I work at the house that David Ogilvy built. There was a man who understood the value of personality. His signature is our logo. To this day, his photos appear in various “shrines” throughout the company. Like the one in the NYC office mezzanine. His visage sits tucked up above the cool, concrete floor meeting space. You could easily overlook it, but if you did you would miss a great snapshot of the man sitting in the Lotus position with flowers around his neck. That’s personality. No, not one more picture of our beloved leader. The permission and the culture to allow someone with a little time on their hands to “make” a funky picture of Mr. Brand and sneak it into the meeting space.

We spend an awful lot of time meticulously defining and fashioning “brand.” What do we want people to think about us? What is the promise our companies and products make to their publics? We talk about storytelling. We agonize over the visual experience of a brand, and so forth. All of this is valuable stuff. It drives business. But it’s not the same as personality. I don’t believe that personality can be manufactured. Look at the staff, I mean “cast” at Disney Parks. By the time you actually arrive at your hotel via the airport bus, you have been told to “have a magical day!” by no less that three people. That’s not personality although it may be on-brand. Don’t get me wrong, I pefer people to wish me a magical day over those who are silent or even hostile. But I lean towards brands that express their personality, that are more open and inviting, brands that do not dilute or hide their personality in the pursuit of broad appeal.

Personality has to come from somewhere organic. Sometimes it’s a founder or entrepreneur. Sometime its the customers. But I do believe it comes from people and not from a staged set of experiences. What can companies do to nurture personality? Well, thanks to Rohit, we have a solid guidebook. The biggest step is to embrace a culture that promotes employees to be human beings with customers (people being human to other people - what a concept!). Create a culture that encourages personality.

Here’s a great example from an airline. It happened to me last week. And it has nothing to do with Southwest Airlines.

Recently, I spoke at Ogilvy’s Verge event in Toronto. That’s where we host thought-leaders and innovators from our clients, ourselves and smart people from all sorts of other places. Mark Sniderman from Air Canada gave a really smart presentation on how they have optimized their webSaver email program. Sound dry? It was actually really smart.

I have my own Air Canada story from that day, a story that has made me a fan of the airline. “Choice and freedom” are the current brand keywords. mark told us that in his presentation. The email program flows from that. I am sure the ad campaign is “integrated” and “aligned” with the current brand position. My experience had nothing to do with ‘choice’ although you could argue that it did involve ‘freedom’. It had to do with a kind act, personality and the freedom for an employee to be a human being.

I was talking to a colleague at the conference. He flew up on Porter. Never heard of it? I hadn’t. Turns out it’s a small regional airline that folks are flocking to. My colleague’s comments were - “no lines, fast-enough-and-new turbo prop, landed at the strip in the city, glassware vs. plastic.” I like this stuff, too. It speaks to the quality and convenience of the experience.

What tipped me over to Air Canada, their competitor, was a nice guy at the counter. He did something unexpected, unrequested, and something that made sense to him. It wasn’t written in the brand book. It almost felt a little naughty until I found later from Mark at Air Canada that it came from the culture. If Air Canada is listening, give him a raise - don’t punish him. He convinced me to prefer your Airline whenever possible.

Personality at Work

I got to the kiosk at the counter and started the whole credit card-dunk-thing. The counter wasn’t busy. Our man at Air Canada was concluding one passenger’s arrangements. I was a bit flustered and stressed. He asked me if I was doing all right with the echeck-in. Could he help? I was in the last row on an apparently packed jet. I sighed out loud about it.

Without asking, he interrupted his exchange with the other customer who was quite cheerful and casual about what became a nice three-way conversation. He said, “Oh, I’ll just put you next to this guy in Executive class.” I assumed he was joking. He returned to punching keys on his computer terminal (Ever notice how many key strokes it takes for them to get stuff done? It’s almost like they are programming COBOL when you ask for a seat assignment)

I was ready to get off to security. He reached out for my 35D seat assignment and tore it up. He handed me a ticket in the front of the plane. And he was really funny about it. I am not a frequent flyer. I have only flown the airline twice. He did it because he saw I was stressed and because he could. This is far better than the Disney-esque goofiness of Southwest. This felt real. I felt special. I liked that he was bending the rules. I don’t expect that to happen every time I fly or maybe never again. Doesn’t matter. As I fly Air Canada more, I hope I see that personality and humanity in other small and big ways in the service. If I don’t, I may lose interest in the airline and call this a fluke.

I asked Mark from Air Canada about this exchange. He told me that employees are encouraged to “do whatever it takes” and to use their judgment. Their culture allowed for the kindness of my ticket agent to shine through. He wasn’t following a rule book. If anything he was breaking the rules because in his judgment, he knew he could help make my day better.

A small act of kindness from one person to another. That’s personality and that’s huge.