If Fast Food Can Do It, Why Not Us?

Fast food brands seem to really understand the power of non-traditional marketing.   I wrote several months back about the Burger King Facebook kill off friends’ campaign.  Now Subway is making a non-traditional splash.  They are part of a campaign to save the TV show “Chuck”.  See the AdAge Online story.

The sandwich maker claims it all started with a TV blogger and product placement.  Subway had product placement on an episode of “Chuck” along with a brand mention from the lead character.  When the word went out that NBC was thinking of pulling the plug on the show, a blogger started a campaign.  She asked her readers to buy Subway foot-long sandwiches and watch the season finale.  She wanted the network to see the power of the viewers. 

Subway claims they didn’t start this but has jumped on the bandwagon.  I don’t believe that for a second.  There are lots of product placements in that show and many other shows.  Like any type of marketing, what can you do to rise above the clutter?  Don’t get me wrong I love this campaign!  Think about how much exposure Subway is getting for that initial product placement?  The campaign even has a viral video showing Zack Levi (Chuck) taking 600 fans into a Subway in England. 

Someone at NBC must really like “Chuck”.  The promotional and PR events around this TV show have been very different from their other programming.  Remember this past Super Bowl?  We all used our 3-D glasses for a “Chuck” commercial and then saved them to watch the 3-D episode later that week.

All of this non-traditional marketing is very “out of the box” thinking.  Think about how we can make this type of marketing work for us in the live event & entertainment business.  We all understand how buzz works.  We can tell if a show is going to take off by the buzz.  Why not help create the buzz?  Long before you go on sale with the show or event start the buzz campaign.  Work with bloggers, fan clubs, and social network sites.  It shouldn’t cost you any of the marketing budget and if it does, so what?  This is all part of the marketing campaign.   

As stated in the book Pyro Marketing by Greg Stielstra:

1) Gather the driest tinder

2) Touch it with a match

3) Fan the flames

4) Save the coals 

Where Has All The Passion Gone?

Now that I am traveling throughout the country promoting shows and events again, I am seeing good marketing, bad marketing, but not great marketing.

I started in this business almost 25 years ago.  At that time I had the privilege of being trained by and working for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows.  You know them today as Feld Entertainment.  The men and women I worked with were known as “the best”.  Our leader was Allen Bloom.  He was and is still considered the “Godfather” of event & entertainment marketing.  Many of the concepts used today in live event marketing were his ideas.  If Allen were alive today, I am sure he would be in awe of all the new and exciting non-traditional marketing opportunities that we have at our disposal.  I am also sure he would be shaking his head at how today’s marketers don’t seem to have passion.

Why has live event marketing just become a media buying service?  That is not marketing.  Why does it seem that some event marketers just go through the motions? I don’t know about you but I don’t think giving away “family four packs” is out of the box thinking.  And when a radio station does this “so called” promotion they never get all key info correct.  Is it so hard to say the Name, Dates, and Place of the show or event?

Here is what we need from today’s live event & entertainment marketers:

1) We need marketers who can think outside the box. 

2) We need marketers who are able to adapt to marketing in the 21st century. 

3) We need marketers who fight for promotions. 

4) We need marketers who are more then just media buyers. 

5) We need marketers who give a shit!

If today’s live event marketing people have the passion for marketing then this will make the difference.  I mean real passion.  I call it that “certain something”.  You cannot learn it.  You either have it or you don’t.  Allen Bloom had it.  He always looked for other people who had it too.  He used to say “I never said I hired Harvard grads or choir boys”.  He hired people with passion. That is why his guys & gals were known as the best.   We need more of that marketing passion back in our business if we truly want success.

Make Your Street Marketing Fun & Hands-On

Carnival Cruise Lines has a cool new interactive street/mobile campaign called the sidewalk aquarium as reported today on adage.com.  Click on the link to see the 3 minute video.  Carnival market’s itself as the ”fun” ship so it only makes sense that it would offer a “fun” marketing campaign. 

Carnival is setting up these sidewalk aquariums initially in six markets.  A person can create their own fish using their mobile device.  After they create it they can feed, play, and interact with the digital fish on the aquarium video screen.  It’s like a big video game on the street.  Carnival plans to move this to their website also.  This way you can take care of your fish from your home or office. 

I like this type of marketing campaign.  It is not a hard sell yet gives the brand good exposure and an interactive experience for the potential customer.  Anytime you can create a “hands on” experience you have better brand retention. Also, I am sure they are capturing the data from the mobile phones.  Now they can add mobile marketing to their advertising campaign to potential customers.  Look for more interactive street type marketing in the next year.  This is all part of the new “out of the box” non-traditional thinking.

Live entertainment co-marketing

The Harlem Globetrotters are teaming up with Blue Man Group at one up-coming performance in Boston.  The Monday, March 30th performance of the Globetrotters at the TD Banknorth Garden is promoting special guests Blue Man Group.  This is a very interesting marketing approach.  A Monday evening performance is a tough sell especially when you are doing a Sunday afternoon performance.  BMG’s Boston franchise is feeling the effects of the recession and could use a marketing “pick-me-up”.  I look forward to see how this co-promotional opportunity sells for both of them.

Question of the day

Is SXSW still the right forum for promoting new music and acts or has it become more of an event for new media?

 

I Like To Do Business With “Out Of Box Thinkers”

I always preach about “thinking outside the box”.  As marketers we should always be thinking this way.  I enjoy working with people who think this way.  Why, because it makes marketing fun. This in turn makes what I do enjoyable.  None of us should work in a field where we don’t enjoy what we do.  I don’t say “I work for a living”.  I say “this is what I do”.  If it becomes work then you need to change fields.  When you cut deals, isn’t more fun to cut some really cool new promotion?  Doesn’t pitching the same deal over and over get boring?

I am working with Craig Peters http://www.ckpcreative.com on the Thomas Live on Stage tour.  Craig is the “tech” marketing guy in our group.  He understands the web and how to market in the social network space.  He is one of the many great “out of the box” marketing gurus I have the pleasure to work with on this tour.  Everyone associated with the marketing of this tour loves marketing and is not afraid to try stuff.  “Failure is not in trying something.  It is not trying” (oh no I am writing a quotable).  Craig is a big Twitter fan.  He understands the marketing and PR uses with Twitter.  Craig put out a Thomas Live ticket giveaway promotion on Twitter.  Check it out http://tinyurl.com/agwjkb.  I like this because it was a free, easy, and a “no brainer” promotion.  It is also “out of the box thinking”.  The cool marketing effect will be how this small promotion spreads throughout the Twitter community.

The Academy Awards

I actually enjoyed the awards show last night.  Yes, some of it should have ended up on the cutting room floor but I did stay up to watch the whole thing.  I am always happy when my favorite movie of the year wins.  They got it right with Slumdog Millionaire.

 

Is Your Brand On Your Customers Menu?

My friend Doak Turner runs a songwriters group in Nashville called the Nashville Muse www.nashvillemuse.com.  He sends out a weekly e-zine to 10,000 readers in the music business.  He has also created a place where established and new songwriters can hang, try out their stuff, and feed creativity to each other.  As with all songwriters, they also like to eat.  One of their favorite meals is Doak’s Taco Soup or Songwriters Soup.  So popular that Doak brought this and a couple other favorite foods to The Listening Room Cafe www.listeningroomcafe.com a popular Nashville restaurant that caters to the music community and songwriters. They now have a few items on the menu with the Nashville Muse brand name on it.  Twenty-five cents from every bowl of Nashville Muse Taco Chili goes to local songwriter charities. 

Why am I writing about this?  Doak is creating branding.  He knows that the best way to market his product is to create brand awareness.  Nashville has more songwriters then any other city in this country.  Doak has created a niche that fits that demo.  He wants his brand to be on the mind of every songwriter in Nashville.

He doesn’t have the marketing budgets to promote his brand in a traditional way.  He is always thinking outside the box.  Getting his name on menu items at a popular restaurant is a fantastic way to market.  He uses the power of the web and email to get his brand message out.  Doak makes sure he is always out in the music community.  He has networking down to a science.  He doesn’t give them the hard sell.  He is always offering his help (many times pro bono).  He gives songwriters a brand they feel comfortable with.  But the most important part of all is that Doak loves what he does.  That is what will drive his brand to success.  Think about this as you market your next show or event.