Stunt Marketing that Gets Attention

Some companies and people have successfully marketed themselves and their businesses using "Stunt Marketing" tactics. According to Entrepreneur Magazine, the Top 10 Marketing Stunts of all time included Taco Bell's April Fool's joke that it ran in the NY Times stating, "Taco Bell buys Liberty Bell. It will now be called the Taco Liberty Bell."

The end result was thousands upon thousands of complaints poured into the National Historic Park in Philadelphia and Taco Bell issued a statement saying it was all in jest but not before "650 print media outlets and 400 broadcast outlets covered the story" reaching an audience of over 70 million people who were all talking about Taco Bell. You can read the other stunts on Entrepreneur Magazine's website here.

I have to admit that I am a Jeopardy Junkie and as we were tuning in last night listening to Alec Trebek introduce the contestants it turned very interesting as Alec spoke to one young entrepreneur. Shelby Burford's claim to fame outside of making it to the Jeopardy contestant panel was that on board the flight from Chicago to Seattle earlier this year he made the most of marketing himself.

Shelby Burford, a 22-year-old, viewed the 160 passengers on board Flight 1843 as a captive audience of potential employers. After the flight attendants finished distributing cocktails, Shelby began distributing his abridged resumes on cocktail napkins - complete with his seat number in the event someone wanted to complete the trip by interviewing him.

Although he didn't land a job interview, you do have to admire this young man's creativity in promoting himself. If you would like to see Shelby Buford's cocktail napkin resume, you can view it here.

The job market is a competitive market especially for young graduates and to stand out sometimes you have to cast your ballot in the laps of unsuspecting employers. You just have to admire this bold tactics. Burford told the Seattle Times' newspaper,

"If there wasn't this barrage of people applying for jobs, I would have been able to stand out in a normal market, but because there are seasoned adults looking for work, it takes a stunt to get attention."

Last summer I walked past a young man doing a similar stunt to get attention. He was walking down the main street in the city wearing a t-shirt that said, "You Can Advertise Here. Call me XXX-XXXX." I turned to watch him walk away to see how many people were looking at him and the back of his neon t-shirt advertised his screen printing business. I don't know how many customers he got but he was sure getting a lot of looks.

Tough times require creative thinking when it comes to marketing yourself or your business. With so much of the world gone digital, you have to wonder if the cocktail napkins and pens will make resurgence. One young lady handed out pens printed with her phone number and Facebook page at her graduation celebration. It simply said, "Will work at anything to pay off these school loans!" I understand she landed a few part-time positions.

You can check out inexpensive marketing and promotional here. Everyone still needs a good pen every now and again - it might as well have your info on it and while cocktail napkins are disposable, the pens last awhile longer.

Source:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/marketingideas/article159484.html

http://o.seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nicolebrodeur/2013866855_nicole07m.html