It used to be all you needed was a cleverly written
press release and litter of irresistable puppies to get your story covered by the news media. After all, how could the cameras resist a tumbleweed of puppies playfully poking at the newly elected President''s son? Well, Helen, times have changed. Now it seems you need the creativity of a late night comedy writer and the mind of a web-obsessed culture junkie to come up with the kinds of communication campaigns that breakthrough and get noticed.
In today''s media climate, marketers can no longer just talk up their great tasting, less filling beer. Now who you are and what you stand for is in the hands of your consumers. They decide. All any smart marketer has to do, it would seem, is give consumers a forum, analyze what they say, pick the things they say you like best, then package them in a way that lets the tellers do the telling. Third party endorsement. One of the oldest tricks in the book.
If this "Me Marketing" is news to you, you''ve been reading those outdated, antiquated newspapers again. Everybody''s doing it - blogs, chat rooms, message boards - online places where consumers can post their comments, photos, videos and more. It''s the well from which the smart marketer must drink to compete today. It''s the crop that needs harvesting if you want to make some noise.
That''s where the late night comedy writer and web-obsessed culture junkie come in. Whether you need advertising,
public relations, promotions, new media, street teams,
buzz marketing, flyers, posters, direct mail, or a good old fashioned handshake to sell your product or service, you need a consumer communications
campaign that will breakthrough. And today, breakthrough means you need to breakdown.
Breakdown all your preconceived notions about how to sell something. Forget business cards and handwritten notes, long lunches and golf outings. Forget ribbon cuttings and grand openings, press conferences, editor luncheons, press junkets and deskside briefings. Do something different. Way different.
How do you come up with a cutting-edge campaign that will make headlines, the likes of Doritos and the first consumer-created Super Bowl ad, or the Milk Advisory Board and its got milk? campaign? Following are a few tips to take your brain out of the boardroom and into the backrooms of creativity.
Google: Google words and phrases and thoughts and ideas that have anything - or nothing - to do with your product or service. Financial services? Google money, money washing, washing machines, third world investment, investment bankers, bank roll, bank robbery, rob reiner, reindeer. Read through some of the findings. Does your campaign to get more people to use your investment services involve staging a virtual bank heist? Does the virtual bank heist challenge people to stop in your financial institution to find out who done it? Is there a reward attached to stopping in? Can you create an advertisement that teases the heist that is again only resolved online or in the bank? Can PR place stories in the news media to generate additional buzz and create intrigue?
Read: Everything and anything. Newspapers, magazines, blogs, sides of buses, backs of shampoo bottles, papers kids bring home from teachers, flyers from lawn services and basement refinishers. Read and remember the ideas of others that grabbed your attention. Are you a home-based daycare provider? Do you want to get the word nbsp;about your business? Can you make some of your little charges your spokespeople? How about a flyer with their photos and testimonials: "I like Miss Jenny''s peanut butter and banana sandwiches. She has Dora sippy cups." How about printing t-shirts with "Jenny''s Jump ''n Jive Daycare" and handing them out to park district tumbling classes to create word of mouth?
Beds, Cars and Dark Spaces: Everybody has a place where the ideas flow better (or maybe it''s more a "state" than a place). Whatever it is, get there (wine optional). I wrote the winning cheer that garnered me a spot on the 8th grade cheerleading squad while laying in bed at night. It''s where I also devised the campaign that won me a Silver Anvil from the Public
relations Society of America. Find your place, crank up the tunes (or tune off the noise completely), and let your mind wander. Sometimes I''ll toss in the latest
Marketing tome for some thought starters, including but not limited too Marketing for Dummies, Kellogg on Branding, and Buzz Marketing.
These are a few strategies to get you started. Given the plethora of information available on the internet, you can almost become your own one-man-marketing band, creating your own campaigns, doing the work yourself that it takes to grab the attention you desperately need to succeed. And who knows, being the first one-man-marketing-band may be just the idea that gets you noticed.
More summaries about the Press Releases: So Yesterday