Seth Godin Action Figure? It’s true.
I couldn’t imagine a scenario where Seth Godin would surpass my view of him as a marketing/blogging/new media GENIUS, and yet he strikes again. In his post, Hey Kids! It’s finally here he introduces his new state-of-the-art, plastic fantastic, branding guru action figure. No joke, it even comes with the “superpowers” of built Brandomatic® and PurplePower®.
I have always been impressed with the creative process of Seth Godin whether it is the packaging of his books or the outlandish ideas of an Action Figure or the coveted Purple Cow.
This should serve as an example of making marketing and “self-promotion” fun again. A plastic, Seth Godin action figure, Why not? If you want another route to create a word-of-mouth, word-of-key viral process, take note. Seth Godin has always known how to do it, and he strikes again.
I am actually looking forward to a Marc Gobe or Sergio Zyman action figure. Hopefully Sergio comes with an “Terrible Advertising Killer” sword or plasma gun.
A Good Way To Alienate
I am a huge fan of conservative talk radio. This is based not on the fact that I enjoy the viewpoints expressed on the stations but that it entertains me, plain and simple. I had been listening to an FM talk radio station, 93.9, religiously since I moved to Indianapolis (about 6 months). I would spend most of my driving time tuned into this talk show.
Then my world came to a crashing halt. I tuned in one afternoon, hoping to listen to the “Stop Hillary Express” of Sean Hannity, but all I received was Grandma Got Run Over by A Reindeer by some folk singer. I shrugged it off wanting to believe that it was a commercial, but the murderous reindeer was followed by the cheery tune of White Christmas. I had NO idea what had just happened.
Being a concerned citizen, I called the station asking what happened to the talk radio of which I had grown so fond. A very rude caller told me, “Well, we are playing Christmas music now. It should be back for a couple of days at the beginning of the week.” As you may guess, Talk Radio 93.9 was lost for the next two weeks in a white, wintry wonderland.
WIBC, the flagship talk station of Indianapolis had also done a similar stint, switching over to the FM dial to 93.1. The only difference is, they ANNOUNCED it over and over and over and over again months leading up to the switch.
I don’t know whether or not 93.9 switched back to talk radio after the holiday season but I am choosing not to check.I am curious to find out how many listeners they alienated when they automatically switched over to Christmas music without alerting the listener base.
As a business owner (which 93.9 is clearly owned by a flagship company) I would have went the route of WIBC by alerting my listeners, my customers!
The irony of this situations is that an entity that is firmly based in the art of conversation was incapable of conversing with their own customer.
ADD, I’d Like You To Meet ARG Marketing
RG: alternate reality game
“T-shirts went on sale at a 19th-century Lisbon concert hall with what looked to be a printing error: Random letters in the tour schedule on the back seemed slightly boldfaced. Then a 27-year-old Lisbon photographer named Nuno Foros realized that, strung together, the boldface letters spelled “i am trying to believe.” People started typing “iamtryingtobelieve.com” into their Web browsers. That led them to a site denouncing something called Parepin, a drug apparently introduced into the US water supply. Ostensibly, Parepin was an antidote to bioterror agents, but in reality, the page declared, it was part of a government plot to confuse and sedate citizens. Email sent to the site’s contact link generated a cryptic auto-response: “I’m drinking the water. So should you.” Online, fans worldwide debated what this had to do with Nine Inch Nails. A setup for the next album? Some kind of interactive game? Or what?” (You can find the rest of the story here)
The game started out with clues on t-shirts, USB flash drives in bathrooms at concerts, and a phone number that they could call to get more information on the “mock reality of a dysfunctional state.” One drive had a new song by Nine Inch Nails on it that trailed off to the sound of crickets at the end. The fans went as far as to run the cricket sounds through a spectograph, which produced a series a blips that turned into a phone number in Cleveland, OH. As you can guess the phone number further threw them into a game of second guessing and clues.
When all was said and done (after a huge ending with SWAT teams, actors, and the band playing the finale concert for 50-100 fans that made it through to the end of the game) 2.5 million people had visited at lease one of the game’s 30 web sites.
“The buzz was so great that Interscope chair Jimmy Iovine called 42 Entertainment (the people behind the NIN’s ARG) and offered to buy the company.”
Without typing 4 pages on a blog, I trust that you will go and read the story at wired.com and learn about the phenomenon of the ARG (because it is the future of generational marketing: my generation: the ADD generation). Truthfully I feel like I use the term phenomenon a little too loosely. ARG is an evolved form of the underlying substance of what Seth Godin calls, permission marketing. It is marketing that engages the consumer on a level never imagined before the Internet. The Internet has created a new level of marketing it is no longer a transaction (money=product) it is a free offering to entice the buyer before even offering them the chance to buy.
So what does this mean to the small business owner? The self-employed to medium sized owner that does not have $2 million to spend on an interactive ARG game? It doesn’t mean we should all go out and hire some brainy college student that can put together an Interactive game for our consumers. To me, it means to always be conscious of evolving when it comes to marketing, whether it be insurance, design, branding, or web solutions. Never get bogged down into the “direct-mail” syndrome or the “email-marketing syndrome.” Leave a USB flash drive in a bathroom, code a direct mail postcard, create an interactive environment your consumers can believe in. I could say, “The Skies The Limit,” but we all know we can go a hell of a lot further than that. Thanks to the Internet.
Music and It’s Step Sister Marketing
Pat suggested I start a blog for Smaller Indiana. Since I have never attempted to write a blog and Doug Karr influenced me enough at the MBO conference, here is the first shot.
I have always had the dangerous habit of looking at all marketing material positioned along the sides of roads and highways. I’m surprised I haven’t been hospitalized for rear ending a semi or any other type of compact vehicle in the road. It does have its uses though. I was driving down 96th Street and happened across a billboard for a local musician. The billboard read, “Frank Buchannon. Album Available Now. www.frankbuchannon.com,” it was accompanied by a huge picture of this guy leaning against a red barn with what I assume was a guitar or could have been a sax… maybe a it was piano.
The reason for my angst, music print marketing and advertising needs to change. The truth is, the billboard was a waste of money. Why do I care about Frank Buchannon when I am driving down 96th Street? It doesn’t give me a sales pitch. The billboard doesn’t have any substance. It didn’t pull me, it didn’t fascinate me, it didn’t sell me on the fact I needed to go and listen to this guy’s music on the web.
The music market has wasted millions of dollars on magazine advertising and billboard advertising because they don’t understand a fundamental rule of marketing, give them something to hold on to, damn it! I can open a magazine and read twenty to thirty advertisements for artists and all it gives is a name, a face, and a web address.
Let me say, that music marketing has gotten better on the web and in the next decade print advertising for music will fade if not disappear. But come on Frank, spend that money somewhere else!
If I were to run into Frank at a Starbucks I would say, “Oh HEY! Your that guy from the billboard….” And that’s about it.
