Emirates Airlines is Arsenal’s jersey sponsor, and AIG – yes, the much-maligned insurance company – is Manchester United’s sponsor. This makes sense, because no small business or startup could afford such premium space. Simply put, you can’t compete with on-jersey tactics. So what do you do when you can’t afford the jersey? Find something off-jersey, where nobody else is looking, and give them a reason to look. This could be the guys in the stands who are painted your corporate colors of orange, green and blue. Or the fellas with your logo shaved onto their scalps.

Off-jersey tactics work because they are the unexpected. Everyone expects to see a logo on a jersey, but not a guy with a logo on his head. The catch is that money buys big brands the easy way out. Off-jersey tactics are anything but easy, but when they work, they work better than anything else.

I can probably count on two hands the number of individual tactics I have been involved with that have produced shocking, jaw-dropping, you-can-have-my-firstborn numbers. On the other hand, I have been involved with many programs that, through sustained, consistent efforts, have achieved long-term goals and objectives for clients. And the funny thing about these programs is that the little things always generate the most business, and often these are the things that for us seemed at the time as an afterthought.

Case in point … I was talking with a friend last year who owns another service-based company. Inevitably the conversation turned toward the crappy economy, and he mentioned that his customers were beginning to complain more than usual about his bills. I asked him if it was customary in his industry for customers to complain about their bills, and he replied, “Yeah, it’s that way for everybody. In good times, my clients jibe me about it, but in bad times, their jibes definitely get sharper.” So I suggested to him to drop something in his invoices that may seem like a trifle but that takes the person’s mind off the bill, at least for a moment. He asked what, so I told him to put a fortune from a fortune cookie in the envelope with the bill.

“You really think that will work?” he asked. I shrugged and said, “Try it. I’m sure it won’t make getting an invoice any more painful, that’s for sure.” So he tried it. I ran into him a few months later and he ran up to me and said, “You know that stupid little fortune cookie thing actually worked. People have pretty much stopped complaining, and a few actually called up to ask me if that was an accident that the fortune was in there, and I told them it was just giving them a little something to brighten their day. And I could tell they appreciated it.”

So think of all the “trivial” ways in which you communicate with your clients and how you can make them memorable. You’ll find out that they are anything but trivial when it comes to building your brand.