Advertising on the Edge
As we’ve spoke about this week there are a few things you and your business should be doing to position yourself for success during a tough economy.
I was happy to see the folks at The Economist agree with me that cutting your advertising budget is not one of those things.
Why do businesses cut advertising when times are tough?
- Because it’s easy
- Think it’s a good short term fix
What are businesses forgetting when they do this?
- Marketing is part of the solution, not the problem
- What they sacrifice now, they pay for later
- It can damage the brand
Brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost during good economic times – Prof. John Quelch, Havard Business School
For more great ideas and thinking about what your business should be doing during the down economy take a look at the following presentation put together by The Economist.
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photo credit:tranchis
Almost Live Video: And the Winner Is…
Today is the day we’ve all been waiting for…that’s right, it’s time to pick the winner of the FREE day of advertising from Iwearyourshirt.com!
So you all know there were no behind the scenes shenanigans, I decided to pick the winner “semi-live”.
So, without further ado here we announce the winner (in a very raw, one-take video).
FreeAdvertising from Matthew Ringer on Vimeo.
For a high definition version of the video, watch on Vimeo
Recession-Proof Your Business with Social Media
If you think social media is only for teenagers, think again. As Will Paccione points out in this guest post, now is a perfect time to leverage social networks to market your business and insulate your company from some of the challenges less connected businesses face.
Whether you planned for it or not, you realize that leading your company through these tough economic times falls squarely on your shoulders. Traditional advertising just isn’t bringing in the business for you like it used to. People now Fast Forward past your TV commercials, listen to music without your radio ads, don’t look at the junk mail you send, and are on the Do Not Call list.
It’s time you devised a new plan. Wouldn’t you like to be there when people are looking for answers to questions in your industry? You need to start building relationships with people that can get you business, and find people that you wouldn’t mind referring business to.
Call it what you want – Social Media, Online Networking or Web 2.0, but whatever you call it… It’s not just for teenagers and single people anymore.
Check out these Social Media stats:
- More than 1 in 8 viewers make a purchase after watching a video ad online – eMarketer
- Facebook has 150,000 new users sign up every single day – Time Magazine
- As of October 2006, about 100,000 new Blogs were created every day -Technorati
- LinkedIn has a 137% growth year over year bringing its visitors to about 8 million per month – compete.com
Social Media has it’s cost, fortunately it’s only time.
People aren’t just wasting time on Social Networking sites. They’re being productive by doing searches, asking and answering business questions, getting referrals and giving testimonials. Not on yet? Plenty of your competitors are. It’s time you got involved in the conversation or be left behind.
Case in point #1:
Zagat has been around for 29 years reviewing restaurants. Yelp, known for its restaurant reviews, has been around for less than 5 years. Yelp chose to embrace Social Networking and in that short period of time people are writing articles in the New York Times about how Yelp might be more of a factor than Zagat:
Yelp’s traffic has expanded geometrically while Zagat’s has grown only a little. This July, Yelp drew 4.76 million unique visitors, compared with Zagat’s 384,000. -Randall Stross
Starting to take this more seriously? Okay, so what do you do?
First step:
Monitor your reputation
Google your name and your company. What comes up? Scam Alert? Judgment papers against you? Ex-flame trashing you in a video? Getting yourself active in Online Networking gives you more of a chance to give Searchers relevant information about your company that you want them to see on Google’s Results page- like your LinkedIn account.
Set up a couple of Google Alerts to alert you when someone mentions you or links to your website (set up “your name”, link:www.yourwebsite.com). You’ll receive an email anytime someone mentions you or links to your business website with a link to that page. Something bad? Do damage control. Something good? Send’em a thanks for mentioning you.
Case in point #2:
There are 2 excellent online web conferencing applications I found. I posed the question to my Twitfriends: “Which is better A or B?” Funny thing is that both A and B were monitoring their online reputations at Twitter Search and saw I was Twittering about them. They started to follow my Tweets (Twitter updates) and said if I had any questions about their service to just ask. Wow, talk about pro-active. I followed them back and through interacting directly with them and seeing their posts, I understood that their applications had different strengths and realize I have a use for both. I now feel like I have friends in the business and I won’t even consider others.
Second Step:
Social Media is a lot like networking offline, like your local Chamber of Commerce or BNI group. You’ll realize that it’s easier to get and give business with people you know on a personal level.
You’re goal should be to become the “Go-To” person in your industry for people in your networks.
- Start by getting an account on LinkedIn. This is the MySpace for business Professionals. List all of your contact info, past work experience, website, services offered, blog etc. Start answering questions, joining groups that apply to your community and once again, get involved in the conversation.
- Open up a free Twitter account and try to use your own photo. Search for people talking about topics relevant to you and your business at Twitter Search and start the following and replying to people needing advice. Don’t just post things business related. You wouldn’t open up a conversation with someone on the street and start telling them about your services without establishing some kind of credibility.
- Start a Blog. Blog about your industry, your business and a bit about yourself. Be the resource for your industry.
When you have a captive audience, tell people on LinkedIn and Twitter and all the other Social Networking services you joined that you posted a new Blog or added a new service. Invite them to ask you questions in the comments section and make sure you answer them!
I have certain people in the offline world that are my “Go-To” people for certain industries. I now have my “Go-To” people in my online world too. And they’re a lot easier to get a hold of… I know where they hang out.
Will Paccione is an Internet Consultant specializing in getting businesses more business with Website Design, Search Engine and Social Media Optimization.
Would you like to guest post at Smallbizbee.com? We’re always looking for great content to feature on our website.
Photo Credit: sethgoldstein
The Truth Behind Marketing
Business owners should have only one goal – Get your products and services in front of your target market. The more people to see what you do, the more sales you will make. This means essentially all businesses are in the marketing and advertising business. How well you do, or don’t, market your products will make or break you.
As the following slideshow points out one important factor in effective marketing is to cut through the clutter.
Your advertising should be:
- Clear, consistent, and concise
- Allow for intelligent interaction
- Focused on the customer, not you
- Don’t blame the medium
- Answer “why”, less who, what, when, where
- Tell your clients what they need to hear, not what they want to hear
- Respect the law of seedtime and harvest
For a graphical look at the Truth Behind Marketing, take a minute of your time today to go through the following presentation. It just may change your thinking on how you bring your products and services to your consumers.
Photo credit: Takadanobaba (Back From Tokyo)’s photostream
10 Tips to Stretch Your Advertising Budget
If you’re like most business owners you’re looking for ways to make your budget go farther, and pinch a few pennies here and there. In times of economic uncertainty it can be tempting to make drastic cutbacks, or trim the fat as they say. Advertising often looks like the low hanging fruit when it comes to cutbacks, for a lot of us advertising and marketing represents the largest line item in our budgets, but I would exercise caution before you slash spending there. While it may look like reducing those advetisments will save you a bunch of money today, the long term detriment to your business will be much larger. Instead, why not look for ways to make your advertising budget work harder and smarter?
The following 10 tips will help make the most of the advertising dollars you do spend, and if followed should result in overall cost savings without jeopardiznig the reach of your advertising campaign.
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1. Review all of your current advertising
- Look at any and all statistics and metrics you have on your current advertising campaigns
- Cut the advertising dollars from what is not working, or from areas where you are seeing the least return
Then…
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2. Redistribute advertising dollars
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- Take the money you cut in step one, and apply it to those areas that are working
- Find your top performing advertisements and add to them
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3. Explore the free advertising options you have available
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- Newsletter
- Press Releases
- Guest blogger, guest interviewee, etc
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4. Quit ad hoping
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Advertising takes time to work. If you aren’t getting results immediately resist the urge to “ad hop”, or bounce from one type of advertisement to another. For one you will loose any meaningful stats or metrics by doing that, (so you will never know if something truly didn’t work) and for another, there could be cost savings in establishing longer relationships with your advertising outlets.
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5. Negotiate your rates
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Advertising rates fluctuate, it does not hurt to negotiate or renegotiate. What you paid yesterday may not be the same rate you’d get tomorrow. Also see if there are discounts available for longer term ad agreements. You may realize a discount for booking two months instead of one.
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6. Look for package deals with the outlets you advertise through
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This can be a great way to leverage your dollars. Many times you can get a package of advertisements that reach your market cheaper than buying each ad individually.
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7. Generate your own leads
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If you are paying for leads, email list, or call logs look for ways you can generate your own list. Can you have customers sign up in your store for a newsletter, or collect information from your customers on your own in some way?
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8. Do it yourself
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Are there currently things you are paying for that you could do yourself? Create your own graphics, write your own copy, prepare your own mailings, etc. These are all things that you may be paying for that you don’t truly need to outsource.
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9. Pay on time
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Many times you will get a discount just for paying on time, or at least avoid late fees.
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10. Reduce, reuse, recycle
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Look for ways to continually reuse what you’ve paid for in the past so you don’t have to pay for it in the future. Reuse copy from previous campaigns, recycle old artwork or graphic design where you can.
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What are you doing to help stretch your advertising budgets?
Do’s & Don’ts – Word of Mouth Marketing
How would you and your business like some free marketing? If this economy has you in a cost cutting frame of mind, you have something in common with the rest of us small business owners. You’re probably mulling over the dilemma of how to get more advertising, for less money, and still grow your customer base. Word of mouth marketing is the answer we are looking for!
What is word of mouth marketing?
Simply put word of mouth marketing (or WOMM as it is sometimes called) is information about your product, service, or brand that is disseminated through individual, personal, recommendations.
Typically word of mouth spreads informally from one person to another without advertisers having a controlling role in the message that is being spread. The individuals will decide what story they tell about the product or service, who they tell, and what kind of recommendation they give.
If you think about word of mouth marketing and the spread of information I think you will find it is the most fluid of any kind of marketing we can do. It happens constantly, 24 hours a day seven days a week. People are always talking about products and services, and imparting their unbiased opinions on anyone and everyone who will listen. I for one do it all the time, if I’ve had great service I talk about it. If a new shirt is fitting me real well, I’m not afraid to tell a buddy how much I like my shirt. The natural nature of this kind of interaction is what makes word of mouth marketing so powerful.
Word of mouth marking is the most powerful way to gain new customers due to its delievery method through trusted social networks
The inherent trust that comes along with word of mouth marketing can make your product or service very sticky for those that hear about you. They will already feel like they know you, and will be more willing to work with you and buy from you, than someone without that connection. It stands to reason too, would you rather take the advertisers word on how great their product is or your best friend? I for one am more apt to buy a new pair of Nikes because of a friend or relatives glowing review of the shoe than I am for Nike telling me to “Just Do It!”. The bond of a trusted relationship is what keeps word of mouth marketing working so well.
So how can you and your business begin to build a word of mouth campaign? It’s easier than you may think, and the below tips should get you on the way to getting the buzz going about your business.
1. Provide a top notch service or product
This one should go without saying. Be good, be really good and people are bound to talk about you. Think about how many times you passed on a story to a friend about a great product or stellar service you had. You want those same kind of conversations happening about your business.
2. Ask for customer feedback and engage them
The more the customer feels they have a say in your business the more trust you will gain with them, and the more likely they are to talk you up with their friends. When they feel like they have a vested interest in you and your company it stands to reason they would want you to succeed by sending business your way.
Also don’t be afraid to ask your customer to spread the word. There is nothing wrong with saying “If you like what I’m doing, tell your friends about me”, or give them an incentive for sending you a referral. Just be sure not to come off as pushy, make sure it’s genuine.
3. Tell a compelling story about your product or service
What’s your story? Do your customers know it? Well they should. If there is something that makes a particular product or service of yours interesting make sure your customers know it. Stories will spread much faster than technical specifications, or mission statements. Stories in and of themselves lend well to word of mouth, they’re easy to repeat and who doesn’t like a good story.
4. Utilize all of your networks
You want to tell your story and build trust with all your networks. This includes the physical and virtual networks you have built and continue to build. There is limitless possibility in the depth and reach of your network, and with the expansion of the Internet those opportunities are growing at a mind boggling pace.
5. Get your product in your customers hands
The only way word of mouth is going to spread is if people are using your product or service. Do whatever it takes to get it in their hands. Give it away for free, leverage networks, and use any other avenue available to you to get it in their hands.
1. Pump without purpose
Be careful how you pump your product. Come off as pushy, or not creating any value and you are sunk. You’ll get word of mouth marketing, but it may not be of the positive kind. Don’t just spam Twitter with “Hey use my product”…tell me why I should, or tell the story. Let me get interested, without being told I should be interested.
2. Expect more from your customers than they can provide
Word of mouth is great, but it has to happen naturally. Don’t expect your customers to do the heavy lifting for you if you are taking shortcuts on your end. Provide a great product and service and let your customers decide if they are going to market for you, do expect them to.
3. Assume word of mouth marketing will happen overnight
Word of mouth works a lot like building the base of a snowman. You start slow, rolling a little piece of snow around the yard, and you feel like you’re getting nowhere. But you keep on rolling and before you know it you’ve got a huge mound of snow so big you can’t push it anymore. Word of mouth happens a lot like that, don’t expect overnight success, slow and steady wins this race.
Word of mouth marketing should be a major component in your marketing campaign. You cannot underestimate the importance of this kind of advertising as it will lead to more customers, more sales, and more repeat business with very little cost to your company.
So now I’ll take my own advice and say this, “If you like what I am doing here, and you are finding value in SmallBizBee.com please take a moment to tell your friends about us!” Thank YOU!
Also be sure to share your word of mouth stories in the comments section.
Death of Advertising Dinosaurs
With worldwide economic uncertainty upon us, it’s no surprise that many companies are reducing spending, and looking to steward their financial resources towards those activities that provide the most bang for the buck. As a result of reigning in the spending, and more demand for a higher return on investment (ROI) from their scarce financial resources, the final nail in the coffin could be coming down for one of the last remaining dinosaurs of our time…the Advertising Dinosaurs!
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The Issue:
According to the Advertiser Perceptions, Inc. Spring 2008 report the dinosaurs of the advertising world are getting hit hard. Here is how the companies that reported data (1,811 total) expect their advertising budget mix to change:
- 23% of advertising budgets are expected to decrease in the next six months
- The most severely impacted by this are newspapers, radio, and broadcast TV
- 44% of newspaper ad budgets are expected to decline in the next six months
- 43% of “local” newspaper ad budgets are expected to decline as well
- 33% of radio budgets were expected to decline
- 30% of TV budgets and 20% of cable TV budgets were expected to decline.
The Aftermath:
As companies look for ways to cut advertising budgets while still reaching the consumer, other forms of advertising are going to look extremely attractive, most notably online advertising.
What will happen once these companies see the kind of ROI they get from online advertising? How many do you think will go back to a full-page ad in the newspaper when the economy improves? My guess, very few. What company in their right mind is going to take out an ad in the Sunday paper for $$$$$ when for a fraction of that cost you can target a market of buyers down to the minutia? With social media in its infancy, especially in how it integrates advertising, the possibilities to reach customers are huge, and expanding by the second. Again, why spend the advertising dollars in hopes your radio ad is heard by the right people at the right time, when you can target advertise on Myspace and Facebook for a fraction of the cost, and reach a more targeted consumer?
In Summary:
I’m not saying that all forms of advertising except online will die entirely. There will still be room for focused, super niche advertising in print and on radio/TV. But for mainstream newspapers, or cable TV, this is the beginning of the end for life as they know it in the advertising world. The only way those mediums can compete in the future is by lowering their pricing structure to a point they are a value again, and in my opinion even at a value price the bang for the buck will still default to content rich, targeted, online advertising. Some of the larger magazine and news outlets will change their business models to focus more on online content (some do it well already, the Wall St. Journal comes to mind), but for the rest they look to be going the way of the dinosaur.
How has your company’s advertising mix changed in the last six months?
Steps to Success with Small Business Marketing
I took a road trip a couple years ago through Arizona, New Mexico, and into Texas on Interstate 10. For those of you unfamiliar with that route, it isn’t extremely populated and you can go miles and miles between towns. Along the freeway I began to see billboards for “Coldest Drinks in the State Exit 125″, “200 Types of Beer Exit 125″, “Hungry for Snacks? Exit 125″…on and on a billboard for the same store about every mile, and we were 30-40 miles from Exit 125. Anyway, after seeing no less than 40 of these bill boards we just had to stop at the now famous (to us) Exit 125 and grab something to drink. The place was pretty well packed with other travelers stocking up on cold beer and sodas. I asked the guy behind the counter if he was staying busy and he replied “Yeah, ever since they put those billboards up”. I said, “no kidding, they made a difference huh?”, and he replied “Yup, I guess marketing works”
I think that story sums up what most small business owners know about marketing and advertising, it works! But for a lot of us we don’t know where to begin, and how to market our small businesses in the most effective fashion.
All marketing campaigns have similar steps and processes that you will need to work through when you begin to market your business. Whether you are advertising your small business in print, putting together a small business email marketing campaign, or cross marketing using various media types, working through the steps below will put you on the right path to success, as well as help ensure you get the desired outcomes from your marketing work and dollars.
Identify the Target Market
It’s not a coincidence, and shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that most concepts in small business start with target market. You need to have a good understanding of who is buying your products and services and why. If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to drill down into this and get a good handle on it before you proceed with marketing. Without a good understanding of your customers and their motivation to buy from you, any marketing plan you prepare is destined to fail.
For example, if you sell ice cream shakes and notice most of your customers are coming in from the Weight Watchers clinic next door, you would need to understand the motivation for them coming to before you marketed to all the Weight Watchers clinics in the city. In this case it’s easy to see you’re getting their business due to your proximity to the clinic not because your product would necessarily appeal to anyone in Weight Watchers.
Knowing your customer well, and their motivations behind buying from you is a critical step in getting your marketing campaign headed in the right direction, and using your marketing dollars most efficiently.
Set Your Budget
Realistically evaluate how much money you have available for marketing. Don’t be discouraged if you are in a position where there aren’t a lot of dollars available, most of us are in that same position. Your goal in creating your marketing plan is to maximize every dollar you do have, so that if you spend $50 on marketing it brings in $75 worth of business. Set a comfortable marketing budget and then stick with it. It will be easy to tack on a little bit extra here and there, but the point of marketing is the most bang for your buck and that is independent of budget parameters, so don’t think that spending more means getting more.
Specifically State the Desired Outcomes of Your Marketing Campaign
You should set a goal for each marketing campaign you undertake, and the SMART Goal template is a great way to do that. Well isn’t the goal of all marketing to get more business? Typically yes, but if you do not state exactly what outcomes you want to see, you’ll never know if your marketing was successful or not. More business can come in many different ways. Maybe you have a new product you need to get the word out about, or possibly lure clients from a specific demographic or region. Getting specific will help you focus, and provides the benchmark metric to analyze success.
Identify Potential Forms of Marketing
For every form of marketing you can find, ask yourself these questions:
1. How does this reach my target market?
2. Is there another form of advertising that would reach my market more effectively?
3. How many potential eyes in my target market will this reach?
4. How many of those potential customers will act on my marketing?
5. Is it within my budget? (This question will eliminate more potential marketing outlets than any other)
The exercise of asking these questions in regards to every kind of marketing available to you will help you weed out the bad ideas, and focus your marketing budget on those ideas with the greatest chance of success.
Let’s work through an example:
I run an event management company that specializes in road running races, 5k’s, 10k’s, Marathons, etc. for people who like to run to stay in shape and compete against other runners. There are numerous ways we can advertise our races, and I have $1000 to spend marketing each event. Fliers, brochures (handed out personally), radio, internet outlets, running stores, we could put ads on TV, or in specialty magazines geared towards runners. For every one of those advertising outlets I would ask myself the above questions. All would hit my target market. I have a good idea the number of people who would see each advertisement. I can research what the response rate is for each and make a note of that. And lastly, I have to discard TV, Radio, and internet advertising due to budget. So I am left with fliers, brochures, and specialty magazine advertisements as my marketing vehicles of choice. This becomes my “short list”, and the focus from here on out.
Analyze Your Cost Per Potential Customer
Now comes the one piece of analysis that will help you use your marketing dollars in the most effective way possible, returning that “bang for the buck” we are aiming for.
For each form of marketing/advertising now on the short list, you need to decide which returns the most customers for the least amount of marketing dollars…but how do you do that?
Dollars spent is your marketing budget. Potential new customers would be the estimated reach of your campaign (how many people are going to see it) and estimated response rate is the estimate of the % of people who will act on your marketing.
So what do we do with this information? Let’s continue with the example.
For my event management business we identified fliers, brochures, and speicaly magazine advertisements as my potential marketing avenues. Now we need to compare them to see where my $1000 marketing budget should be spent.
Fliers
4000 fliers for $1000 and have them distributed in race bags at similar races in my target area.
Potential new customers would be 4000, or everyone who gets our flier.
Estimated response rate is around 2% (learned from experience and research)
CPPC = $1000/4000*.02 = $12.50
Brochures
2000 brochures for $1000 to be handed out personally at similar races in my target area.
Potential new customers equals 2000
Estimated response rate is about 10% (this is from experience, they like the personal interaction which makes for higher conversion rate)
CPPC = $1000/2000*.1 = $5.00
Magazine Advertisement
A one month, 1/8 page ad cost $1000
Potential new customers equals 7,000 (circulation of the magazine)
Estimated response rate 2.5%
CPPC = $1000/7000*.025 = $5.71
The most bang for my marketing buck comes from the brochure advertising as it provides the most potential customers for the lowest cost per potential customer.
Focus your marketing dollars on those advertising outlets that have the lowest CPPC. This will maximize your return on investment, and allow you to leverage your dollars efficiently regardless of the size of your budget.
Implement the Advertising Campaign
The next step is to implement the campaign that you’ve chosen by working through steps outlined above. 1-5…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Track and Analyze the Results
The final step is to track and analyze the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. The above example didn’t have a goal identified, but your campaign will. Ask yourself, did you meet the objectives you outlined in step 3? Where did you fall short? What was the main reason you did/did not meet your goals? Did your campaign exceed your expectations, why was that? Continue to look at how your campaign did, and look for ways to make it better next time. This is an important step in ensuring your marketing will be successful in the future. Remember that even if your marketing was wildly successful this time, you can always improve it to be even better next time.
I hope you can see that by knowing your target market, setting a realistic budget, having goals for your marketing campaign, identifying potential forms of marketing and targeting the advertising with the lowest cost per potential customer, then following up on the results you will be setting your business up to run many successful advertising and marketing campaigns. This alone will go a long ways in positioning yourself one step ahead of the competition.
Have any marketing tips you’d like to share? We’d love to hear about them in the comments section.
What Gates & Seinfeld Can Teach You About Marketing
It should come as no surprise that those not so cutesy Microsoft advertisements featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld have been pulled from the airways. What can we small business owners learn from this when advertising and marketing our own businesses?
- Your marketing/advertising needs to come off looking natural and unforced.
- Anyone who saw the recent Microsoft commercials knows this was certainly not the case for Gates and Seinfeld. Bill may be brilliant when it comes to dominating the world one computer at at time, but shows he is a mere mortal when you give him a speaking part.
- You need to make your point quickly.
- With some of the Microsoft spots coming in at 4 minutes plus in their “long version” and over a minute in the “short” version Microsoft didn’t get the memo that we are busy people. Your ad needs to get to the point, grab their attention, and tell them what action to take. Coke doesn’t need four minutes to remind you that you need a Coke, want a Coke, and should go buy a Coke right now…who remembers “Have a Coke and a Smile”? That didn’t take four minutes to spit out.
- If you want to portray you or your company as cutting edge, you better be sure your advertising in cutting edge.
- Microsoft is a stodgy old company at this point in their life cycle. If these ads were supposed to portray them as anything but, they needed to try harder. The advertisements are trying to depict Microsoft as a hip, Apple like, company and instead look dated by using a star who hasn’t been in the public eye for years. Microsoft misses the mark big in the hip category and proves, if anything, how far behind the times they really are.
- Don’t be creative just for the sake of being creative.
- If you have a product or service that is creative by nature, then by all means play to that creativity. If you are being creative because that is what you think your target market is looking for you will come off looking trite and not create the marketing response you hoped for. Now ask yourself…Microsoft’s commercials…Creative? or Trite?
- If your advertisement/marketing efforts just aren’t cutting it, don’t be afraid to pull the plug on them.
- Microsoft sorta got it right on this one, but still tried to sugar coat it by saying pulling the ads is all part of the plan:
Microsoft is preparing to pull its TV ads featuring comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Microsoft’s co-founder and chairman Bill Gates.Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw said the end of the Seinfeld ads was planned well in advance, and wasn’t coming in response to any criticism of the spots. “All along we said we were having a teaser campaign,” he said. “We’re getting ready to start the second phase. This was the plan all along.”
Stating the obvious Microsoft has been hugely successful for a long time now, and it never has been on the strength of their advertising. Microsoft’s latest marketing campaign is a gift to us small business owners, they are giving something back for making us pay $300 a copy for Office, and that is a case study in what not to do in advertising.
Sorry Microsoft, didn’t laugh once, didn’t even come close. Better luck next time…
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Memorable, Creative, and Weird Publicity Stunts
Publicity is huge when growing a small business. You need publicity to get your name out there, create awareness about your services or products, or to attract attention to a cause.
If you’re looking for some immediate exposure, maybe a “publicity stunt” will give you the boost your business is looking for. You don’t need to spend a ton of money to get attention; some stunts could be done for little to no money. The key ingredient to a successful publicity stunt is that your idea is creative and will immediately attract a lot of attention.
Below is some of the most creative, zany, or downright weird publicity stunts businesses or individuals have used to get them some exposure.
A publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract media attention to the promoters, the perpetrators or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized or set up by amateurs
Taco Bell’s “Target” March 2001
Offered a free taco to everyone in the United States if the core of the Mir space station hit their floating target that was placed in the South Pacific.
Janet Jackson’s “Wardrobe Malfunction” February 2004
Who could forget Jackson’s “malfunction” during the halftime show at Superbowl 38? More talked about than the commercials!
Star Tribune’s 16,000 quarters August 2004
A new publicity stunt will turn the back side of 16,000 U.S. quarters into peel-off ads from coupon marketer Boodle. The $4,000 worth of quarters will be distributed through various vending machine change dispensers, pay telephone slots and on the streets in Minneapolis. The text reads, “Money acquired in unconventional ways” and points people to the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Web site. Boodle provides online coupon services to 245 newspapers with Web sites.
This is only the second time U.S. currency has been used as an advertisement. USA Networks created peel off ads for 50,000 one dollar bills to promote its Traffic miniseries in January 2004.
GoldenPalace.com Tattoos
Because they’re legally restricted from advertising in traditional media, online casino GoldenPalace.com, based in the Caribbean, has devised many marketing stunts to grab the public’s attention, from paying people to tattoo their logo on body parts to–earlier this year–purchasing William Shatner’s kidney stone for $25,000, so they could auction it off for charity. But their most famous marketing stunt took place a few years back when they bought a partially eaten grilled cheese sandwich for $28,000. But it wasn’t just any sandwich: It looked like the likeness of the Virgin Mary had been burned into the bread.
Burger King’s “Left handed whopper” 1998
In 1998 Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a “Left-Handed Whopper” specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release, “many others requested their own ‘right handed’ version.”
DC Comics “Death of Superman”
Whether we’re talking art or not, D.C. Comics is–yes–a business, generating approximately $40 billion in revenue each year. So it’s not surprising that many people felt that releasing a comic book called The Death of Superman was a marketing stunt, given that nobody with half a brain really, truly thought this company was going to stop producing its most popular title, a hit since the Superman character was born in 1938. (According to a recent estimate published in Entertainment Weekly, since that time, Superman has generated some $4 billion in revenue.)
Half.com “Renames Halfway, OR to Half.com, OR” 1999
Half.com, a retail website known for having sharply discounted items, paid Halfway, Oregon, to adopt the name Half.com for their town for a year. In exchange, Halfway received $100,000, 20 new computers for the local school and other financial subsidies.
Harry Reichenbach’s “Invisible Fish” Date Unknown
Saved a declining lunchroom for an old ex-circus woman by a curious little device. She had to attract a crowd but couldn’t afford to spend any money. Reichenbach had her place a large, transparent bowl filled with water in the window of her store. Beside the bowl she set up a cardboard sign reading, “The only living Brazilian invisible fish.”
People soon gathered to behold this wonder and some swore they could detect the invisible fish making the water move. This suggested an improvement on the idea. Reichenbach placed a little electric fan in one corner shielded from the onlookers and this blew ripples on the water. After that the crowds couldn’t be controlled. “You see it? There it goes! There! No, there!” People vied with each other to point out the fish, and the restaurant that featured such an oddity soon got trade as well.
Here is a picture of the invisible fish:
Taco Bell Buys The Liberty Bell April 1, 1996
Press Release:
In an effort to help the national debt, Taco Bell is pleased to announce that we have agreed to purchase the Liberty Bell, one of our country’s most historic treasures. It will now be called the ”Taco Liberty Bell” and will still be accessible to the American public for viewing. While some may find this controversial, we hope our move will prompt other corporations to take similar action to do their part to reduce the country’s debt.
Tiger Woods putts Rubik’s cube (square) into round hole
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