PR Stunts Are Back

Well, they never went away but they are back in fashion again.  I’m not surprised in this “WOW” world we live in.

I have always been a big fan of PR stunts and events.  Maybe it’s because I grew up around them.  My dad may still be known as the king of PR events.  He made a great career of promoting something by an event that always drew media attention.  He reminded me recently of when some of his crazy stunts didn’t work.  He still got press!  PT Barnum once said “there is no such thing as bad PR”.  Even his stunt failures were still huge successes.

There is an article in today’s Wall Street Journal about brands getting into the Guinness Book of World Records.  Guinness has even created a new division to help companies accomplish this. In the 21^st century world of YouTube and viral marketing, brands want that exposure and buzz.

When I worked for Feld Entertainment in the 1980′s, they were still known for creating great PR stunts and events.  Who can forget the famous Ringling Bros. elephant manure giveaways?  When that event needed to kick it up a notch, they went one step further.  “Someone” stole the manure in one city.  This turned into national media attention.  I still remember Jay Leno talking about it.

All of us in the event & entertainment business have potential PR events and stunts all around us.  Our business is tailor made for them.  I understand that in today’s world of marketing measurement, it’s hard to account for their results but these events do sell tickets.  Many of the best events don’t cost a lot of budget.  They only require your imagination.

Post Conference Thoughts

It was a whirlwind trip to Chicago for the Event & Arena Marketing Conference last week.  If the conference didn’t create its own excitement, being ground zero for the Stanley Cup celebrations brought it over the top.

I really enjoyed Ross Bernstein’s keynote presentation on the late Herb Brooks.  Ross seemed to bring the full spirit of the 1980 Olympic hockey coach to the conference.  After hearing Ross’s speech, you can really understand how “Herbie” was able to take average college hockey players and turn them into Olympic champions.

I attended the session on viral marketing.  Wanted to hear how it is evolving or should I say “going viral”.  The session was very interesting.  When many people think viral, they think YouTube.  But viral marketing is way more than that.  Marketing on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and FourSquare is viral marketing too.  Have your Facebook fans create an “event” for your show.  Have each of them invite all of their friends to the event.  This will spread the word to thousands very quickly.

Since I have been in this business for 25 years, I don’t get overly impressed with the type of family shows that tour today.  However, I think Walking with Dinosaurs is pretty cool.  They had a Baby T at their sponsored luncheon.  Now that is what I call a really great advance costume.  Baby T is the size of an actual baby t-rex. I was also impressed with how Cirque du Soleil has grown over the past 20 years.  The brand is now worldwide with 20 plus shows and continues to grow every year. 

I was part of a panel discussion on marketing & advertising basics.  The panel took an interesting twist. Instead of talking about how to buy media or what are the right GRP’s, we discussed actually understanding our customers.  You can’t buy media if you truly don’t know your customer.  It is more than just reading the stats.  You need to ask the customer, listen to the customer, and follow through for the customer.

FW: The Wiggles Can Teach Marketers A Thing Or Two

My fellow event marketer Adam Klein forwarded me an online article from blogger Max Kaleoff titled “The Wiggles Can Teach Marketers A Thing Or Two”.  I recommend you click on the link and read it.  The article talks about his family experience at a Wiggles show and their policy on pictures and recording.  Guess what?  They not only allow recording, they encourage it.

The article mentions that the band announces the policy right at the beginning of the show.  They tell the fans to share it with friends, family, and even post it on social sites like YouTube and Facebook. 

Why are they doing this?  Instead of fighting change in our world, they are embracing it. Instead of worrying about little Johnny’s parents breaking copyright laws, they are using this to supplement the marketing efforts.  They realize that their audience is the true fans that can help spread the word.  Let’s be honest, how many fans today can make money from videotaping a concert?  But if they post it on YouTube they are sharing it with all the potential Wiggles fans out there.  As marketers, don’t we spend tons of PR energy trying to get our show footage on local TV stations? 

The Grateful Dead realized this use of sharing 40 years ago.  They didn’t become the most successful touring band of all time because they forced fans to only buy their music.  They were ahead of their time.  They knew they were creating a movement.  Even though they allowed free taping, they still sold a shit load of albums and sold-out every single show in minutes. 

This article re-emphasizes what I have been calling for:  We need a summit of live event marketers and producers.  We need to address what has changed in our business over the last 20 years.  We need to discuss what works today and what doesn’t. We need to realize that today’s fans are our best marketing tool.

Social Media Going Mainstream

Marketers are starting to embrace social media and social media is embracing marketers.  Check out today’s Media & Marketing section of the Wall Street Journal.  The article in today’s WSJ talks about how Mars Snackfood is using its Skittles brand to apply new online marketing techniques. 

Mars has revamped the Skittles website with content from online Skittles fans www.skittles.com.  When you go to the website you get a Twitter background with Skittle followers commenting on the candy.  This is very cool!  They do take a risk doing this.  What if Twitter followers say “nasty” stuff about the candy? As I am writing this post I do see negative comments on the site.  In the age of social media, those are the chances that online marketers have to take. Does the famous PT Barnum quote of “no such thing as bad publicity” come into play?  BTW, Skittles was one of the top topics on Twitter yesterday!

In the upper left corner they have a box where you can click on different tabs. If you click on the friends tab you go to the candy’s Facebook page. If you click on the media tab you can either go to YouTube or Flickr.  

This is a perfect example of “out of the box” thinking.  The brand is taking risks, trying new stuff, and embracing non-traditional marketing.  Congrats to them!

Open letter to U2

Dear U2:

I understand you are planning to play some small venues in the next week to promote your new album.  I applaud your thinking on how to create a buzz.  I understand that you plan to play the Boston market next week.  The two most logical choices are House of Blues and The Paradise.  Of course the Paradise would be great since you first got your start there.  I hear both venues are already booked with other gigs.  May I suggest a small 300 seat theatre in suburban Boston where your 1980 era original fans now live.  The Center for Arts Natick (TCAN) www.natickarts.org is a restored 19th century fire house that is very intimate.  The acoustics are great.  You will be able to see every one of your fans in the audience.  If you are interested, please let me know and I will help you make it happen.

 

Things To Think About Over The Weekend

We have discussed in the past how “big ticket” luxury is not in right now.  Besides the financial facts of life affecting us all, no one wants to show off wealth.  I went holiday shopping yesterday to my local mall.  This mall has “regular” mall type stores and has a wing of “high end” stores.  The regular part of the mall was busy with holiday shoppers. The high end was like a ghost town.  I could have run through Neiman Marcus screaming and no one would hear it.  My wife went to Wal-Mart yesterday and it was packed!  I mentioned last week that I went to a Boston Bruins game.  While the seats in the upper balcony were full, the lower level (between the blue lines) seats were not.  This in includes the premium seats.  All of the empty seats were in the high price category.  Remember, the Bruins are the hottest team in the NHL right now. Think about all this when you planning your marketing and pricing for 2009.

Reacting To Negative Twitter Post

Yesterday I wrote about trying social network marketing.  I mentioned Twitter and dealing with possible negative posts.  Here is a link to a great article in today’s Ad Age Online: http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=133381.

What Are You Having Tonight?

Have you seen the new Arby’s TV spot that is airing nationally?  When it first starts I thought it was a Viagra commercial.  The spot gives a whole new meaning to the Arby’s logo.  Here is a link to the spot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaHDN3_X4QY.  This is a perfect example of the new ad thinking.  Put a “special” TV spot on the air and then watch in go viral.  It took me only 5 seconds to find it on YouTube. Just mentioning it in this blog is part of their viral goal.

Have a great weekend!

 

Even The Big Three Are Doing It

They can continue to produce cars no one wants or can afford. They build automobiles that are very 20th century.  They cry to Congress they need a bail out. They don’t understand what’s so wrong with flying the private jets to DC.  You can say all of that but don’t say they are not hip on the non-traditional marketing scene. 

Yes, it’s true they are taking to the web to sway all of us what “good guys” they are.  They are going digital to have us tell Congress that we love the Big Three and want them to get the money.    According to today’s Wall Street Journal Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler are bringing their message to Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the blogs.

The car companies understand these online messages will last a long time.  Once something is posted it can stay out there forever.  I see this all the time even with this blog.  Posts that I wrote months ago are still getting hits everyday. 

They know that the right use of ”tag” or “keywords” will get them to the top of the Google search. I am sure that the car companies are currently among the top searches.  When a searcher types in these words they could be sent to one of the many websites or blogs that the car companies have set up to lobby their case.  They are even buying search ads on Google.  Ford has staff that’s job is to scan the social network sites and exchange messages with other users. 

Another good reason the Big Three are using these forms of marketing is the image of spending “big bucks” on traditional marketing to get the message out.  I guess they did learn from the corporate jet screw up.  I still cannot believe not one of the CEO’s or their “people” didn’t think about the image of flying a corporate jet with their hands out. Is this not part of PR 101?  Of course to fix that mistake they make the return to DC into a big driving event. How predictable of a PR move was that?

Look for more big corporate companies to take the marketing message deep into the web in 2009.  I will say it again; this is marketing/PR for the 21st century.

Have a great weekend!

 

The Power Of Social Media

What happened to Johnson & Johnson’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare division over the weekend is a perfect example of the power that social networks have. 

J&J’s Motrin brand was running a spot showing how mothers have back pain because they carry babies in slings.  See it for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mztymu72l7c.  Are you kidding me?  Who is their agency?  I know that advertising today is all about creating buzz (which this spot has done) but didn’t someone say “don’t f*** with mom’s and babies”?

Anyway, the point of this post is to show the power of the new online “media”.  As soon as the spot started airing, the protests started in a big way.  But unlike the old way of holding up signs and marching outside J&J’s corporate office, it was protesting on the web.  Blogs started complaining.  Social network members in Facebook and Twitter started spreading the “boycott” word.  YouTube was spreading the video (see above) to get viewers fired up.  It was a very quick “spreading the word” response.  So quick that J&J pulled the spot right away and tried to apologize using typical corporate wording.  As a marketer, imagine what you can do with this new online power if you harness it correctly. 

Social Networks Are Media

In yesterday’s online version of Ad Age there was an article about a speech that Ted McConnell (General Manager of Interactive Marketing at P&G) gave to an ad club group.  In his speech he questions the use of marketing products on the social websites.  He wanted to know who called social networks media?  He claims that media has inventory, it has blank spots.  He said these are sites for people to talk to each other.  Who am I to argue with a top marketing guy at P&G, but I disagree.   Webster’s defines “media” as “a channel or system of communication, information, or entertainment”.  Don’t social networks and other online channels do this?  This is a great opportunity for us marketer’s to not only reach are target market but “really” reach our target.  He gave an example where one of his colleagues did a FaceBook search for someone who was a mid-20′s, female, worked at P&G, lived in Cincinnati, who liked sex and Coco-Puffs.  He was able to find such a person.  Now that is pin-point marketing.  McConnell has a problem with this.  He feels it is invading.  Why is it ok to see P&G commercials in a movie theater?  I paid for the movie. I go to the movies to escape.  As the line in the movie Spiderman says; “With great power comes great responsibility”.  I know this is hard to do for some marketers but we need to try.  Being able to market to the bulls-eye of the target is what we all strive to do. 

 

Out Of The Box Thinking

I knew what I was going to write about today when I saw this morning’s news.  They were reporting about a video of a shark attacking a duck boat going up the Charles River in Boston.  OK, think for a minute.  Do you really think a shark would be chasing a duck boat up a river?  That’s right; this was a viral marketing campaign by the New England Aquarium.  This is the second time in 10 days that I have been impressed that a venue that is considered traditional and its marketing campaigns possibly boring went very non-traditional.  I wrote about a museum doing cool street marketing in my June 21st post. 

The shark video is part of a campaign by the New England Aquarium promoting their sharks & rays exhibit.  The video is on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qGOX9siUK4 and is getting hits.  But more importantly, it is getting PR buzz on the news.  Just the fact the I am writing about it and placed the link is part of the viral spread.  This is what today’s marketing is all about.  If museums and aquariums can think outside the box, then we all should be doing it. 

 “What Else Can We Do”?

Every year you are charged with running a charity event.  It has done consistent business and the formula works.  The first question you need to ask when planning begins is “what else can we do”?  This was brought up tonight at my planning session for the benefit I chair for The Center for Arts in Natick (TCAN).  Guess what, we came up with something new and exciting.  We are working an on-line auction through our website that will coincide with the benefit.  This is a new revenue source, using the new technology, and thinking outside our “event in a box”.