PROMOLAND

In politics, they call it the “silly season.”

The primaries may be months away, but candidates are already raising funds as they gear up for the 2008 presidential election. And they are increasingly using online media like blogs and e-mail to do it.

In line with that, we asked readers to name the candidate for whom they would most like to devise an interactive marketing campaign. The question was included in our 2007 interactive marketing survey, which drew 263 responses. (See page 53).

Now we didn't ask for voting preferences, and we're not predicting the election outcome. But here goes.

Rudy Giuliani finished first in the informal poll with 17.1%. He was followed by Barack Obama (14.4%), Hillary Clinton (12.2%), Al Gore (12.2%) — just in case the latter changes his mind about running, John McCain (4.2%), Newt Gingrich (3.4%) and John Edwards (3.4%).

Keep in mind the survey was conducted prior to the news of Sen. Edwards' wife finding out that her cancer had returned. Imagine the possibilities regarding fundraising and/or charity-based interactive campaigns.

Oh yeah, Condoleeza Rice received one write-in vote.
— Larry Jaffee

It Pays to be Bad

They say any press is good press. But did the industry need the publicity created by the infamous Aqua Teen Hunger Force guerrilla campaign in Boston?

Probably not, according to the second annual PROMO 2007 Interactive Marketer Trends study. Of the 263 marketers surveyed, 22% believed the industry was “damaged in general” by the bungling. On the other hand, 26% thought the resulting stir has outweighed the negative attention, and only 12.5% said the damage was greater than the buzz. “The city of Boston's overreaction was practically perfection,” said one survey participant in a write-in answer. “The target market for Aqua Teen Hunger Force was engaged via all the hoopla about the promotion — and would not have been turned away by the anti-establishment effect. So what if a few people got their noses out of joint? It didn't hurt the brand.” Another marketer put it this way: “I'm quite sure the audience for Aqua Teen Hunger Force enjoyed the publicity from the stunt in Boston.”
— Larry Jaffee

Cars for the filthy rich

Don't get smug if you've just discovered event or experiential marketing. Hester Motor Co. was doing it 90 years ago.

In 1917, the firm staged events to show off its Fageol car, “the most wonderful product of a wonderful century,” inviting only people who could afford the $13,000 vehicle.

In the first showing, the auto was placed in the center of a hotel dining room, 74-feet long and 18-feet wide.

“The car was started, attained a speed of twenty-five miles per hour, and was stopped within the necessary seventy-five feet,” said a direct mail letter inviting people to a similar event at New York's Biltmore Hotel. “The full performance took four seconds.”

Men of means could view the Fageol from 9 a.m. to midnight at the Biltmore, and request a personal demonstration. But they had to act quickly if they wanted to buy one.

World War I was then raging, and the letter noted that “the United States Government has commandeered the plant and facilities producing the motor that drives the Fageol Car.”

That meant Hester could deliver “but twenty-five of the best motors in the world, on the finest chassis the world has yet produced, on the most beautiful car designs known to the automobile world.”

Hester, showing unusual marketing skill for that time, sent a package containing a folder, a letter and an engraved invitation to 2,457 multi-millionaires, according to The Mailbag, a direct mail trade publication from the era. And it had a second letter ready for people who didn't respond to the first. It said:

“Dear Sir:

There is one car in the world that makes its owner master of the road.

No other car can pass it.

That car is the Fageol.

It can go one mile per hour, or one hundred and sixteen miles an hour — or faster.”

How did the campaign do? It couldn't have done any better — all 25 cars were sold.
— Ray Schultz