Sunday, December 18, 2005
Great moments in marketing: news via "The Boy Band" concept
As a marketer, one thing I like to do is keep tabs on my most outlandish, creative, stupid, or otherwise notable ideas for promoting products. I even draw on my collosal failures just to stay honest and humble. One of my more positive achievements came circa early 2001, when I proposed that due to skinny ad budgets because of a local economy that was in the toilet, my station consider adopting a repackaging strategy for ad investment in our newscasts, based on a popular trend: boy bands.
You know what I'm talking about...and this isn't just a nod at N'Sync, the Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees. This is a classic stroke of marketing genius going all the way back to the Beatles and being brought back into public consciousness in 1980s with New Edition and New Kids On the Block. With the Fab Four, John was insightful, Paul was masterfully creative, Ringo wild & crazy and George quiet. Everyone knew their personalities, and people gravitated towards them. Hell, this is the same precept upon which KISS was fouded - bind yourself to the character with which you most directly identify or would like to be.
This was the same core concept I suggested we take in marketing our newscasts. I felt that each one of our anchorpeople had their own unique characteristcs, idiosyncracies and traits, and that by doing a little rescheduling, a touch of crass self-promotion, and a bit of education, we could more directly sell our various newscasts to advertisers based on who they thought their target audiences would be, and the type of people that would avail of their products and services.
We had fun coming up with the personalities: the smart one, the centerfold model, the distinguished older gentleman, the spriteful and ambitious youngster. We ultimatelty decided not to go such a route, mainly because of the economic, competitive and cultural changes brought on by the terrorist attacks just a few months later on September 11. But we did shelve this strategy for possible use in the future as a media company.
Capitalizing on popular trends can be beneficial; as a case in pint, we're mulling the same thing with reality TV, too.
You know what I'm talking about...and this isn't just a nod at N'Sync, the Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees. This is a classic stroke of marketing genius going all the way back to the Beatles and being brought back into public consciousness in 1980s with New Edition and New Kids On the Block. With the Fab Four, John was insightful, Paul was masterfully creative, Ringo wild & crazy and George quiet. Everyone knew their personalities, and people gravitated towards them. Hell, this is the same precept upon which KISS was fouded - bind yourself to the character with which you most directly identify or would like to be.
This was the same core concept I suggested we take in marketing our newscasts. I felt that each one of our anchorpeople had their own unique characteristcs, idiosyncracies and traits, and that by doing a little rescheduling, a touch of crass self-promotion, and a bit of education, we could more directly sell our various newscasts to advertisers based on who they thought their target audiences would be, and the type of people that would avail of their products and services.
We had fun coming up with the personalities: the smart one, the centerfold model, the distinguished older gentleman, the spriteful and ambitious youngster. We ultimatelty decided not to go such a route, mainly because of the economic, competitive and cultural changes brought on by the terrorist attacks just a few months later on September 11. But we did shelve this strategy for possible use in the future as a media company.
Capitalizing on popular trends can be beneficial; as a case in pint, we're mulling the same thing with reality TV, too.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
