Last week GROWCO, a conference that focuses new and innovative marketing ideas, came to the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans.
Of course, members of the Compucast team were there including, CEO Judy Weitz. At the conference, they met and talked with Johnny Earle of Johnny Cupcakes fame. Johnny built his entire business with word of mouth marketing, marketing that was tremendously successful because it was out of the box.
His business began in the back of Johnny’s old ’89 Camry. Without a business plan, start-up loans, investors, wholesaling or even traditional advertising, Johnny turned his business into a multi-million dollar t-shirt company. That’s right, Johnny doesn’t sell cupcakes, he sells t-shirts. The closest he comes to cupcakes is the vintage bakery look of his stores, even displaying limited edition t-shirts inside bakery styles cases and refrigerators. Today, his independent t-shirt brand is popular in the United States and Europe, with retail locations in Boston, Los Angeles and London.
We enjoyed his presentation and the unique way he garnered a worldwide following through out of the box marketing, as well as the success stories from the many other speakers at the technology and marketing event.
It’s been a long while since we’ve posted a Friday Fun, but we can’t let this week go by without a mention of the new Mr. Rogers mashup video.
PBS partnered with video mashup artist John D. Boswell (username: melodysheep) to create a sampled video entitled “Garden of Your Mind.” While mashup videos have been around for quite some time, few make such effective use of the source material while still adding such a catchy melody.
The video has already gone viral with over 600,000 views since being posted yesterday.
Conan O’Brien offers video F*Cards, a humorously snarky alternative to e-cards for his Facebook fans. What can businesses learn from his efforts?
Do you ever get annoyed by your friends’ constant Farmville updates? Or maybe you are looking for just the right way to let your former schoolmates know that you’ve aged more gracefully than them. Enter the F*Card. It’s kind of like a friendly e-card except it’s a video of Conan O’Brien delivering a message instead.
While the videos are laugh out loud funny, the Conan O’Brien show reaps benefit from your viewing. In order to access these humorous videos, you first have to “like” his page. Now, you will see updates from his Facebook page in your news feed indefinitely unless you later “unlike” his page. This access to future messaging of interested viewers is a huge marketing win. Also, if you’re like me, you’re going to look for opportunities to send these videos to your friends. After they receive them (and hopefully chuckle), they are going to go to Conan’s Facebook page and look for the rest of the videos. Of course, to be able to see those videos, they will have to “like” his page as well. And the cycle continues.
Conan O’Brien has had a strong social media presence ever since the whole “late night time slot” dust-up on NBC with Jay Leno, but he does not sit back on his initial success. With humorous innovations like the F*Cards, he continues to gain new followers.
How Can This Work for Me?
It’s great that Conan O’Brien can be funny and get more people to watch his TV show, but how does it help you, the business owner?
Well, what “shareable” content can you create for Facebook / Twitter? What would your current and potential customers be interested in seeing? More importantly, what will those customers like so much that they will want to let their friends know about it? Maybe it’s a coupon for a free service. Maybe it’s great advice on how to perform a common task relevant to your business (“The Best Way to Change Your Oil,” etc.).
Maybe you can create something funny. With social media, you don’t always have to create something that directly leads to the final sale. If you can get a visitor’s attention and a click on the “like” button, you’ll have the chance to give the more direct sales pitch at another time. Nobody wants to look at advertisements all day long, so give your visitors and customers something fun or useful in between those ads. Invest in your customers so they will invest in you.
You’ve been working hard all week, right? It’s time to take a quick break with Compucast’s first Friday Fun update. Each week, we’ll look for something interesting or funny about computers, website, or social media to share with you in quick bites. After all, we don’t to mess up your streak of fabulous productivity!
Our first Friday Fun bit is brought to you by a Compucast favorite, Weird Al Yankovic.
Last week GROWCO, a conference that focuses new and innovative marketing ideas, came to the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans.
