Category: Marketing Ideas

I am a member of my company’s “Fun Committee” and we were in in charge of planning an annual  activity and service project for the whole company. We came up with idea to incorporate the service project into the activity through a race/scavenger hunt, along the lines of the Amazing Race. We dubbed it “The Extraordinary Race” after our company’s seminar/book “The Extraordinary Leader.” Here is the logo I came up with for the event:

The way the race worked is that your team of four picked from challenges worth various points:

• Volunteering 1 hour at a Utah Community Action food bank.
• Purchasing $75 of canned foods and toiletries at a grocery store to donate to the food bank.
• Drinking shots of wheat grass from Jamba Juice.
• Bowling and earning 10 strikes collectively as a team.
• Finding a hidden message in the “Extraordinary Leader” book found in the Provo Library.
• Visiting a pet store, choosing a team mascot, and making a video about it.
• Eating 2 Ulimate Kong Kones from the grocery store, Maceys.
• Collecting pennies from every year our company has been in business (2003-present).
• Finding bonus point envelopes on a car parked in a crowded parking lot.
• Getting 10 strangers to take a picture with an “I Heart ZF” sign.
• Bonus points for extra pictures, videos, and creativity.

The winning team earned $100 cash for each team member, but everyone who participated at least earned gift cards from various restaurants. It was a lot of fun and great way for everyone to interact and get to know each other!

Check out the highlights in this video:

The other day, I came across this message from a train conductor written to passengers, presumably posted on train stops, explaining a problem that happened. The problem resulted in the conductor telling passengers to wait for the next train, which didn’t actually come because it ended up being cancelled (unbeknownst to the conductor). He sincerely apologizes for the incident even though it was something beyond his control. To me, this employee showed he takes a tremendous amount of pride in providing a quality experience and was open and candid with customers when that expectation was not met. Even though this did not come the corporate Metro North office or anyone in PR or marketing, this note (and the viral nature of twitter) have done a great deal to show they have employees who care. PR and Marketing folks should take note.

A while back, my cousin was purchasing a Subaru. I joked with him about how you have to put a minimum of 5 bumper stickers on your car before they would let it leave the lot. As he pointed out to me, they’ve actually done something even better. Now when you buy a Subaru, you can pick a variety of neatly placed decals that proudly display a little bit about you. Are you skier, cyclist, camper or runner? Do you do yoga, cook, or play music? Are things like diversity, family, or the environment important to you? Have you driven your Subaru over 100k miles? How many Subarus you’ve purchased in the past? These badges (which are actually pretty similar to the Merit Badges Boy Scout’s get – except you don’t actually have to do anything) are a great way to “gamify” the Subaru buying experience. It instills a sense of pride in being a Subaru owner (including whatever connotations go along with it) and celebrates that unique interests of the individuals. Well done, Subaru.

Read more about Subaru’s Badge of Ownership here.

To promote Bob Dylan’s new 43 Disc(!) box set, Columbia Records took his iconic classic song ,”Like a Rolling Stone” and put together an interactive music video, which allows viewers to flip through 16 different TV channels while the song is playing. Each channel features different actors lip syncing to fairly well known TV shows or situations: The Price Is Right, a news report, The History Channel, Pawn Stars, a rap video, a cooking show, a tennis match, etc. All of these snapshots drive home the point that Bob Dylan is such a ubiquitous part of our culture, that almost all walks of life are influenced in some way by his music. It’s also a great example of how technology is influencing the way we can deliver the content of marketing messages. It creates marketing that is interesting, that people actually seek out. As more folks spend time online and on their phones, Interactive videos will continue to become more common.

Watch the video below and read more about how they made it at Rolling Stone.

Check out this sweet interactive subway platform ad for the Swedish company Apotek. They built sensors into the ads so that when a train comes by, it blows the hair of the model in the ad! Using technology this way seems to be a new trend in advertising. British Airways and Ikea have done something similar. What a great way to disrupt and engage an audience on the go.

In this book, Seth discusses a variety of interesting ideas and observations about marketing, business and entrepreneurship. Each chapter is basically a 1-2 page thought (I’m pretty sure that this book came about as a collection of blog posts).

Although not written as a typical linear book, there is a common theme weaved throughout: we live in a day of age where those who are innovators have every opportunity to succeed and leave behind larger organizations who are stuck in the status quo. Everyday, ordinary people think of great ideas – whether they be a new way of doing things, a new product or service, or anything – that have the potential to change the way we function in the world. It is up to each of us to recognize great ideas when we see them (or think of them) and have the courage to follow through and act on it.

I would recommend this for anyone who runs a small business or needs a little motivation to get started on an idea.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

Today, little companies often make more money than big companies. Little churches grow faster than worldwide ones. Little jets are way faster (door to door) than big ones.

Small means the founder makes a far greater percentage of the customer interactions. Small means the founder is close to the decisions that matter and can make them, quickly.

Small is the new big because small gives you the flexibility to change the business model when your competition changes theirs.

Small means you can tell the truth on your blog.

Small means that you can answer email from your customers.

Small means that you will outsource the boring, low-impact stuff like manufacturing and shipping and billing and packing to others, while you keep the power because you invent the remarkable and tell stories to people who want to hear them.

A small law firm or accounting firm or ad agency is succeeding because they’re good, not because they’re big. So smart small companies are happy to hire them.

A small restaurant has an owner who greets you by name.

A small venture fund doesn’t have to fund big bad ideas in order to get capital doing work. They can make small investments in tiny companies with good (big) ideas.

A small church has a minister with the time to visit you in the hospital when you’re sick.

Small is the new big only when the person running the small thinks big.

Don’t wait. Get small. Think big.

Check out Seth’s Blog.

I often go to the grocery store, Harmons, for lunch since it is located near my work. When I went to get my usual California Roll, I was greeted with this sign:

Since many people start off the year with a resolution to lose weight, Harmon’s took advantage of this by offering $1 off for the lower calorie sushi rolls. I think it’s a great, well timed promotion that aligns with many people’s interests.

We hear a lot about the obesity epidemic that it happening right now. Wouldn’t it be great if the food industry priced every food to incentivize you to lose weight? What if restaurants charged a penny for every calorie of your meal? That would make a McDonald’s Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese $7.50 and their Grilled Chicken Sandwich only $3.50. At Wendy’s, it would price the Baconator at $9.40 and their half sized Apple Pecan Chicken Salad at $3.40. At Olive Garden, it would price the Fettuccine Alfredo at $12.20 and the Herb Grilled Salmon at $5.20. At the grocery store, it would price an apple at 55 cents and a regular sized Snickers bar at $2.50.

It’s kind of a radical concept but I think the adjusted prices would change the way people make decisions about their food by incentivizing them to pick lower calorie options. It would also cause food producers to find ways to lower the calorie content for some of their items. If you think about it, you’re already paying a higher price in the long term to eat junk food in the form of medical bills for diabetes, heart disease and a number of medical conditions. Just a thought. In the meantime, it’s good to see places like Harmons incentivizing health, even if its just in a small way.

Papa John’s currently has a deal going where if you buy any large pizza at regular price, you get a second, one topping large pizza for 30 cents. This is strategically timed to happen while leading up to the Super Bowl, of which Papa’s Johns has been designated as the official pizza.

My initial reaction was “why didn’t they just make it a ‘buy one get one free’ promotion?” I think there are a couple reasons. First, it’s their thirtieth anniversary so they were trying to work in the number 30. Second, they don’t mention the price of the first pizza; only the 30 cent pizza. I think it does something psychologically. When something is free, there is a perception that that the quality is cheap (enough for them to just give it away) or there must be a catch. Paying at least something make it seem more legitimate.

I think the 30 cents emphasizes the fact that it’s a good deal. Everyone knows Papa John’s is normally the more expensive pizza but it also has built up a reputation in quality (“Better Ingredients, Better Pizza”). With this promotion, they may be able to attract some of the cheaper customers who would normally go for Little Caesars. The thinking would go: “I will pay roughly the same amount for the two pizzas so why not try Papa Johns?” Then a few weeks later when it’s time for the Super Bowl parties, the people that tried it out for the first time and liked the better quality would re-order, only now at full price.

I think overall it’s a good strategy but hopefully it doesn’t de-value the perception of their product by making it appear “cheap.”

Check out this great spot for the Droid phone featuring Edward Norton:

I like this spot for several reasons: it’s clever, fast paced, funny, well produced, features Edward Norton’s great acting, but most of all, they feature the product and it’s many uses throughout the entire thing plus, the whole “48 hour” theme centers around the Droid’s 48 hour battery life. I think this is everything a commercial should be in this day of age.