Category: Clutter Free Marketing

Tom’s Walks the WOM

Tom’s Walks the WOM

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Ben at Church of the Customer and John at Brand Autopsy have kindly shared the remarkable story of Tom’s Shoes. In a nutshell:

Strategy: Passion + a Simple Mission

For every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of shoes to a child in need. One for One

Ton Shoe’ing a Baby

Advertising Budget: $0. To quote the founder, “It’s hard to do advertising in a personal way” Marketing dollars are spent on getting involving customers in the mission – truly cutting the marketing clutter. In an MSNBC interview, a retailer explains that the shoes started selling after posting a picture of the shoes being handed out and the mission over the display.

Results:

  • 60,000 pairs donated and a goal of 200,000 by the end of 2008.
  • People who think the shoes are ugly on first glance (including me) purchasing them and breathlessly waiting for them to arrive.
  • A growing army of volunteer marketers who want to be asked about their ugly shoes so they can tell the story.

I am equally excited about the shoes, mission and conversational capital that I just bought!

Noise Counter Cuts Marketing Clutter

Noise Counter Cuts Marketing Clutter

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Noise Awareness from PSFKPSFK featured a set of European billboards that display live readings of the noise level in the locations where they are posted. I guess we have become to immune to irrelevant clutter – both visual and auditory – that we now need a billboard to remind us of the decibel level and the value of products that can shut it out.

Because the product it is selling – a quiet Electrolux washing machine reduces the noise pollution in your home environment, I’d definitely rate this as efficient, clutter free marketing. Even in billboard form.

Sleep: Luxury and Emotion

Sleep: Luxury and Emotion

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In our crazy world, time is the new luxury. And it’s not just awake time – it’s the time we spend sleeping that sometimes gets treated as a luxury instead of the precious necessity it is. You probably know that sleep is critical to everything from your ability to focus mentally to the appearance of your skin and weight maintenance. It’s as necessary as breathing, but people are passionate about sleep. They love sleep. They desire sleep. And when they figure out how to get good sleep, they become evangelists.

I came to realize just how deep this passion runs through some work for my (DISCLAIMER) client Select Comfort that I have been “taking home” with me – getting more sleep. Select Comfort, has an online promotion encouraging people to celebrate summer by getting an extra hour of sleep each night, and in so doing being entered to win a new bed. It has been fun to watch the emotion this topic has sparked. In addition to entires, comments on the blog post announcing the promotion have included concerns about sleep interruptions from pets, snoring spouses, stress, and babies (ok, I added the baby one, because that’s a concern in our house). Read the full comments here.

I am taking the challenge myself and can definitely tell the difference in my life when I get extra rest. If you could use more shuteye or just want to see what’s going on, click on the badge to check it out.

Target’s Newsweek Innovation

Target’s Newsweek Innovation

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Whilst perusing Inc. Magazine‘s nest of blogs, I came across a great example of innovative marketing environmentalism. Tom Szaky, CEO of Terra Cycle and author of the Eco-Capitalist blog, sold Newsweek magazine and Target on a unique promotion for their April Earth Day cover. The idea is something he calls “upcycling” – using waste materials to provide useful products. Target ran a fold out inside cover ad:Fold out cover

The ad invited you to fold the cover inside out, tape it into an envelope and fill it with your used Target plastic bags. Per the creative above, the used bags were then upcycled into reusable shopping bags. You are probably thinking what I am: who would go to this much trouble?

Target

Evidently, the answer is “the Newsweek Earth Day issue reader” because 35,000 people sent in their bags to Target.

While I understand the hard core environmentalist concerns about Target and their offerings so affordable as to almost be disposable, this is undeniably a great example of marketing environmentalism. They invited an audience who wanted to be engaged to co-create a useful product at a time (earth day) when they would have such things top of mind. Beats a shotgun FSI any day of the week.

p.s. If you haven’t picked up Inc. Magazine’s June print version focuses on Innovation, do. In addition to a great cover story on Threadless, there are lots of great tips on making creativity and innovation part of the fabric of your workplace.

DM 2.0: Comment Spam

DM 2.0: Comment Spam

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When I began this blog, I thought that Direct Mail was the height of marketing clutter. It was the tail end of the holiday season, and even though I did end up purchasing a few items from the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog, I felt deeply annoyed by the sheer volume, poundage, and paper waste in the barrage of glossies that clogged our mailbox.

Almost 6 months later, I have a better sense of just how many electronic forms marketing clutter can come. For whatever reason, the comment spam on this blog has taken off at a hyperbolic rate in the last few weeks and I’m going to need to go to a new verification method.

My real question is, does this actually WORK for anyone? Is this an effective method of generating inbound links to their Viag*ra, p*rn, mortgages, insurance sites, and even Vermont Teddy Bears? I have included some of the worst below for your enjoyment sorted by apparent strategy. Please leave a real comment if you have insight into any sort of effective use of this type of spam.

Flattery

  • Dear web-master ! I looked your site and I want to say that yor very well’
  • I have seen many sites before and most of them do not look this good. I cannot wait to let my friends know about this site. Thanks for the excellent content….

The Confusion Offense

  • fictitious verdigris unexplaining somesthesia dacoity outvictor unvented reducer

The I’m-Not-Even-Going-To-Read-Your-Post

  • I can find the prayer I want. I thank God for this website. (all prayer comment spam links to via*ra sites, funnily enough)
  • Many times, you’ll get stunned by the massive amount of video games material obtainable…

Motivational!

  • Plant the seeds of expectation in your mind; cultivate thoughts that anticipate achievement. Believe in yourself as being capable of overcoming all obstacles and weaknesses…