Get Flocked My twin sister Nichole leads student ministries at the church we attend. Each summer, she leads a group of high school students on a mission trip. To raise money for the trip each year, she implements the greatest fundraising idea ever:
Every night during the month of May, our church's group of high school students drives to someone's house (it's usually a church member's) and plant 20 pink, plastic flamingos in their yard. This is called "getting flocked." In order to have the flamingos removed the next day, the owner of the house must donate at least $20 to the youth group. That's pretty awesome by itself, but there are fantastically fun twists:
Church members can purchase flamingo insurance for $10 to prevent their house from being flocked.
Church members can pay $10 to request the flocking of an uninsured house.
An uninsured house can be flocked more than once during the month.
There's something for everyone in this fundraiser: some people love being flocked and look forward to the surprise of waking up to a yard full of flamingos every year. My two-year-old son loves seeing the flamingos in our yard (see the picture of he and my sister on the right, taken in my front yard after a flocking). I've been flocked twice this year and both times have been quite fun because of my son's reaction.
On the other hand, people who really don't want flamingos in their yard can make a small donation to the youth group and avoid being flocked. Further, the flamingos in a yard spark conversations among neighbors who ask why they're there, giving church members an opportunity to talk about their youth group's great service trip.
Do things ever go wrong? Of course. Each year, the high schoolers accidentally flock the wrong house at least once, but it's almost always resolved peacefully. One time, the wrong recipient of a flocking kept the flamingos hostage for a few days because he was so upset, but my sister was eventually able to talk him into giving them back ("hey, it's for the kids!").
Add This To Your To-Do List The flamingo fundraiser generates tons of donations for our youth group and the whole church gets into it every year. People post pictures of their flocked house to our church's Facebook page and it gives people something to laugh about before and after church. If you're trying to raise donations for a group at your organization, consider buying a flock of flamingos and setting them free. It will lift spirits, get people talking, and generate a lot of money for your group.
18 Minutes of Fame On April 12, 2013, I fulfilled a longtime goal: I gave a TEDx talk. I was honored to be one of six speakers at TEDx UofI Chicago. Everyone at the event was a pleasure to work with.
It would be very difficult to add up all of the hours that went into preparing for my short, 18-minute talk. I think I practiced it enough to remember large parts of it for the rest of my life. I tried to bring my passion for the subject to the stage — along with a little humor and a little know-how. There's always room for improvement, but I think I did pretty well. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
I must admit that I had so much fun doing the talk that I just may have to try and do another one someday. I guess we'll have to see if I have any more ideas worth spreading in the future.
Add This To Your To-Do List Enjoy my talk! And let me know what you thought of it. There's never a lack of ideas.
Sharing is Caring To thank those of you who have taken time to read my new book and share it with a friend, I'd like to send you a nifty button I've created. Check it out there on the right, worn by one of the people to whom I dedicated the book.
I'll send you a free button if you do all of the following:
Read my book. (Remember, there's a completely free pdf available.)
Share my book with someone. I would love if you'd write a review of it, but you can also simply tell a friend about it or share it via social media. (If you share it on social media, please include #marketingpriorities.)
Let me know that you did the first two things and where I should send the button. Then, sport it on your clothes or bag everywhere you go. If you take a picture of yourself wearing it and send it to me, I'll upload it to a little photo gallery for everyone to see.
I'm trying to start a movement in which organizations no longer invest time and money into marketing communication tactics that won't work. Thank you for your support!
What a Week While playing golf in Texas a few weeks ago, my uncle made two holes-in-one within four days. Incredible! (That's him on the right after the first one.) According to Callaway, there are fewer than 150 people who have done this while using Callaway golf balls, like my uncle was. And that includes professional golfers. (My uncle is not a professional golfer.)
That got me thinking:
Have you ever seen an ad for golf equipment? Every single one of them features a pro golfer. Every single one. Why doesn't one golf manufacturer take a different approach and focus on everyday golfers with incredible stories like my uncle? That's much more appealing and approachable to the vast majority of people who play the game. Sure, there's something to be said for inspiring amateur golfers by showing them that professionals play with their equipment — and I'm not saying golf manufacturers should ditch their professional player sponsorships. I'm just saying that the stories amateurs tell are much more compelling for the majority of golfers, and I'd love to see one major golf equipment manufacturer tell those stories. I'm looking at you, Callaway.
Add This To Your To-Do List Celebrity endorsements have proven to be very valuable. In fact as a sponsor, Tiger Woods is often single-handedly credited for building Nike into a highly successful competitor in the golf equipment industry. But it's important to tell the incredible stories of regular customers, too. Celebrities give us something to aspire to, but amazing everyday stories give us something to relate to. For big brands, it's often important to feature both. Are you collecting the amazing stories of your customers? Are you featuring those stories in shareable ways? If not, why not start now? You never know what can happen in just four days.
Train Station Take Over In March, the Lincoln Motor Company took over nearly all the billboards in Chicago's Union Station. The ads (examples seen on the right) all talked about "firsts" and invited people to share their firsts on Twitter by using #LincolnFirsts.
Now, I try not to use this blog as a way to critique marketing campaigns very often because as an observer, I don't know what Lincoln's goals were for this campaign, nor do I know how it performed against those goals. But I can make some educated guesses and I've come to the conclusion that this campaign was an example of marketing priorities gone wrong. Just look at some of the responses Lincoln received on Twitter. I assume Lincoln was hoping for better responses than these actual Tweets:
The first time I saw this ad at Union Station I wanted to punch it.
The first time I stole a car.
The first time I pee'd in a bottle in a car
The first time I went to a concert it was PDiddy. A rocker girl lost in a sea pot and bandanas.
The #lincolnfirsts campaign is such a waste of money. May as well purchase billboards that declare, "We don't understand social media!"
Trains and Automobiles? Next, think about where these ads were placed: in Chicago's busiest train station. The people who pass through Union Station every day take the train from the suburbs to downtown and vice versa. See anything wrong with that?
They take the train every day.
These people (I'm one of them) likely drive infrequently. I assume Lincoln was attracted to this audience because it comprises wealthy professionals who may be likely to consider a car a status symbol. I get that. But there are plenty of other ways to reach the same types of people who actually drive to work every day and will use their car much more than train commuters.
#MarketingPriorities In my new book, I write how companies big and small need to engage customers in one community really well before moving on to other communities. Companies do not have to have a Facebook page and a Twitter account and a Google+ page and a Pinterest account. They just need to start with one way to engage their customers in a community and then move on to other platforms.
Lincoln fell in love with the idea of reaching customers on Twitter and didn't think through how to best engage their target markets on the platform. They fell in love with the platform because it's hot right now. But they didn't think about merging that hot platform with their desire to reach their target market. If they had stopped to think about the best way to engage their target market, I think they would have chosen different tactics than placing billboards in a train station.
I love you, Lincoln, but I didn't love this campaign.
An Idea Worth Spreading I'm incredibly excited to be presenting at TEDx at the University of Illinois at Chicago this Friday evening — April 12th. I'll be discussing a few of the frameworks outlined in my new book, Hey Marketers, Get Your Priorities Straight. I'm speaking at 7:20 pm, which is late in the evening, so I'll do my best to keep it lively and entertaining. TEDx is for ideas worth spreading, and I hope you'll be inspired by my talk.
Tickets for the event are sold out, but you can tune in via the event livestream. But don't worry if you can't view the event live — I'll post a link to the video of my talk after the event organizers post it.
I invite you to consider leaving a review of the book wherever you acquired it. If you downloaded the PDF, I ask that you please write a review of it on Amazon — it's the least you can do for a free book, right?!
#marketingpriorities Join the conversation about setting marketing priorities by using #marketingpriorities on your preferred social networks. Share the marketing tactics you’ve prioritized and those you’ve decided to skip.
Independent Reviews If you're looking to give a review of the book on your own media channel, here are the basics of my book; use any of these resources as you'd like:
Title: Hey Marketers, Get Your Priorities Straight
Subtitle:Setting Marketing Communication Priorities at Startups, Small Businesses, and Non-Profits
Written by: Nick Scarpino
Foreword by: Avinash Kaushik
Self-Published by: Little Shoe Publishing
Printed by: CreateSpace, a DBA of On-Demand Publishing, LLC
List Prices: $12.99 (paperback) and $2.99 eBook
Paperback ISBN-13:978-0-9891334-1-1
Paperback ISBN-10:098913340
EBook ISBN-13:978-0-9891334-1-8
Book Description For startups, small businesses, and non-profit organizations, the idea of investing time and money into marketing communications can be very intimidating. Deciding between an investment in the next rising social media site, attending an industry trade show, or developing a direct mail program is daunting for businesses with marketing staffs of twenty people. Doing it with just a handful or fewer may seem nearly impossible, as the increasing number of available opportunities can be overwhelming.
This book will help you set priorities for your marketing communication investments. It walks through an easy-to-understand visual framework by which all marketing communication tactics should be considered; so as new marketing options come and go, you’ll know which ones to embrace and which ones to skip. The book also outlines the five must-have tactics all marketers must do before anything else. Real-life examples are everywhere in this book, making it easy to see exactly how the entire process works.
Author Biography Nick Scarpino works at Google, where he uses data to uncover consumer insights for marketers. In his spare time, he writes a popular marketing blog called Never a Lack of Ideas. Over the last 10+ years, Nick has had the opportunity to work in marketing at startups, small businesses, and non-profit organizations. Nick’s marketing work has earned numerous national awards for excellence.
Nick has a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from the University of Notre Dame and a Master’s Degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University.
Nick is passionate about helping companies of all sizes develop engaging marketing communication programs. Nick is also the creator, designer, and publisher of the popular family card game, What’s Wild?!.
