Print Ad of the week

Client: Manix

Category: Lubricants

Agency: DDsyR, Europe

Hunterz Inspire

Branding Customers—Literally

There you are, wandering around SEMA, a trade show for the automotive aftermarket industry, when a promotion at the Dunlop Tires booth catches your eye. If you let them tattoo the Dunlop logo on your body, you get a free set of tires. Crazy? Of course it is. But blogger Debra Mastaler explains why this smart strategy works on a number of levels:

• It exploits mainstream acceptance of tattoos, particularly among SEMA folks, and ups the ante with celebrity artists like Kat Von D.


• It generates publicity aplenty—like this—without the use of traditional media.


• It builds on the company's earlier marketing efforts, like the "Treadhead" promotion, in which hairstylists shaved Dunlop tread patterns onto customers' heads.

According to Mastaler, 50 Dunlop enthusiasts took the plunge, and there are hundreds more on a waiting list. Mack Collier at The Viral Garden adds that Dunlop filled every available appointment within minutes, and that one recipient didn't even realize the tattoo came with tires—he was just thrilled about getting some free ink!

"You have to remember that a customer evangelist is crazy about their favorite brands!" writes Collier. "So Dunlop ... made it easier for [their evangelists] to engage in actions that they were already performing."

Tattoos may be an extreme example, but if you aren't providing inventive ways to help your customer evangelists spread the good news, you might never learn just how far they'll go for you. And that is Marketing Inspiration.

Hunterz Tips

Another Way to Dodge Spam Folders

As good as your online campaign might be, you'll accomplish nothing if messages wind up in spam folders alongside pitches for counterfeit watches and herbal remedies of dubious merit. Neil Anuskiewicz claims it's easy to avoid this fate by establishing an SPF (sender policy framework).Don't let the techno-jargon scare you. In layman's terms, it works similarly to the authentication process a merchant uses for credit-card transactions, and assures Internet and email providers like AOL or Gmail that you are who you say you are. All told, an SPF vastly improves the chances that your message will go straight to a recipient's inbox.

Getting one is not only simple, says Anuskiewicz, it's free. You can use the setup wizard at sites like this, which walks you through each step, or you can create a manual record with your domain name registrar or hosting provider. Another option is delegating the task to your email administrator. A few things to keep in mind:

• You can't create an SPF with a free email provider like Gmail or Yahoo. This means you'll need a personalized domain name. They're inexpensive and there's a payoff: An email from sales@yourcompanyname.com has much more credibility than yourcompanyname@yahoo.com.


• Always use your domain name as the from address when you publish your SPF record. If you send email from sales@yourcompanyname.com, register the domain yourcompanyname.com.

The Po!nt: Setting up an SPF is a free and easy way to avoid the spam filter. If you don't have one, get one today.

Get to the Po!nt

How Caricatures Help Your Brand

Seth Godin points out a post at Boing Boing about a study suggesting that people are twice as likely to identify celebrities correctly when they are depicted as caricatures that exaggerate prominent facial features. "A caricature falsely highlights various anomalies while diminishing the boring parts," writes Godin. "So Jay Leno gets a ridiculous chin, or Jimmy Durante gets an even bigger nose."

The concept, says Godin, also applies to business. "The best brands are caricatures of their true selves," he continues. "Yes, they must have exceptional 'features' (a step that's easy to skip, but without which leads to failure) but then, over time, those features become a caricature."

To illustrate, he cites a pair of effective corporate caricatures:

• In its early days, ads from FedEx showed dedicated drivers doing whatever it took—even renting helicopters—to deliver a package on time. A wild exaggeration, to be sure, but it made the point.


• The standard joke about Starbucks, meanwhile, is the pretentiously complex order à la "half-caf, extra hot, short macchiato, extra foam, with soy, in a ceramic mug." Everyone takes their potshots, yes, but they also know they'll get exactly what they want. Far from doing damage, a caricature might actually make your company's most outstanding features more memorable.

The Po!nt: "Coloring inside the lines and pleasing most of your customers most of the time almost guarantees you'll be bland," writes Godin, embracing personality over popularity. "It's a lot cheaper and faster and more effective to have a big nose."

Print Ads of the Day - II

Client: Svenson - deforestation & re-birth

Agency: Publicis

Location: Singapore

Print Ads of the Day - I

Client: Svenson - deforest & re-birth

Agency: Publicis

Location: Singapore

Get to the Po!nt

A Blogger's Guide to Building and Maintaining Readership

In a post at The Lonely Marketer, Patrick Schaber, who just celebrated his first anniversary as a blogger, talks about his criteria for choosing the blogs he reads. "When I first got involved with social media, I was subscribing to anything and everything," he says. "A while back I purged and got down to a manageable amount of daily blog reading."

With so much engaging content available, he's frequently tempted to re-expand his reading list. To help him decide what to read, Schaber developed a list of blog must-haves.

Here's some of his advice for drawing readers like him:

• Provide unique, actionable content. "To be honest," writes Schaber, "I don't care if you've been blogging for five years or five minutes, if I feel I'm going to leave a site having learned something new, count me in." He gives extra points for highlighting recent content in a sidebar.


• Post frequently. This doesn't mean that you have to blog every day—a few each week will do the trick—but if multiple weeks pass between each post, readers will stop checking in.


• Maintain focus. Nothing says you have to restrict yourself to a single topic, but you'll confuse readers if you hop randomly from subject to subject without explaining why.


• Add visual interest. You'll notice that many bloggers include an image with each post. Follow their lead. "So much of social media is visual perception!" says Schaber.

The Po!nt: Good content is good content. Even the busiest people make time for their favorite blogs.

Experts Speak

Speak to Me!!

December 2007

Some people are born speechmakers. They thrive on the rush of speaking to hundreds. They deliver rousing presentations without notes. They never want it to end. And we hate them. Because we dread the thought of getting on stage, of seeing those expectant faces, of flubbing our lines. It isn't fair. But speeches and presentations are a fact of life, and Christine Whittemore has some great advice for ways to feel like a born speechmaker.

In the days before a speech:

• Practice to boost your confidence. Videotape practice sessions so you know what works and, more importantly, what doesn't.


• Learn to project your voice and your presence. You can use an empty church or auditorium for trial runs.

In the minutes before a speech:

• Don't eat bananas before a speech. Seriously. Like with dairy products, you'll feel the need to clear your throat. Again and again. Caffeine works better!!!


• Drink plenty of water with lemon to avoid dry mouth.

During the speech:

• Make eye contact with each part of the room; remember to smile.


• Don't read your presentation or clutch the podium. In fact, stay away from the podium unless you need a sip of water.

"It's OK to feel nervous," says Whittemore. "Anticipate it ... Yes, you'll be aware of it, but the audience won't." And for anyone who gives presentations.

This is Marketing Inspiration.