I initially stumbled onto the Walmart toy display by accident. It was Nov 5th, and I was barely recovering from receiving my coffee from Starbucks in a Christmas cup. I still had a burnt out pumpkin on my deck from Halloween. And I wasn’t even IN Walmart at the time, so let’s call it an “unprovoked attack” of holiday marketing. I’ve only brought myself to write about … [Read more...]
Could the secret to increasing sales actually be about selectively sharing secrets & limiting access?
Psst! I’ve got some secrets to share. We're going to explore the idea of secrecy and limiting access as a marketing ploy to increase demand and sales. “Please don’t tell,” or PDT to regulars, is a secret cocktail bar in New York City. While it’s a lot less hidden these days due to the “secret” word getting out, the concept is unique and certainly word of mouth worthy. … [Read more...]
Dollar Shave Club’s Irreverent F***ING Great ad
It’s officially “Movember” and the start of that month when strange outcroppings pop up on the upper lip of males, all for a good cause – raising awareness for cancer research. It can be a tough road for some follicle challenged guys, and even tougher for the partners of those blessed with abundant facial growth abilities. The only thing for certain is the likelihood … [Read more...]
Word of mouth and the top 3 reasons why we share
Last week I wrote about the fact that only 7% of word of mouth happens online. The rest actually takes place offline in actual person-to-person conversations. It was a pretty remarkable statistic, but one worth keeping in focus as we continue to focus so much effort on social media. We do however need to recognize that both online and traditional media are often the vehicles … [Read more...]
Lays “Do Us a Flavour ” insiders story + how CapU students hijacked Green Men publicity
I teach a advertising course at Capilano University. This week I had Jill Munro come to speak to my class. Jill is a Vancouver girl and the creator of “Creamy Garlic Caesar” chips, one of four Canada wide finalists in the Lays “Do us a flavour” new chip creation contest. For those of you who follow my blog regularly, you will recall I first wrote about this contest back in … [Read more...]








