Never a Lack of Ideas

A Fan Club Worth Joining When it comes to providing concert tickets to its most dedicated fans, Pearl Jam has the best ticketing system of any band in the world. The main reason is simple – the band rewards the people who have been fans of the band the longest with the best seats in the house. Any company who runs a customer reward program should pay close attention to the way that Pearl Jam issues tickets to its concerts. The Perfect System Pearl Jam charges $20 per year to join its fan club, called the Ten Club. In a nutshell, here’s how Pearl Jam sells concert tickets to its fan club members: Ticket Pre-Sale. Members of the Ten Club are able to purchase a limited number of tickets to any of the band’s shows via www.pearljam.com . Concert tickets are available to Ten Club members before they go on sale to the general public. Benefit of joining the fan club: The opportunity to purchase tickets before the general public. Ticket Distribution. When purchasing tickets, fan club members ...

It’s Like a Lemonade Stand, but Without Costs Kids who grow up on golf courses tend to try to sell passing golfers the golf balls that they find in their yards. The average proposition is something like: “$0.50 per golf ball” or “10 balls for $4.” I saw the greatest backyard golf ball stand while playing Ruffled Feathers Golf Course in Lemont, IL (pictured above). It’s a fancy course, and it’s the fanciest setup that I’ve ever seen. Yes, We Have That Take a look at the golf balls that these boys were selling from their backyard (pictured, left to right): Titleist ProV1s – $2 each Calloways – $1 each Titleists (non-ProV1s) – $1 each Nikes – $1 each Bags of Assorted Balls (lesser quality) – $5 for 12 balls These boys cater to every type of golfer. Great golfers are going to go for the $1-2 balls. Hackers (like me), who don’t care what type of ball they play, will go for the dozen balls for just $5. They have an impressive line of products and a great, easy-to-understand display. I bo...

A Dance Revolution Organized dances are all the rage at weddings these days. Brides and grooms are even bringing formalized funkiness to their walk down the aisle. YouTube’s newest stars are a recently married from Minnesota who organized the dance down the aisle that you see above. Millions of people have viewed this video. So why hasn’t David’s Bridal taken notice and used this as an opportunity to promote wedding creativity and their brand at the same time? It’s a Dance-Off! David’s Bridal, one of the country’s leading sellers of wedding and bridal party dresses, should partner with theknot.com , the web’s most popular wedding website, in order to promote a wedding dance-off contest. Here’s how it would work: Brides and grooms would be invited to videotape their most creative wedding dances and submit them to The Knot. Visitors to the site would vote on the most creative videos and the winning couple would receive a “retroactively-free wedding” worth $50,000. Return on Investment If...

A Lesson In Simplicity I took the above photo at US Cellular Field, where the White Sox were playing the Yankees. The picture is of the White Sox scoreboard in left field. Read the message carefully. Then let me ask you: if you needed help from security, would you have time to text “rise above,” your location, and a brief description of the problem to 78464? And how are you going to remember that number in the event of an actual emergency? Add This to Your To-Do List Communication is about simplicity. Whether it’s a message on a scoreboard or a proposal in a boardroom, if your message is too complicated, nobody will remember it or pay attention to it – no matter what. When you’re crafting important marketing messages, find someone who is not involved in the process and ask him/her to evaluate the message for simplicity. If your spouse, kids, or friends can’t understand the message, then there’s a good chance that your intended audience won’t understand it either. There’s never a lack o...

A Closer Look The next time you’re out to eat at a restaurant and you pay with a credit card, take a look at the pen that you’re using to sign the receipt. Chances are that the pen does not have the restaurant’s logo on it. It’s probably emblazoned with the logo of a local business. And if you’re interested in the business that the pen is promoting, I think you should keep it. Just be sure to leave a replacement. Take a Pen, Leave a Pen I love the idea of a “pen swap.” Get some pens with your company’s logo on them and carry them around with you. Take a pen when its logo is something interesting to you or someone you know and leave one of your own in its place. This isn’t stealing. The person who left the pen would want you to have it if you’re interested in what its advertising. And likewise, you’d want someone to take your pen if he/she is interested in your business. What to Put on Your Pen To create the perfect pen for distribution, you need to include three things on the pen: You...

Good Idea Back in March, I proposed the idea that shoe maker Christian Louboutin should create a limited edition pink-soled shoe (instead of his traditional red-soled shoes) to raise money for cancer research. ( Read my original idea. ) Unfortunately, representatives from Christian Louboutin said that they weren’t interested in my idea. ( Read their response. ) Fast-Forward Four Months For a limited time during the month of July, shoe maker New Balance has partnered with Susan G. Komen for the Cure to produce a pink running shoe to help raise money for breast cancer awareness. The shoes commemorate the 20 years that Komen has partnered with New Balance to fight breast cancer. For 20 days in July, New Balance will sell 20 pairs of personalized pink shoes for $149.99 per pair. A personal message can be embroidered onto the tongue of the shoe. New Balance has set up a special website in which you may purchase the limited edition shoes: http://www.newbalance.com/personalizethefight/ A no...

I Scream for Ice Cream To launch its new line of coffee-flavored ice cream, Starbucks is running a promotion through July 19th in which Facebook users can give a free pint of ice cream to one of their friends. At the top of every hour, Starbucks will give out 800 coupons for free ice cream via a Facebook application at http://apps.facebook.com/starbucksicecream . Facebook users cannot print a free ice cream coupon for themselves – they must send it to a friend. Since the free ice cream coupons are gone within seconds after the start of each hour, Starbucks offers a coupon for $1.00 off of a pint of their new ice cream to people who do not grab a free pint for their friends. This way, nobody is left out of the promotion. Learning From KFC’s Mistakes Starbucks made three notable improvements to the Kentucky Grilled Chicken debacle two months ago: Never underestimate the power of free food. The KGC promotion prompted millions of people to print off coupons for a free meal. Starbucks is...