In each case, there is a brand that has challenges either with spending or exposure looking to cut through the clutter to generate buzz and build awareness. Each one had someone or a team watching the events of the day or the week and looking for an opportunity to quickly act and exploit. None had long lead planning or intricate media or promotional plans. What each had was the ability to take a random event and find a very unique way to cut right through the clutter and get brand exposure. It takes great timing, strong media skills and the ability to move quickly on a project, all of which rarely happen at the same time but seem to be happening more and more as traditional opportunities for exposure become more difficult for execution. Now do all “stunts” or ambush ideas work? Nope. The best plan is always the one that is carefully planned and well executed. However for a quick hit and some great buzz generation, it is refreshing to see the creative, cost efficient pops coming more often these days. Hopefully will push all to generate new ROI and creative thought.

Some other good reads…John Feinstein’s column on Navy football is another good read on the amazing program…Noam Cohen had a good profile of what has made Bill Simmons a success in Monday’s New York Times …and the Orlando Sentinel had a good piece on the building of Dwight Howard’s social media strategy by its architect, Nate “Basketball” Jones.

Some other good reads…another great site uncovered (by SI’s Rich Deitsch) is newseum.com, which every day shows the top headlines from papers around the globe…for those looking for circulation numbers, good list put together by Brian Solis of PR 2.0…and the Times on Friday had an interesting look at home-schooled kids playing football in Georgia.