I have game-changers on the mind. “Adapt or die,” says Brad Pitt in Moneyball. Against a board room of peers, he reminds us to define our problems and objectives. If you haven’t seen it, watch this:

“We’ve got to think differently.” That line sticks.

It may be a stretch to compare advertising to baseball, but both games have been around for decades, rooted in unchanged foundation. With the elites holding the power and making the rules, everyone else follows and rarely questions. The leaders have the budgets; the underdogs cannot compete. In Moneyball, Billy Beane pioneers a new way of playing based on in-game statistics rather than player perceptions. Although unpopular, his “out-of-the-box thinking” changed the entire paradigm of sports.

Social media was and still is underestimated in the marketing sphere. CEOs are still calling facebook a waste of time. Still allowing consumer voices to go by the wayside, unengaged. After reading Brian Solis’ article titled, “2012: The Year for Digital Darwinism,” I was reminded of this Charles Darwin quote: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Adapt or die.

Solis writes that our ability to adapt lags behind advances in technology and trends. That we must incessantly re-evaluate to keep up. Pinterest is being used in some exciting ways, allowing consumers to engage with brands on a personal level. In the era of brand co-creation, it is these out-of-the box tactics catching attention. People no longer stand for interruption, but crave interaction SO we need to get creative and targeted about brand integration. In ways that the dinosaurs in advertising would never consider.

So I think it is possible to succeed with a limited budget. It just takes some Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. I might just be using “moneyball” as a verb for the next few days…