Bad Idea Marketing
Remember the SNL video short called “Bad Idea Jeans”? It was a parody of an early ’90s designer jean ad in which a group of yuppie guys are hanging around a basketball court getting ready for a pickup game, bantering (man-tering?) about life. Very funny. Here’s the Hulu link: Bad Idea Jeans.
In a similar vein I’ve started a new category for the KG Moments blog called Bad Idea Marketing. These posts will be short descriptions and commentary about advertising, PR, events or whatever that should have never made it off the concept cork board. Obviously they seemed worthy at some point, but for some reason further rigor, research or plain ‘ole reality checking escaped someone and the “what the hell are we thinking?” moment was missed. Rather than going into the blue recycling basket, they ended up in the eyes, ears and minds of customers or prospects. Please send in any bad marketing ideas you’ve experienced and I’ll collect them here. To start us rolling, here’s one that landed on my desk yesterday …
I was handed an envelope addressed to me with a handwritten “personal” on it. It had come in the mail and since it looked like it was, well, personal, it came directly to my desk instead of into my mail box where it may have sat for a couple of days (ok, that tactic worked). The envelop was branded very clearly and I knew immediately it was a piece of direct mail masquerading as something more important. It sat where I put it for a few hours until I got around to opening it. When I did, out came a folded letter and a pinch of salt.
For a few brief moments I was annoyed by the slight mess it made, followed quickly by being horrified that there was a loose white substance in the envelop I just opened! When I dropped the envelop a small packet of salt (the kind you pick up at the condiment counter at a fast food restaurant) fell out too. It had split open in the mail and some of the salt had emptied. My prevailing emotion then changed to wild disbelief as I realized this was some kind of creative element integrated into a direct mail campaign. Sure enough, when I read the letter the theme of the copy was “take this with a grain of salt”…get it? See, the pitch in the letter was purposely over-the-top. By reminding me — via the salt reference and the dimensional element of an actual packet of salt — that I should stay grounded while reading the letter, the message would be more impactful (no), memorable (um…yes), and effective (anyone?) But the only thing it did was make me incredulous that someone in this day and age thought it was clever to include a flimsy packet of something white and powdery in an envelope and then mail it to presumably lots of people. Ok, all together now: BAD IDEA!
These letters may indeed attract some prospects. It may also attract Homeland Security, the U.S. Postal Service and any number of parties the sender probably doesn’t want coming to see them with evidence bags, latex gloves and cameras (think CSI).
Bad idea, but good blog material.
-Dave Goldberg