Too many marketers think that great marketing comes from that “fabulous” idea or from the next shiny new object that captures people’s attention. The truth is,  occasionally it does happen. However, just as Thomas Edison tried 10,000 times to make his “fabulous” idea work before it finally did, great marketing takes persistent, continuous execution and experimentation.

On June 18th, I posted a conversion rate exercise on this blog. Two simple exercises to help others understand why they should do business with you.…

...continue to read "They Did It, Did You?"

If you haven’t seen it yet, you’ll want to check out this YouTube video of two (former) Domino’s employees:

So, do you think that might have some rather profound effects on Domino’s marketing efforts?  Think you’ll be eating at Domino’s anytime soon?

What’s interesting is that the basic principle behind this was predicted not by some far-seeing futurist working in the technology field, but by Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Charles C. Krulak.

Gen. Krulak coined the term “strategic corporal” to refer to the…

...continue to read "Marketing in the age of the “strategic minimum wage worker”"

I was firsthand witness to a clever promotion recently, so I’ll share in the hopes it inspires you to turn the Economy’s lemons into lemonade.

Seattle’s Chow Foods runs six restaurants, and recently sent an email blast with an inventive promotion.  The one-day promotion adjusted their menu item pricing based on the close of the DOW and the NASDAQ – the tumultuous DOW set the food menu pricing, and the NASDAQ set the price of house wine, draft beers, and well…

...continue to read "How To Leverage Economic Woes and Promote Business"

We all run contests – you know- giving away cool things, like a free pass to a conference.   But how do you announce the contest winner?   Brains on Fire came up with a unique, and I would guess viral, way to announce the winner of their Society for Word Of Mouth – SWOMFest ticket giveaway.

Check out the video.

Editors Note: While we are talking viral videos, have you seen possibly one of the best “experiential”…

...continue to read "Now THAT’S How You Announce a Contest Winner"

Viral videos are typically one-off affairs: Numa Numa, The Machine is Us/ing Us, and The Inner Life of a Cell – stand alone videos, one and all. But the only successful viral marketing effort I am aware of, was launched as a campaign rather than as a single video.

And that makes sense, right? No matter how tightly integrated your business message is with the premise of the video, prospective customers will probably require more than one exposure to remember that business…

...continue to read "One-shot Videos Miss Target While Campaigns Hit Bull’s-Eye"

Dave Young’s post about Microsoft’s “Inspiration, anyone?” video, and your comments, inspired a few thoughts about how to get a proper return on investment with viral videos.

Viral videos are, by nature, non-targetable. The message can be targeted, but the delivery is meant to spread in an out-of-control and, well, viral manner. But that’s OK since optimizing the message (e.g., with persona-based messaging) is usually far more effective than trying to control who actually ends up seeing your viral video.

We also…

...continue to read "3 Things Viral Videos Must Do to Make Money"

Last year, Geert Desager produced a short film called “The Breakup” for Microsoft that made all of the marketing circles, was presented at conferences of very smart people and applauded widely. My question is, did you remember that it was a promotional/viral piece for Microsoft Digital Advertising? I didn’t.

A friend recently sent me a link to “The Breakup” on Geert’s blog, where I discovered that they released the sequel just a couple of days ago. Check it out for yourself: “Inspiration,…

...continue to read "It’s Not YouTube, It’s Me…"

Here’s a great opportunity: The oceans are dying.

Seriously, the oceans are in horrible shape, and it’s your fault. You did it, Supply, Demand, Pollution and Overfishing. And if we don’t take ownership now, our brands, our children, and our collective appetite for seafood may never forgive us.

I’m not trying to bum you out, but the next time you feel the need to impress clients or co-workers with your sushi-ordering skills, you should at least know whether you’re eating sustainable fish.…

...continue to read "“Green Marketing”? Save Some for the Fishes…"

The other week, Holly wrote about using video to build better customer relationships. But what if you have a specific product to sell?

Here’s a great example of using video to sell a book online:

Riverhead Books and Penguin Books hired Lindsey Testolin to make made the words of Daniel H. Pink and the illustrations of Rob Ten Pas come to life in the shape of a film trailer — complete with gratuitous needle-dragging-on-record sound effect to suggest a sudden change of expectations.…

...continue to read "Johnny Bunko Sure Knows How to Market a Book"

They say it’s better to be born lucky than rich. Guinness stout definitely has the rich part down (pun intended), but it seems they were a bit short on viral marketing luck this St. Patrick’s Day.

Guinness made a valiant attempt to make St. Patty’s a national U.S. holiday with their Petition 3-17 campaign. Their argument: Since there are nine times more Irish-Americans than there are people in all of Ireland, and since people of all ethnicities already miss work on…

...continue to read "How Guinness Might Have Converted One Million"