I have a good friend named Jeff who drives me crazy because he constantly focuses on two things
1. Use the concept of scarcity to your advantage
2. Whenever possible, turn your message into an event
Why does this drive me crazy? Because I have to force my mind to think this way.
And because he's right.
Let me give you an example of Jeff's principles in action.
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Jeff and I have a mutual friend who is holding an Internet marketing conference. But this is not the traditional Internet marketing conference, it's one where my friend, unquestionably one of the top Internet marketers in the world, will be the sole speaker for 3 solid days. So those who attend will hopefully be getting much deeper into his learnings than they would by listening to him for an hour or two someplace else (I hope so, I'll be there!)
The other thing that makes it different is that he's not charging the normal $1500 - $2500 price of these types of conferences, this seminar goes for a stiff (some would say stifling!) $4500!
Our friend wrote up his promotional material, but before sending it out, he called Jeff. Jeff told him that he was crazy not to use scarcity and to not turn his announcement into an event.
So, our friend changed his whole promotion into one that emphasized these two factors. A series of letters went out, inviting people not to register for the conference, but to come to a web site that explained about the conference, but where you couldn't register until a certain date at a certain time.
He also made it clear that he had a limited number of spots available, that people had to actually apply to come, and that he would reject most of those applications.
By the registration date, his methods and his high price had created a major buzz throughout the industry.
The registration site went live at noon that day. By 12:12 PM, he had received so many applications that he took the site down and closed out the application process.
From that batch, he selected about 30 people to attend the conference.
Let's run the numbers, assuming 30 people at $4500 each - that's $135,000 in the door in 12 minutes! Not bad for the first conference he's ever conducted!
There's real power in turning your promotions into events, because:
1. Events focus attention of the press and the public against a certain date and time
2. Events usually involve something special associated with that date - something extra that won't be there after the event is over
3. Events imply scarcity - you'd better act at the time of the event, because those advantages are going to go away if you're not there
4. Events can often kick your media coverage up to another level, because if done correctly they can draw TV and radio coverage
5. Events naturally lead to long lead-up processes, where you can talk with the public and the media about your event, but they haven't actually seen the real product yet, so there's an opportunity to create speculation and a sense of mystery around your event
Let's look at a key case of building the power of your publicity for an event, the launch of The Passion of The Christ. No matter how you feel about the movie itself, Mel Gibson and his promotion team did a wonderful job of turning this launch into a huge event. Consider some of the factors that they used:
1. Mystery -
For months we've heard about the movie, yielding speculation about everything from anti-semitism to violence. He even opened up preview showings to cameras after the show was finished - yielding pictures of people sobbing and tearful interviews of how much it had affected them.
But notice, that very few if any media people were invited to a preview - a real rarity in the movie world where most movies are viewed by dozens of media reviewers prior to launch. The media all had to stand in line on Ash Wednesday to see it themselves, to be part of the group emotional experience (instead of the usual 5 people in the theater situation that occurs with previews), and to pay a price to get into the showing.
So the media had to guess how good or bad it would be prelaunch, causing buzz and speculation, raising interest in the movie to a fevered pitch.
2. Controversy -It is clear that Mel set out to purposely create controversy around this launch. I encourage you to go back and review the interviews he did prior to the event. When Diane Sawyer asked him about anti-semitism he replied evasively, saying that the church has said that its wrong to be anti-semitic and that he's not personally against Jews.
But note that his answer didn't deal directly with the question. He could have said "absolutely not, there's nothing in this film that's anti-semitic" then to go on and give examples. His evasiveness actually increased the speculation, concern, and reporting on the subject.
(By the way, there's a lesson there too about how to answer a question if we want to clear up rumors!)
Other controversial elements included hiring a Jewish woman to play the role of Mary (then "reluctantly" allowing her to be interviewed on camera just a couple of days before opening), releasing footage of powerful controversial scenes (the scourging, Christ's falling while carrying the cross, and Judas' kiss in the garden), and agreeing to remove certain scenes from the movie, then releasing those cut scenes to the media so they would be played on every news broadcast the world over.
3. Using alternative channels to publicize the event -
Gibson also turned the release of his movie into an event by preselling blocks of tickets to church audiences across the US. This was brilliant not only because it filled the theaters during non-peak show times (3:00 showings), but because it created pastoral sanction for the movie. It is also worth noting that many of the pre-sells were done before the PR machine kicked into creating speculation about anti-semitism and the level of violence in the film, so they got the sales and sanctions before some people started questioning whether they wished to see the show.
What alternative channels can you use to promote your events?
4. Getting the big hitters -
Though this is partially an outgrowth of 1-3 above, the success of this movie has had a great deal to do with the high-visibility publicity that Mel has been able to generate like 20-20, interviews with every key US media source and many internationally. It's a chicken or egg thing, but we haven't seen that on many other movies recently, with the exception of the Lord of the Rings launches.
By now you know that this event has been a tremendous success. I heard that opening day revenues were $23+ million, the 3rd highest Wednesday opening ever, and probably the highest opening day ever for an R-rated film. But what's even more interesting is that he's been able to generate an astonishing 5990 articles on news.google.com. That's a lot of electrons!
Application To Your World
So how can you utilize the power of an event to drive publicity for your business?
1. Ask yourself the question - how could we turn this from an announcement into an event? Then push the answers until you have wrung every bit of juice out of the possibility. You may not actually hold the event, but think the thoughts.
2. Use the 4 principles listed above to increase the publicity factor for your next event, or even for your next pitch. These are keys that drive publicity - take advantage of them!
3. Plan early and specifically - mystery doesn't usually happen by chance a few moments before an event, it has to be planned and scripted well in advance.
3. Learn the tactics use to gain additional publicity for the events. There's lots more to event planning and administration than listed above. We have several products that teach these principles ranking from very complete to just an overview. I encourage you to check them out:
How to Plan and Promote Special Events
You will NEVER have to spend another sleepless night worrying about your next special event. Former event planner Debra J. Schmidt and publicity expert Joan Stewart have created six audiocassettes and a collection of 15 valuable checklists that reveal all the little-known secrets of how to plan and promote sizzling special events.
How To Create A Media Buzz To Promote Your Special Event
Special Report #10: Powerful Publicity Tips for Your Fundraiser or Special Event
Posted February 27, 2004
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