Lots of the world’s biggest brands have faced a “social media crisis” -whether it’s due to bad luck, ill-advised word choice, an errant employee or over-optimistic expectations. Brands are getting burnt -and burnt publicly. Because these stories go viral fast – have you seen the FedEx delivery guy throwing a TV delivery over a gate? Or #McStories? The United guitar song? US Airways?!? Or the HMV tweets?

The easy answer is to be ultra-cautious, to hide from risk. But caution and creativity don’t go together well. The challenge was to educate without restraining or reducing the creativity of Heineken’s brands.

Unlike most internal manuals, we needed it to be read. Not just read, but enjoyed, talked about. Desired even. We decided to write and make a book.

The theme is Bold vs Crazy: challenging people to strive for Bold creativity, but to avoid the “Crazy” mistakes and mishaps.

We wanted to create an item that was perceived to be valuable enough for senior management to keep their copies prominently on their desks. Such that it got the attention of all the people around them. It couldn’t be just another PowerPoint that talked about creativity -it needed to embody that creativity.

We’ve just begun – the program has launched to the initial 350 stakeholders and the first 49 books have been released – but early indications are that the book will be the lighthouse we’re looking for. ‘Bold vs Crazy’ is already part of the currency of how Heineken talks about social ideas. The tools and advice in the book are already being adopted by Heineken’s portfolio of brands in several markets.

When only one copy had been released, it was stolen by the CMO. A good sign that it’s doing the job of grabbing attention.