I’m not sure what I’d be investing in, but this “big opportunity” is so intense. By watching the following commercial, I feel that there is a substantial chance that I will be swimming with the fishies if I don’t invest in this really super serious project… because I can’t understand the words, I am simply left to assume this is true. What do *you* think?

I wrote today about a lemonade stand in our neighborhood and about the nostalgia I felt when I saw it. Remember when you were a kid and it was okay to sit on the side of the road and peddle drinks your mom made? Remember when we played ball in the street until a car came and we all scattered while yelling “car! car! car!” There’s a certain homey feel that we recall when icons like a lemonade stand pop up around our home.

Can you imagine if you were looking at this subdivision for the first time ever and you drove in and were greeted by a lemonade stand? My thought would be “awwww, I LOVE it here!” Lame but true.

So what happens when the builder model the kids are in front of opens? Will the kids be allowed to squat on that spot? Most likely, the builder will ask them to remove their table from their property. But what if the only other builder in the subdivision actually bought a table for the neighborhood kids? What if they ASKED the kids to set up in front of THEIR model? Not in the driveway but on the corner?

What if this behavior was nurtured? My bet is that the homey feeling created would increase sales. In this rough sales environment, builders and home sellers need to think outside the box. And creating the feel of home is just what some people need when they’re plopping down their checkbook for their biggest investment ever.

What else besides a lemonade stand would make YOU think of home?

photo credit

There are several ways that marketing is getting greener like this and this (how clever!).

For example, at Single Pointe, we use business card sizes over full page any chance we get and we limit printing altogether (although it can be a cheaper, easier solution over the more creative ways of going green).

How are YOU going green?

What you should learn from the following video:

(1) Never move to Germany. Apparently their packaged food is the most disgusting thing you’ll ever experience next to being force-fed your own vomit.

(2) Don’t over-enhance your photography for your ads. Realtors- you don’t want to end up on the Bad MLS photos shame list, but you also don’t want someone to want to hunt you down because on a tour they saw this ugly chick when online they saw this hot chick.

(3) McDonald’s ain’t so bad after all.

I recently learned about a really awesome way to branch out your local blog- a photo blog set up from your camera phone! Ines shoots pics all over Miami with her sexy iPhone as she zips around town practicing real estate and it automatically posts on her separated photo blog. It is a great way to branch out her blog and gain traction on her main blog.

Check it out, and tell us in the comments how you think you can make this innovative idea a part of your marketing plan!

In the real estate industry, the great majority of agents are responsible for personally marketing themselves and their business.  That’s the actual reason that most bloggers blog- branding.  We read various blogs on technologies that will help our brand succeed and we learn marketing tips.  I’ve found that to further my own marketing work, I have to look at others’ campaigns and why they have or have not worked.  Part I & II of this series address a number of television campaigns that have NOT worked and Part III and IV will cover campaigns that worked.  Read the italics for the takeaway points!

THE HUH? FACTOR

Royal Bank of Scotland- You’ve all seen the RBS campaign implying that talk is cheap. My favorite is the group of executives in a tram that gets stuck. One guy talks about the seminar he took on positive thought while the dingy chick freaks and brushes her hair and the older, wiser exec simply pushes the emergency release while positive thought dude gets credit. I absolutely love this campaign but it fails because (1) the sound editing is awful. No visual media should leave the audience saying “huh?” or adjusting their sound when the girl screams and it sounds like we’re wearing crappy headphones. (2) This ad needs improvement on the visual editing- it seems choppy. What you should learn is that no matter how amazing your message is, editing can be quite distracting to your audience!

Ovaltine- if you aren’t familiar with the campaign, you’re lucky. It’s a lame ad filmed in the 90s that continues to run today and everyone in the neighborhood likes Ovaltine (eww). The biggest problem with this campaign besides the suckey factor is that the video and sound quality make you say “huh?” If your campaign is overly lame, your point will probably be missed!

THE COPY CAT FACTOR

Orbit gum- the first thing to note is that I confuse the gum for the online travel agency (Orbitz) by calling it “orbits gum.”  Not only does the name of the product sound eerily familiar to a different product, their tagline in their commercials (”brilliant” says the bubbly blonde) replicates Guiness Beer’s cartoony guys’ “brilliant!” exclamation.  It is NEVER good to replicate anothers’ business name OR tagline, even if it is all coincidental.

NON-PRESUMPTION

Dennis the Menace DVD- this winter, commercials launched for the release of the Dennis the Menace DVD (which I didn’t even know was ever in the theaters).  Instead of the standard “buy it today” call to action, the television narrator says that you can have this DVD today “if you want!”  What?  A company not assuming I would want their product plants it in my head that I probably don’t want it.  D’oh!

BRING IN THE MASCOT!

Orville Redenbacker- Okay, the computer revival of Orville Redenbacker is really really creepy.  Really creepy.  The idea of a really old guy who was old then and dead now dancing around is wrong.  Surely there is a better mascot for popcorn than Orville?  Maybe a cartoon of him?  Don’t creep your buyers out because you’re sentimental about your old mascot and assume they are too.

Aflack Duck-We all know and love the Gilbert Godfried duck of Aflac.  We’ve all said “aflac” like a duck before.  But now there’s a goat.  What?  Maybe if they interacted, but you can’t flip the script on me midstream- fire the goat.  Make sure your audience WANTS you to change your mascot or image before you make the plunge.

The Takeaway

The bottom line is that no matter how big the check is that you cut to your advertising team, not every campaign will work. Some of the best laid plans fail for various reasons, but avoiding a flop of your own certainly involves studying the failure of others. Part III will begin the positive examples of marketing campaigns, so stay tuned!

Photo credit: Dabe Murphy

In the interest of being fair and balanced, I wanted to share with you a comment you may  not have read that was written last night in regards to a past article titled “Tips You *Must* Know When Dealing With A Southerner” about interacting with us Southerners.  Bart Wheeler’s position:

Southerners being so “honest” and “friendly” is just plain not true. My experience is they’re conniving, evil, backstabbing and ready to do anything it takes to get ahead. I have a boss, a true “flower of the south” from some hillbillie swamp in Florida and she’ll come to me acting all kindsa friendly, playful and “nice” just to get some information out of me she will later use to ridicule me and put me down with in front of our superiors. Or she’ll snitch on me for the dumbest little infractions. How is that “friendly”, “generous” or “honest”?! And all your bullcrap ideals of “real men” and chivalry only show how sad and pathetic “y’all” are. And your racism and prejudice only show how insecure you are. Just as a reminder, YOU LOST THE WAR. What? “The south shall rise again?” Go ahead, losers. I frikkin’ dare you.

Yikes!!!  I guess not all Southerners give us a good name!  I assure you Bart, your co-worker is a horse of a different breed.  On behalf of the South, I’m sorry you’ve had that experience, buddy!  Come to Austin- dinner’s on me (consider it the South’s repayment for your suffering).

Photo credit: JimHatesWork.com (I swear to God that I’m 90% sure this is a picture of my uncle, circa 1990- I’m emailing my mom right now)- click image to enlarge

While eating my lunch of Mountain Dew and Cheez-its, I watched the mid-day Fox News coverage of the 2008 Presidential election.  Benn & I are mega-fans of Fox News and it’s on in the background whether here or at the office.  Today, they were talking about how demeaning it was to women that Oprah selected a man for her vote and chose race over gender (the later of which she has devoted much of her life to empowering).

First of all- gimme a freakin’ break.  Not only do I not care about ANY celebrity endorsement, I don’t care that Oprah has to pick a candidate based on her skin or her gender.

Second of all- the sources they referred to were (get this) commenters on the Oprah.com blog.  Seriously. 

SO, if you want to make national news, just go talk politics on a celebrity’s site and you’re a shoe-in to being a news source.  Oh, brother.

Not really.  Athol would be pleased with the photography given the available technology in 1919, Darren Rowse would be tickled at the quality of writing (even if it is antiquated speech), and even float Riccelli’s boat with its great graphic design.

(click here for larger image)

Text that has a tone similar to many an ad in 2008:

For Sale on Cayuga Lake

An ideal summer home, at a very reasonable figure.  Four acres of land on State Road, communicating directly with all large cities in New York State, between the H.A. Westinghouse and Hains Estates.  Main residence modern in every respect- hardwood floors, electric lights, billiard room and servants’ quarters.  Garage.  Ice and boat house.  Fine variety of fruit trees in bearing.  Will be sold furnished or unfurnished.  If interested in breeding live stock can offer an excellent establishment which adjoins property.  For particulars apply to Owen D. DeWitt, Interlaken, New York.

I love my dad.  His house is .27 miles from mine.  He was a single father for much of my life and I’ve always adored him.  He’s an incredible artist with a variety of skills mastered.  I remember as a child watching him paint every night.  I didn’t understand his art until adulthood, but I admired it nonetheless.  For much of my life, he was a graphic designer working on marketing campaigns you’ve all seen before and years ago, he began work as a designer for a national sign firm and has since become the senior director of design.  So, let’s just modestly say he has an eye for design.  Better than I ever will.

Most people assume that artistic designers are lofty, dreamy people not oriented with savvy business skills, and those people would be wrong.  My father told me a universal business truth that I want to share with you.  It has stuck with me since I was 13 (and he’ll be shocked to read that I remember it)- on a triangle, only two sides are available to lean on in business.  You can turn it any which way and one point is always in the air, left out- you can’t have it.  Then he illustrated it (in a much sexier way than I’ve mustered up):

Although he probably learned this in college from some top economist (and my dad’s one of the smartest people alive, I even got in a fist fight in 3rd grade over my dad being smarter than everyone else’s), I still attribute this concept to him.  So, in all transactions I know that no matter how badly you want all three, a triangle only allows two, so remember:

You can have a quality product quickly, but you’ll sacrifice cost.
You can have an inexpensive product quickly, but you’ll sacrifice quality.
You can have a quality product inexpensively, but you’ll sacrifice time.

So, if you want my quality services rendered quickly, it’s going to cost you.  If you want my quality services inexpensively, it will be in my time frame, not yours.  If you just want a quick, inexpensive product, it won’t be as high quality as it would if you’d given me more time (or… you knew it- money). 

So, thanks dad for being my inspiration for teaching us the universal business truth that transcends all businesses!