Marketing That Surprises: A Special Guest Host Takes Over Marketing Smarts [Podcast]

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Marketing That Surprises: A Special Guest Host Takes Over Marketing Smarts [Podcast] Sign up to gain access to thousands of marketing resources! Don't worry ... It's FREE! Social King Maker Today is April 1, a day long associated with tomfoolery and surprises. Here at MarketingProfs, we prefer surprises that delight, so we've arranged a delightful change of pace for this week's episode: One of the podcast's most popular interviewees takes the helm as host for the day, and bumps Kerry O'Shea Gorgone over to the guest chair. They'll talk about marketing that surprises (if not always delights) and bold brands that are taking chances on edgy marketing campaigns. Here are just a few highlights of their delightful discussion: If your brand has a fiercely loyal following, you have some leeway to manipulate people and tick them off (09:35): "From a marketing perspective, [the Game of Thrones Three Eyed Raven campaign] seems like a pretty successful campaign, because, they got people talking. Maybe they were sort of angry about it, but at the same time it definitely incited some emotion, which in some sense, because it is anxiety and anger and all this stuff, it almost does align with the bigger Game of Thrones brand experience, the experience of the show itself. It's certainly different, and it's definitely surprising." Keep surprises happy: Don't force people to have uncomfortable conversations they're not ready for (12:58): "Starbucks...just stopped their 'Race Together' campaign. They were urging all their Starbucks baristas to write 'race together' on the coffee cups they gave to patrons in an effort to promote conversations about race relations. It was surprising, and most people were not delighted about it.... I can't imagine anybody who hasn't had their coffee yet [who] wants to have that conversation.... It was a brand mismatch, too. When I think about Starbucks, the idea about igniting a conversation around race relations doesn't come top of mind to me... It just seemed like a colossal mismatch." SocialKingMaker.com

Transcript of Marketing That Surprises: A Special Guest Host Takes Over Marketing Smarts [Podcast]

Marketing That Surprises: A Special Guest Host Takes OverMarketing Smarts [Podcast]

Sign up to gain access to thousands of marketing resources! Don't worry ... It's FREE!

Social King Maker

Today is April 1, a day long associated with tomfoolery and surprises. Here at MarketingProfs, weprefer surprises that delight, so we've arranged a delightful change of pace for this week's episode:One of the podcast's most popular interviewees takes the helm as host for the day, and bumps KerryO'Shea Gorgone over to the guest chair.

They'll talk about marketing that surprises (if not always delights) and bold brands that are takingchances on edgy marketing campaigns.

Here are just a few highlights of their delightful discussion:

If your brand has a fiercely loyal following, you have some leeway to manipulate people and tickthem off (09:35): "From a marketing perspective, [the Game of Thrones Three Eyed Ravencampaign] seems like a pretty successful campaign, because, they got people talking. Maybe theywere sort of angry about it, but at the same time it definitely incited some emotion, which in somesense, because it is anxiety and anger and all this stuff, it almost does align with the bigger Game ofThrones brand experience, the experience of the show itself. It's certainly different, and it'sdefinitely surprising."

Keep surprises happy: Don't force people to have uncomfortable conversations they're not ready for(12:58): "Starbucks...just stopped their 'Race Together' campaign. They were urging all theirStarbucks baristas to write 'race together' on the coffee cups they gave to patrons in an effort topromote conversations about race relations. It was surprising, and most people were not delightedabout it.... I can't imagine anybody who hasn't had their coffee yet [who] wants to have thatconversation.... It was a brand mismatch, too. When I think about Starbucks, the idea about ignitinga conversation around race relations doesn't come top of mind to me... It just seemed like a colossalmismatch."

SocialKingMaker.com

Creative content not related specifically to your industry can delight a B2B audience (16:56): "I lovewhat Basecamp is doing.... It's surprising because it's not really marketing, or maybe it is. That's thething. It's sort of in this gray area. Just about a year ago, Basecamp, which is a project managementsoftware company (we use it here at MarketingProfs to manage our projects), launched this littlemonthly online magazine called The Distance. They hired an actual journalist, a formerreporter/writer for the Chicago Tribune, to produce one long-form illustrated story a month. Andwhat she wrote about is a company that's been in business for 25 years or longer and has thrivedwithout any...outside investment of any kind. They do not feature Basecamp prospects, they don'tfeature Basecamp customers, and they don't feature technology businesses, which are the kinds ofbusinesses that would be more inclined to use a project management software like Basecamp. It'sinteresting to me, because they are essentially heralding companies who are not customers andprobably are not prospects, either. And many of the businesses that they're talking about are kind ofquirky...really analog companies.... From a content perspective, it's something very different thanyou see other companies doing.... It doesn't feel like marketing."

People today find honesty a pleasant surprise (26:12): "One of my favorite stories, a tiny littlechihuahua named 'Eddie the Terrible' was marketed by the Humane Society of Silicon Valley lastDecember. They wanted him to have a home for the holidays.... You know, when you see humanesociety commercials on TV, like a PSA or something like that, there's always this sort of SarahMcLachlan soundtrack to it. It always makes you feel bad and sad and guilty all at once that youaren't adopting a dozen dogs or so (at least that's what it does for me).... That kind of vibe is thegeneral tenor of a lot of shelter marketing out there. What I loved about what the Humane Society ofSilicon Valley did is that they turned that on its head. Instead, they described this dog as 'Eddie theTerrible,' they did a video, they did a whole visual campaign about him and showed what a horribledog he is. They described him as a 'pint-sized demon,' a 'tiny tornado of a dog.' He became a viralsensation...because of the approach that they took.... I loved that they were blatantly honest in themarketing of...this dog.... The whole marketing notion behind it was here's why you DON'T want toadopt Eddie the Terrible.... It was just so refreshingly honest. They were like, 'This dog was kind of ajerk, but he could be a good fit for you.'"

To learn more about Marketing Smarts host Kerry O'Shea Gorgone, check out KerryGorgone.com, orfollow Kerry on Twitter: @KerryGorgone.

Our special guest host and I talked about much more, so be sure to listen to the entire show, whichyou can do above, or download the mp3 and listen at your convenience. Of course, you can alsosubscribe to the Marketing Smarts podcast in iTunes or via RSS and never miss an episode!

This episode brought to you by CallidusCloud.

Special thanks to production sponsor Candidio, an efficient, affordable video production platformallowing marketers and communicators to collaborate and curate video content, with help from ateam of professional, on-demand video editors for the finishing touches. Check them out!

Show opener music credit: Noam Weinstein.

This marketing podcast was created and published by MarketingProfs.

Ann Handley, chief content officer at MarketingProfs, keynote speaker, andauthor of the the Wall Street Journal bestseller Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to CreatingRidiculously Good Content, as well as the best-selling Content Rules (co-written with C.C. Chapman).

Kerry O'Shea Gorgone is instructional design manager, enterprise training, at MarketingProfs. She'salso a speaker, writer, attorney, and educator. She hosts and produces the weekly Marketing Smartspodcast. To contact Kerry about being a guest on Marketing Smarts, send her an email, or you canfind her on Twitter (@KerryGorgone), Google+, and her personal blog.

http://www.marketingprofs.com/podcasts/2015/27376/surprise-marketing-smarts-podcast