Clamp on headphones, start up the iPhone app by the musical duo Bluebrain, and walk into Central Park. The music does not begin until you pass through an entrance and head into the trees. Then it sounds like an orchestra tuning up, a chaotic jumble of wind chimes, electronic moans, and discordant strings. Push farther into the park, and a sweet violin melody emerges over languid piano chords.

"We didn’t want something to sound like a machine,” Mr. Feldman said. “We wanted it to sound like these guys were conducting an orchestra and watching where you are walking.”

Business schools and most jobs don’t teach you how important it is to sweat the small stuff.

In fact, we’re mostly told the opposite--don’t be a micromanager, don’t be penny wise and pound foolish, don't miss the forest for the trees. The implied wisdom is that abstract and conceptual thinking always prevails over narrow determination and single-mindedness. And yet, when we look at the greatest inventions, greatest companies, and greatest teams of our time, their success always comes down to tireless concern over every last detail.

There aren't many marketing opportunities that can target 800 million people in one—so it’s no surprise that 96 of the top 100 U.S. advertisers are marketing on Facebook. But there's a problem: Many of those companies tell us they’re not finding Facebook nearly as useful a marketing tool as they’d hoped. In large part, that’s the result of the disorganized approach many companies have to Facebook marketing. Too many raced to launch a Facebook page without ever setting clear objectives, and are now left with a handful of fans but no clear idea of how to engage those fans. Likewise, too many marketers neither understand all the tools at their disposal nor put sufficient resources into their Facebook programs.

Frontline employees—the people behind the counter, on the phone, in the cloud, and walking the floor—possess a large measure of control over the customer experience. Their actions determine whether a customer becomes a brand evangelist or detractor. Understanding how best to motivate these employees--and designing processes and strategies to ensure that they're empowered, energized, and personally vested--is at the core of delivering standout service and creating a compelling brand experience. Here are four critical areas to consider when creating a standout experience.

Last month, Australia went crazy. It had nothing to do with the usual summer cricket rivalries, nor did it involve a visit from the Queen. This time, the frenzy was over newly released cans of Coke. A local agency had dreamed up an entirely new way of revitalizing the 125-year-old brand, reversing its steadily declining sales and tapping into the diminishing youth market.

The Dayton Opera intends to shed its old-timey reputation among young adults by not only allowing smartphone use during performances, but encouraging it.

The arts organization has set up discounted "Friday Nite Tweet Seats" where tech-savvy patrons — young or old — can sit and tweet, post updates to Facebook, send text messages or e-mails or blog about the night’s performance as it's happening. Enthusiasts hope it will attract a younger audience to the opera and create a new buzz around the centuries-old art form that they say deserves a listen.

Popular culture is buzzing with secret messages.

I've written about the Fox TV show Fringe before: it's freighted with an especially complicated storyline. Besides the great acting, one of the things that sustains it is a series of secret messages that appear at the end of every segment: a stylized icon of a seahorse or a flower for the fan(atic) to decode.

But last week Fringe took a step forward, actually inserting a frame or two in the middle of a show. For the blink of an eye, we saw an image on the screen. Then it was gone.