When a
fancy waterfront restaurant was opening soon in Buffalo, the smaller, nearby,
homegrown restaurants, including Garcia’s got worried. For just $20,000
Garcia’s hired a scrappy ad agency to create a campaign around which everyone
was sworn to secrecy. It got the town talking, won an Obie and, on a momentous
day, pulled an eager crowd to their restaurant. Perhaps you, too, can pull customers into your place of business, using
the same penny-pinching, conversation-based and conversation-provoking campaign
elements…..
Design your campaign to be:
Specific
Begin with
a specific, situation-based question, directed - not at the masses – but to a person, thus involving us.
Brief
Use few
words so that:
• You have
honed down to your simple, core story, making every word count.
• The
message (typeface) can be large and easy to read
• More
people will pay attention to a “quick read.”
Emotional
Tap into a
universally-felt emotion via a familiar situation feeling. In this case, love
and courtship.
Personal
Craft
lines of conversation (rather than ad copy) from distinctly different
personalities to:
• Evoke a voyeuristic sense of eavesdropping is extremely hard to resist.
• Make us
feel we’re a part of a real, unfolding story.
Mysterious
Don’t give
too many details at a time so they can fill the rest in from their memories and
imagination – and want more.
Build-up
By
releasing a detail at a time over time (whether on a billboard, email or
online) you heighten anticipation – just like the classic Burma Shave billboard
campaigns.
Suspense
May them
want to see how the story ends.
Us
Give them
a way to participate – and bring friends to share the experience.
Thank you Drew McLellan for discovering this story and describing it so well. I can see why all those companies seek your advice.
By the way, you could use the same elements to involve attendees in the multi-sensory moments of the unfolding story of your conference or other event.
