The word genius is thrown around a lot. Turn on the news and you might hear about a champion chess player being heralded as a genius in the world of chess because they're on a long winning streak. A client of yours at your marketing business might have called you a genius once before because you were able to save them a ton of money through a certain accounting trick you know. You might have even used the word once before while reading a how to book directed towards the author.

There might be a definition out there for genius but are all the people we apply the word genius to an actual genius? Does knowing how to perform a task efficiently in a faster-than-normal timeframe constitute calling someone a genius? Maybe but not maybe not. To actually be called a genius means doing something in a way that no one else could possibly attempt. You have to be ahead of the game in your particular field in some way. When it comes to the label "marketing genius" what actually constitutes a marketing genius?

Just about any business person can come up with a campaign that will land them a new client or two. Does that marketing person deserve to be called a marketing genius? Probably not. However, if they were to have come up with a marketing campaign unlike any other marketing campaign that was original, unique, catchy, unforgettable, and one that was wanting to be replicated by all other marketing firms, then that's when you can apply the term marketing genius to them.

Try to remember some billboard advertisements or television commercials that stood out to you over the years. We bet the first one you could think of was Nike's "Just Do It." Are we right? The "Just Do It" campaign is one of the most popular marketing campaigns in the history of marketing. It's genre bending. What was originally conceived as an ad slogan directed towards those that use Nike products in the world of sports suddenly burst out into the lexicon of everyday people not associated with sports.

Your friends, neighbors, co-workers, family members, and teachers were all using the slogan "Just Do It" in some capacity during conversations. It's campaigns like "Just Do It", "Got Milk", "Whatever Happens In Vegas, Stays In Vegas", or "It Gets Better" that have all left an imprint in our brains. We'll never forget them and will always be talking about them or repeating those famous phrases. Whoever came up with those marketing campaigns can truly have the term marketing genius applied to them.