And be sure to have a little fun along the way.