Pure Dynamite

As soon as I saw the trailer for Napoleon Dynamite, I was enraptured by its simplistic humor and its calling to my inner (and outer) geek. I attended the free showings of the movie. Three times actually. It was very interesting to see how they started to draw a cult following which eventually grew into mainstream recognition.

Here's how they set up their grand design.

On the official website they announced when and where they were having free showings of the movies. These would only list the showings about two weeks in advance so essentially only one showing is listed for selected cities. In order to watch the free showing, you have to register ahead of time. People love free stuff, so why not watch a movie for free, right?

Once you get to the theatre, you meet the Napoleon Dynamite promotion crew where they make sure you're registered. Once they verify your e-mail address, they give you a free t-shirt and a stamp card. SURPRISE! You get more free stuff! The t-shirts are designed with movie-related references, but here's the interesting part. The card has 3 stamp slots on them. If you fill up all 3 stamp slots, you can mail it in and get a prize, but you only get a stamp if you show up at the next free showing WITH a Napoleon Dynamite t-shirt on. Even more interesting is that at every movie, they handed out different t-shirts which bascially gave you more incentive to come back. Can we say viral marketing? Woot!

What I learned:

1. Give people free stuff. They love it even more if they unexpectedly get more free stuff on top of what they already have received.
2. Give more than one incentive to do business. Not every incentive will appeal to every single person. Take a multi-pronged approach to attact customers.
3. Have multiple chances for the customer to take the opportunity. Some prospects may miss the offer, but by having an unexpected reoccurance of a promotion or offer it will leave the customer anticipating. This also makes the potential customer repeatedly come back to your website.
4. Recognize and use the power of customers and their word of mouth. I know it's a pretty elementary concept, but find ways that will make people WANT to spread news or promotions.
5. Chicks love guys with skills...

Kung Fu Marketing

1. Use your opponent's strength against them - learn to turn a competitor's advantage into a disadvantage.
2. Every attack is a defense. Every defense is an attack - All your campaigns should be able to promote without fear of reprisal because your bases are covered.
3. Use all parts of the body as a defense or an attack - Sometimes you forget that by simply bending and using certain parts of the corporate body, it can be used to attack a competitor or defend yourself. Use all the resources available to you.
4. Be like the nature of water - Be adaptable. Go with the flow when you need to, but harden when required.
5. It may be advantageous to move into your opponent if contact is inevitable - Human instinct may be to move away from the competitor's attack, but by moving forward to confront the situation, you can counter attack faster and it will hurt a great deal less.
6. Watch the entire body movement and not just the eyes - Every company has their goals. Essentially, the goal is always the same. You just have to look for the 'tell' signs that an attack is coming.

Free Prize! Huzzah!

Today marks the DVD release of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. I'll admit that I'm not purchasing the DVD exclusively for the movie, but also because of the free touque promotion. If it weren't for this release day special, I'd probably just end up renting the movie. The touque probably isn't something spectacular or special, but Wes Anderson has always stirred up a bit of buzz with his incorporation of fashion into his movies. Some examples include the specially made red jumpsuits in The Royal Tenenbaums or the cult-following that's developed from the Zissou shoes. Free stuff is good... especially if it's something people want.

TD Bank recently had a promotion where people switching to their chequing account service would receive a free iPod Shuffle. I have no idea how well that campaign did, but I'm almost certain that a large number of the young demographic took advantage of this promotion (ooo...fancy marketing words).

Now if only I can get a Boba Fett helmet when I buy the prequel Star Wars set...

XBOX: The Next Generation

HYPE HYPE HYPE! New products are all about the hype and buzz to build momentum for the initial release. I don't think I've ever something like the XBOX campaign being run right now. Even CANADIAN television is showing this TV special to mark the launch of the new Xbox (The Next Generation of Xbox Revealed, on May 13 at 12:30 AM). I almost expected something like this from PlayStation with their launch of their little PSP wonder.

I know I'll be watching that special on TV for both the XBOX and to see how the show is structured so that it doesn't look like a cheezy infomercial. Perhaps it might give me some insight for the development of our flash demos of our products.

"Buy now and you get this little juicer, valued at $6.99, for absolutely free!"

Work Smarter, Not Harder

It's amazing how much time you waste with essentially trivial tasks. At my previous job, I had to spend at least an hour logging my hours and trying to figure out how much time I spent on each task. Essentially Web TimeSheets has solved this problem with a flexible yet easy-to-use software that lets you log your time easily. It's interesting to see more of these products emerge that aren't meant to blow your mind with new technology, but rather fill a small gap in business operations that save a lot more time and money in the end. Even something as simple as managing the e-mail inbox can be such a headache.

Speaking of which, a while back, our company held a webinar to address this sort of situation (Master your Inbox: Tips, Tricks and Best Practices for Managing Workplace E-mail).

Time to take some of my own advice... Only 126 more InBx e-mails to sort... The adventure continues.