Just A Publicity Stunt

Successful Marketing Strategies:

Hi sam,

Just A Publicity Stunt

In your previous Success Marketing Strategy email I talked
about one of my favorite things ... taking a vacation.
Now I want to talk about another favorite, publicity
stunts.

Is It Time For You To Pull Off
A Publicity Stunt?

You probably remember that famous Super Bowl when Janet
Jackson exposed her breast. Like President Bush, I'd
dozed off during the game and I don't have TIVO. What's
funny to me, is you'd think she and the nitwits at MTV/CBS
had invented something. Lady Godiva rode stark naked
through town on a horse.

Bill Veck sent a midget into bat. Joe Cossman had a train
carload of potatoes delivered to the street outside 'The
Tonight Show', when he was on with Carson, to promote his
Spud Gun. These stunts are as old as, well, Lady Godiva.

Nothing new here.

Raleigh Pinskey's orchestrated some of these, and writes
about them – along with other strategies – in the book I
recommend, 101 WAYS TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS.

It's worth noting, it's best if the stunt's designed so it
doesn't backfire. But even the Janet wardrobe
malfunction's impact is, I assure you, judged behind the
scenes in ratio: how many did it offend, and how much did
it cost in everything from FCC fines to irate advertisers
vs. how much did it make in selling CD's, creating ratings
for her next appearance, and so on. It certainly did
dominate the news and national conversation, didn't it?

A sluggish business, just like a sluggish career, can get
a boost from a stunt. You may choose to stop short of
baring some portion of your anatomy on TV. But you may
very well want to consider what you might want to do, as a
publicity stunt or "big" marketing gimmick, to grab a lot
of attention and create a lot of conversation with you or
your business as the subject.

The "contest" used by Bill Phillips for EAS, by Joe Polish
for his coaching program, a gimmick that serves this
purpose. The Phoenix insurance agent who rents out a
popular bar every St. Pat's Day, adds a giant tent
covering the whole parking lot, invites all his clients
and everyone they want to bring to his party, ties up
traffic and makes the local news, a stunt that serves this
purpose. Platinum Member Yanik Silver's birthday-bash
seminar, along these lines. You might even figure out
something "contained" within your own universe of past and
present customers, that never "goes public", but whips up
a lot of excitement amongst the base.

In your next Success Marketing Strategy email that will be
arriving in just a couple of days, I am going to talk
about a war on small business ... is a choice or a
necessity?


Dedicated To Multiplying Your 1ncome

Dan Kennedy