Snuggies Are Sold Out Everywhere

The idea is ridiculous and the commercial feeds the ridiculousness. Stacks of robes are piled high in inventory warehouses around the world, yet you’d be hard-pressed to find a Snuggie in stock at your local Wal-Mart. Truthfully, there are only a few differences between a robe and a Snuggie. Did the ridiculous commercial create enough buzz to simply make it the ‘thing to get’ this Christmas season? Is the opening in the back that much better than the opening in the front? Do your feet and lower shins really get that cold to where a robe won’t do the trick? Are your hands that restricted when using a blanket?

I think the answer may be yes to all of these. And, though it is ridiculous, these small issues allowed room for a new product to come in and steal all sorts of business away from the blankets and robes.

The commercial could very well be the reason I want one of these fought-after backwards robes. I’m hoping Santa comes through.

Evaluation

Currently, I have a yellow box staring at me as I write this post. It’s informing me that I need to renew my domain name by November 16th if I do, in fact, desire to keep www.shewantstobeamarketeer.com as my own. It’s been staring at me for a while and I’m just not sure what my response is going to be.

I have enjoyed my year of blogging. But, it’s a time-consumer. So, the question becomes – how much have I enjoyed it? Is it an enjoyment that surpasses other enjoyments in my life? Is it worth the time? The answer is probably yes but it has made me wonder. I have thoughts about marketing, but they just don’t always come as consistently as is necessary for a successful blog. So, I shall just accept the fact that this just may not be a successful blog. That’s alright. Ok, I’ll renew.

Thanks for listening.

Travelers Insurance – Dog Commercial

I met a girl this past week who worked at Travelers Insurance. The very first thing I could get out of my mouth was, “Oh my, the dog commercial is so great!” I didn’t bother with ”do you like your job?” or “how long have you been working there?” The first thought was about the cute dog commercial. And, it was an opinion held by several of the surrounding people.

As other posts have revealed, I’m typically a fan of fun and humorous ads. While those are extremely effective, I can’t deny the power of the “awwwww” factor.

The Fun Theory

I’m a fan of fun and funny advertising. Volkswagon has created a series of youtube video commercials as part of “The Fun Theory” that show how to increase good works by making them fun.

Fun can obviously change behavior for the better.

Yes, yes it can. I think it can also change the way we view companies who encourage this type of fun-induced behavior.

Here’s my favorite thus far:

FREE $4 Cupcake? Every Day, Please.

I am writing this post from the perspective of a marketeer. This post would not exist if I was simply writing from the perspective of a consumer.

I tweet. Or twitt. Or whatever. Recently, a friend told me that he follows Sprinkles Cupcakes (@sprinkles) because they give away FREE CUPCAKES to the first 25-50 people to whisper the word they tell you to whisper. Mallory, as a consumer, really likes this idea, so she started to follow Sprinkles as well. I understand the logic. If you give away free products, they will realize how great the product is and will then purchase the product at a different point in time. Or, they will come in to the store for the free product and then buy additional items/services. I get it.

BUT, they’re doing it every day.

If I go in for the free product today and remember how much I love said product, I may go in tomorrow to get another one. The problem is that I can get the product for free tomorrow, too.  The cupcakes (which are simply delightful) are $4 each. The reason I don’t regularly purchase the product is not because I forget how great they are – it’s because I shouldn’t be buying $4 cupcakes regularly (and I probably shouldn’t be consuming big cupcakes every day but that’s a different topic).

They’ve solved my problem but they’ve created their own problem. As a consumer, my mindset has shifted. I will probably never feel totally right about paying for the $4 cupcake because I know that if I check Twitter, I can get a free cupcake today. If the “free cupcake” giveaway happened once a week then I would buck up and pay the $4 if I really wanted the cupcake today. 

Mallory, as a consumer, wants all Sprinkles employees to know that she loves you and hopes you continue to do the promotion that probably, in the end, isn’t a great idea.

College Football Starts “Tomorrow”

In honor of this, we created the video below to pump up our sellers within the organization. This is our last installment of  “Countdown to Kick” videos. Not only has it been a blast, but I think it’s allowing people to see a more fun side of their boss, or their boss’ boss, etc. Sometimes a 2-3 minute interruption in your day is necessary.

100 Days Til Kick Dance
75 Days Til Kick
25 Days Til Kick

Don’t forget the Bloopers for this one…

LSU Cribs

This a great way to promote a college athletics facility…especially to recruits. Who wouldn’t want to be part of a program with these facilities – but, more importantly, one that is this cool?

Thanks to Partnership Activation for always posting the latest and greatest sports marketing items.

I Can Feel The Shift

I would venture to say that social media is all I’ve known as an “adult”. Facebook started when I was in college and it became a natural part of my life. And by “part of my life”, I think I mean that it became natural for me to record my life online and extend my real relationships by keeping up with their lives more regularly than I could have done otherwise. That was a shift that didn’t seem as weird to me because it was really all I had known.

I think a different shift is happening. Social media is no longer a record of life or an extension of real relationships. It is life and it is relationships. Emotions are publicized, relationships are created and people spend more of their time on facebook/twitter looking at the lives that other people are living rather than living one on their own. It is life.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy facebook and twitter. Actually, I think enjoy them too much. I just fought the urge to tweet something that was probably too vulnerable/intimate to share with 192 people that I don’t know. I think it can be valuable (and fun…) to tweet good content and funny situations and “what I’m doing right now”. But, share my heart on twitter? I don’t want to go there. Those feelings are reserved for my closest “friends” and “followers”. But, then, why did I have even the slightest desire to do so?

I think that’s the shift…we are no longer recording our lives for our friends and family using social mediums. We are living life on these mediums by creating friends through them. Friends are people that know, not only what you do, but the emotions and intent behind those actions. The Twitterverse and the world of Facebook has now become a friend to many. I’m not ready for that friendship.

Men: How NOT to Market Yourselves

Wow. I just got wind of these voicemails left by a crazy up in Toronto. There are several approaches that men take to “market themselves” to single women. I laugh at and respect the unique approaches. I applaud boldness. I encourage humor. I appreciate sweetness.

This approach, however, is off the charts. Laughed at? Yes. Respected, encouraged or appreciated? Negative.

READ BELOW BEFORE LISTENING
The story is this: a girl was out with friends having drinks on King St (in Toronto ). This guy approaches her and won’t leave her alone -saying how cute she is. She finally gives in and hands the guy her business card to get rid of him. Below is an MP3 file of not one, but TWO voicemails this guy left. This goes down in the history books – especially the second voice mail. After hearing them you can clearly see why she didn’t call him back – instead she called in to the Z103.5 morning show & had them play this on the air.

Ladies: He is out there…:)

The audio doesn’t work, so here is a site that has the audio!

Twitter to the Rescue!

On the way home from a work event last night, I ran out of gas. This is not the point of my story but let me explain myself. Yesterday afternoon, I put 14 gallons of gas in my car. Immediately when I turned on the car, my gas gauge said it was empty. After a short conversation with my car-expert uncle, we figured that the gas gauge just hadn’t reset yet or that it was broken. It took me 60 miles to find out that my gas tank was, in fact, empty. After the Toll Team (that’s my made-up name for them) came and gave me a gallon of gas, my car wouldn’t start.

As I waited for the tow truck to rescue me, I tweeted about my situation. Why not? Surely my 167 loyal followers wanted to know about my current dilemma. At 11:30 p.m., guess who offered to help me via twitter? …@margaritaranch with “You got help coming for you?”.  

Yes, Margarita Ranch, a Tex-Mex joint in Dallas. Truth be told, I haven’t yet been to Margarita Ranch. I started following them on twitter because a friend told me that they tweeted about margarita specials (yes, please).

Opinions vary on the subject of how personal a business twitter account should be. I, however, thoroughly enjoyed knowing that @margaritaranch cared about my well-being. Would I have tweeted my cell phone for them to come to the rescue? Probably not. But, will I visit Margarita Ranch in the near future due to their kind gesture? Absolutely.

I vote that businesses on twitter be personal. And, I vote that everyone in Dallas goes to Margarita Ranch.