Simple Publicity and Viral Marketing Promo Examples
Election day has long past. Around that day I sent out an off the cuff message about a company that used the Election as a publicity stunt. And I heard about this stunt from a client who lives about 400 miles away…
For many, the election is nothing but a distant memory. But let’s recap the publicity and viral marketing generated on that day and learn to use it to our advantage.
All of these examples (nationwide), by the way, I heard from someone or read about online or learned through the news (if that’s not publicity and viral marketing at it’s best – I don’t know what is)
- Ben and Jerry’s gave away free ice-cream
- Starbucks gave away free coffee
- Krispy Creme gave away free donuts
- Commission for a Greener Tomorrow handed out free compact fluorescent bulbs
- Chick-fil-A gave away free chicken sandwiches
- Babeland (an “adult” toy store in New York) [Warning: If you're not age 18 or older you cannot read the rest of this paragraph] gave men a free $20 adult toy called the ‘Maverick,’ and the women received a free $15 adult toy called the ‘Silver Bullet.’
- California Taco gave away free tacos
- Chattanooga Hot Dog Company gave away free hot dogs
- Eli’s Cheesecake Factory gave free slices of cheesecake
- Grandaisy Bakery served free coffee
This was very simple and effective.
They used a Free sample give-away and tied it to a special event. Then, through serendipity, so many other businesses were doing it they all got ink in the press. Beautiful!
There’s no doubt you heard about some of these stories too. Some of them (specifically Starbucks) were all over the news! That’s millions of dollars in national (and maybe international) advertising for zilch!
Too bad presidential elections come around once every four years.
But wait! What are you doing to generate publicity, now? What are you doing to create viral word of mouth? Nothing? Why not?
You don’t need a presidential election.
Hmm… let’s see what I can come up without breaking a sweat…
There’s Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa, and Pearl Harbor Day (in the US), The beginning of Winter (in the northern hemisphere), Christmas (did you know they have Christmas shopping promotions in China and Japan?), Eid, Hanukkah, Boxing Day (Canada), and Virgin Guadalupe Day (Mexico).
I’m sure you can use one of these special events, maybe all of them, to bring some cheer to your customers. And in the process you can turn it into publicity and/or a viral event. If that fails, no problem, use these days as an excuse to contact your customers and make them a special offer.
Hurry up! There’s only about 6 weeks left in the year…!
Filed under: business leverage, creativity, public relations publicity buzz, street smart marketing | Tagged: current event marketing and advertising, direct response copywriting, Publicity Marketing, street smart marketing, viral marketing
