Creating a Buzz

One of the best parts of marketing is the oppertunity to get people talking.
"Did you see that crazy commercial last night?"
Creating a buzz about your product can be time consuming, but is very rewarding when you see it pay off.
There are several ways to do this. There are the expensive ways, creating a complete marketing campaign with print ads, commercials and spokes people, paying for product placement in movies and television, giving mass amounts of the product to celebrities and hoping the will endorse it. There are also cheaper, more creative, (and some would say devious ways to create a buzz. These tactics are often called Guerilla Marketing.
Of the first catagory, my favorite is the product placement. It has always been so entertaining to me to see how many products I can spot in a movie.
A hilarious example is shown in this clip from the cult movie "Return of the Killer Tomatoes," and it starts at 1:00 in the clip. It shows how many productions use funding from product placement to finance a film.

Another movie that has fun with product placement is the 1990's teen flick, "Josie and the Pussiecats," about a band that catches on to an evil plot to brain wash America's teens. The movie is full of blatent product placement, and besies the plot, the never say ANYTHING about it!

That's the big money marketing tactic, but great impact can be achieved with small amounts of money as well. Guerilla marketing is unexpected marketing. It works best when people have no clue the are about to be pitched something. If you were out jogging one morning, and looked down to see giant foot prints on the sidewalk or jogging path, you would probably be curious. And if they lead to a store or another ad stating what they were advertising, you would not be likely to forget that experience or that product.
Another guerilla marketing tactic is placing ads in bathrooms stalls. After all, you basically have a captive audience, right? But to really work well, these ads have to please and entertain the audience/consumer, not annoy them. No one likes telemarketing calls, or getting random slips or paper as the walk down the street, but people love to feel a part of something big. If it seems like you are letting them in on a joke (such as this flash mob dancing to Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies") then they will think of your product with pleasure.

So when you think of how to market your product, think buzz, but most of all, think creative!