Here in Britain we love an underdog. The Arctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott is often thought of as the quintessential British hero, for the following three reasons:

1) He failed.

2) He died.

3) What he was attempting was, basically, pointless.

Today, though, Guildford based games development studio Media Molecule is representing a new type of British Business hero; small, eccentric, innovative and wildly successful; there are valuable lessons all new small and medium sized business can learn from the Media Molecule story.

Media Molecule were formed in January 2006 by four ex-employees of the well known Lionhead Studios renting an office above a laundrette in a Guildford industrial estate. Their first product, PlayStation3 game LittleBigPlanet, was released in November last year to universal critical acclaim (review comparison site metacritic gives it an average review score of 95 out of 100  ), was featured as eurogamer.com and ign.com’s Game of the Year for 2008 and featured in the top ten lists of hundreds of other gaming websites, selling over 200,000 copies in its first month of release.

So how did the four man team expand to a group of nearly 30 people and produce one of the most hotly anticipated, well received, and genre redefining games ever?

Co-founder and de facto spokesman Mark Healey emphasises the role of ambition in driving the company forwards. ‘We wanted to do the most ambitious game we could. We asked ourselves: ‘How hard can we make it for ourselves?”. Before they settled on the name ‘LittleBigPlanet’ for their product, indeed, before the company had even really started development, the chosen name for their work in progress was ‘The Next Big Thing’ – clearly there was no shortage of confidence in the Media Molecule office.

Media Molecule were also fortunate in the support they received from their publisher, Sony.

“We had been told by some, ‘It’s impossible to have a start-up. Small teams cannot make games these days.’ But we showed Sony and they were amazing. They said, ‘Off you go’.”

This was after showing the multinational electronics firm a proof of concept demonstration that the team had put together in a little less than a week; proof that a big vision and the commitment to see it through can be of real assistance in realising business ambitions.

More sage advice from Mark Healey: “Having good ideas is not enough – everyone has good ideas. It’s about communicating those ideas to people”

The devil is in the detail though, and it is at the very smallest level that Media Molecule demonstrate the free thinking, independant mindset that places their product a world away from the competition. By wisely choosing to invest in top notch talent (Stephen Fry provides voice over work for the games tutorial sections), to simply ensuring that their product offers something for everyone (as epitomised by the slogan ‘Play. Create. Share.’) as well as unique and innovative gameplay, Media Molecule have ensured their own success.

Media Molecule offer a more optimistic story in contrast to the doom and gloom splashed across the business pages, and a very British success story.

This is the last day we’ll talk about Obama. We promise. Like yesterday though, we want to focus on areas which are relevant for everyone in business. In this case there was another key factor that aided Barack Obama in securing his election win. Having accrued funding so successfully, he was able to tap into a younger generation, successfully encouraging the American youth to vote in unprecedented quantities.

Submitting regular videos onto YouTube was a must for his campaign marketing and certainly his republican counterpart used the same approach as one would expect of the viral infested web. Companies regularly use the online broadcasting site to popularise their name and products.

Moreover, a group on Facebook called the Obama Volunteer Corps tapped in to the zeitgeist via social networking, an approach that is becoming more and more popular for commercial bodies and company marketers to generate publicity and support.

The appointment of Chris Hughes, one of the founding members of Facebook as one of his senior advisers also represents his shrewd campaign management. Hughes has been running Obama’s online campaign at my.barackobama.com, in itself a kind of social networking site. With democrat blue, the site is similar to Facebook in both style and functionality.

He was able to recruit an army of volunteers (1.5 million strong), facilitated by the Facebook-like process of inviting friends to join, allowing a form of peer to peer recruitment process to unravel.

He did not stop there. Unlike any presidential candidate and indeed any politically motivated advertiser prior, Obama sought to subliminally infiltrate the gaming community. The relatively new real estate found within video games was bought up in 18 different titles featuring Guitar Hero, Madden 09 and Burnout Paradise.

A spokesperson for Electronic Arts Inc, responsible for some of the games said, “In general, the Burnout audience is typically male, aged 18 to 34. I think the sweet spot age is 27 or 28. The attractive benefit any advertiser sees in advertising on a game like Burnout is reaching that demographic.”

The most surprising aspect of this is of course the variety of methods chosen considering the product being sold. Obama and his team have entered the marketing history books with their strategic and creative approach to reaching a broader political audience than ever before. Take note.

CMFL

We couldn’t possibly write a post today without acknowledging the monumentous occasion which has befallen the U.S. within the past 24 hours. Barack Obama has won the 44^th presidential election. Its effects are resonating on British shores as the election wave is felt in seismic proportions; both Gordon Brown and David Cameron are already both attempting to piggyback the juggernaut that has been the Obama campaign by associating their respective values with the President elect.

However, wishing not to dwell too much on political matters, we’d like to focus on an area which gave the former senator a crucial upper-hand: namely his record fund-raising capability. With the most expensive White House race in history, the costs of the campaigns total in excess of $5 billion since January 2007.

Despite the financial crisis, Wall Street banks were responsible for a collective donation of $370 million, where Goldman & Sachs were the largest of the contributors – the investment bank’s employees and political action committee donated more than $5 million to this year’s campaigns.

Obama himself was able to establish a significant advantage by being the first presidential nominee to opt out of the public funding system that dates back to the aftermath of the Watergate scandal. Whilst McCain chose to receive public funds, Obama had no limit to the money he could raise thus enabling him to raise a total of $650 million to date.

Without bringing the integrity of these alternate funding processes into question, due praise is worthy for such a mammoth sum generated by Obama. His money-raising was so successful that he was able to afford to buy an unprecedented 30 minute slot on three television networks six days prior to the election. He was able to outspend his rival on T.V. advertising by a multiple of four.

The significance of this element must not be undervalued in terms of the pivotal victory fought and won by the first African-American presidential candidate. Whilst Obama the politician was able to mobilise an entire generation of young idealists and has earned the faith of his country for his progressive views and measured judgement, it seems that we should also pay our respects to Obama the businessman as well.

CMFL