You are here: Home / Archives for Messaging Technique / Stunt Marketing
aside


Be playful
It makes you happy and drives competitors crazy

Presidential candidate Herman Cain says we’re wound too tight. We need to relax. It’s as central to Cain’s message as his 9-9-9 tax program. He is blissfully unconventional and unruffled by criticisms from homogenized traditionalists. He gives them fits.

Maybe that’s why his campaign tossed up this gem. As it sailed over their heads, all the tightly wound saw was a man smoking on TV (the horrors) and Cain’s so-called “creepy smile.” Watch it a couple of times. Do you get it? Keep watching till you do.

Cain is playing. His intentions are serious, but he’s not going all grave and gravitas about it. As if to underscore the point, Cain practically gives us a get-the-joke wink at the end. He’s all about being who he is while sticking his thumb in the eye of conventional wisdom and laughing all the way to the media bank.

No way did the ad cost over $500 to produce. But, consider the ROI: free plays on Letterman (CBS), Kimmel (ABC), plus countless runs on CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and others. Cain’s campaign struck the mother lode of earned media by being themselves and having fun.

Playing is fun. It makes you happy. It drives competitors crazy. Case in point: Governor Perry unveiled a flat tax last week. What’s everyone talking about? Smoking. Creepy smile. Cain.

That’s a win for Cain and The Ten Be’s of Better Branding.

post

Rock your marketing and advertising like Warren Buffett

Differentiating your brand could be tricky work if your marketing and advertising involves one of the world’s richest men—unless that man is Warren Buffett.

“We thought, What’s the most ridiculous getup we could think up for Warren — and thought, Nah, we can’t do that,” says Phil Ovuka, director of creative media services at Geico.

Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett has become a staple of the Geico employee-created videos used to kick off their annual team meeting. Over the past four years, Buffett has appeared as a hobo and a DJ. This year, his tattooed Axl Rose send-up stole the show and netted thousands of viral impressions.

What can Warren Buffett teach your brand?

Suppose an employee brought you a marketing and advertising idea so off-the-charts outlandish you couldn’t contain your laughter. What would you do?  Dismiss that idea and you lose three ways: employees lose trust in sharing ideas, your brand loses fresh thinking, and you lose an edge that can differentiate you from competitors.

“Differentiate until you want to cry,” says Jon Spoelstra, author of Marketing Outrageously: How to Increase Your Revenue by Staggering Amounts! Otherwise, you’re just like everyone else.

Spoelstra’s track record of creating marketing and advertising success stories in basketball and arena football are legendary. The way to start, Spoelstra teaches, is “by making new a way of life.”

Step into each day looking at things from new and unexpected perspectives. Slaughter the sacred cows and bring in fresh thinking.  Doing so will make your people happy, your brand strong, and you rich. Ask Warren Buffett about that.

The bigger the response, the better the idea

Ideas everyone agrees on are safe, bland, vanilla. They’re dreck. It’s the thinking that produces ad-speak-laden messages: “family owned with a commitment for quality and your satisfaction.” Gag me.

Marketing and advertising ideas worth exploring are the ones that double over half the room in laughter, while revolting others. Strong reactions tell you that idea carries a charge that will light up a brand. Nurture such thinking in people and you’ll create an unexpected employee benefit: opportunity.

By stepping into his Guns N Roses persona, Warren Buffett tells everyone, Geico is alive with opportunity. The boss is on the team, not in the watchtower. His appearances in those videos is a clarion call to every Geico employee: your ideas are welcome at the top. It’s a marketing and advertising message that resonates with customers too, earning Buffett and company over 327,00 plays on YouTube as of the moment this was written.

Employees created the video, wrote the lyrics, delivered the message. It works because it’s an authentic sentiment delivered by people who believe. This kind of thing only happens when you create a safe space for outrageous ideas.

How welcome are outrageous ideas at the top of your company?

Jon Spoelstra is our brand of crazy. That’s why you’ll find him teaching a class called How To Make Big Things Happen Fast at Wizard Academy. I spent two days attending his first workshop and highly recommend it–especially if you want to find the way to your envelope’s edge. Click here to learn more.

Leave a Comment
post

Ronald, The Jets, and The Sharks

BurgerRumbleOne side is right, one isn’t. Only, you’re not quite sure which is which. West Side Story was compelling because we could see both sides’ prejudices. The jets. The sharks. Both wrong. Both right. Just neither at the same time. There’s a three-way burger rumble shaping up between McDonald’s, Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s. Just like West Side Story, there are generous servings of right and wrong to go around.

The turf: Angus. Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s say McDonald’s crossed the line. McDonald’s,  claims they’re just following their value proposition into Angus burgers.

Fight on your opponent’s terms and it’s an even bet you’ll lose. McDonald’s is doing what they do and they’re doing it big. Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, meanwhile, are being who they are–clever and snarky. All three are stepping out–though, only one of them has the guns to pull it off.

Since McDonald’s rolled out their Angus burgers, sales at the Golden Arches are up 2.6% in July, according to The Wall Street Journal. Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, both owned by CKE, report sales are off 3.65% in the four weeks ending August 10th. Up is good. Down is bad. But, is this sales differential a matter of Angus?

BigMacMcDonald’s Big Angus burger is $3.99. You’ll pay $3.49-3.99 at Hardee’s and Carl’s for their 1/3 pound of Angus. CKE sees, in this moment of price parity, a chance to take a bite out of McDonald’s value provider perception. There’s a problem: McDonald’s owns “value” in the minds of customers like hot owns ouch. Looks like CKE is coming to this gun fight with a butter knife.

Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. aren’t content to just fight it out for Angus. They’re taking direct aim at McDonald’s signature product, offering a cash rebate: Try a Big Mac. If you like it better than the new “Big Carl,” CKE will pay you.  Compare the Big Mac? Good luck with that. Better still, ask Pepsi about taste challenges. Ronald’s packing the heat of emotional connection; we all have car loads of family memories under his Golden Arches.

Challenging a competitor’s long-held perceptual ground by inviting your customers  sample them is more foolish than gutsy. Chances are, you’ll only further entrench the competitor’s position and weaken your own. Worse still, it’s nya-nya thumb-sucking;  unless you send the other guy home in a bag, you’ll sound petty and small. Ronald continues standing tall.

McDonald’s banner billows atop value mountain. CKE, meanwhile, is equally secure atop big burger mountain–it’s really more of a hill. So, what’s CKE doing? Coming off their hill to wage an up-hill attack on McD’s mountain.

CKE probably isn’t fighting to win, but instead Marketing Outrageously to “draft” McDonald’s; gaining sales as a result of marketing lift from their bodacious attack. More likely, the draft benefit will ultimately go to McDonald’s by virtue of girth. As a result, what CKE is really tagging is niche turf.

West Side Story’s turf battle ends with one hero laying dead on the playground, others standing in humbled silence. Both sides loose.  This Angus rumble won’t wind up in a mortal climax, but it will leave two of the three players bloodied for no lasting gain.  I’m betting Ronald won’t be one of them. He’s got a rocket in his pocket.

Leave a Comment
post

Mac spins it to win it

A devastating fire, with the power to knock most off their feet, will only graze Houston’s Gallery Furniture. Mattress Mac’s indomitable spirit is matched only by his marketing acumen. Jim McIngvale is conducting a morning-after clinic on how to leverage good from bad:Mackmain

1. Display authentic humility.
With millions blazing behind him, he spoke on live TV about his people, his faith, and the goodness of the city. In a moment when anyone might be forgiven for doing so, he didn’t make it about himself.

2. Move the story along.
Instead of wallowing and picking through the ruins, Mac is turning the page and giving his new second location press money can’t buy. He’s not only leading the story, he’s pointing where it will go.

3. Keep your brand on point.
Jim Macinvale sells furniture. He also doesn’t miss a beat: “we may not be able to give same day delivery for a little while…” He’s a master of brand focus.

4. Allow others to lift you up.
It’s deep in our American psyche to render aid to those suffering misfortune. Allowing that to happen creates a bond. The Gallery Furniture website is updated, saying thanks to the city and loyal customers. There’s a blog where the outpouring of support borders on maudlin. But, it’s all real.

Therein lies the nougat center of Mac’s persona: he is what he is and he makes no bones about it. Last night his surrender to grace carved a deeper level of character than years of charity support could provide.

In a moment of crushing darkness, JIm McIngvale’s sense of self projected a brighter light than the blaze behind him and used it to spell out: saves you money!

« Older Posts