Shameless self-publicity

Guys, as life evolves (was gonna link to my previous post on blendingthemix but it is too depressing!) and takes its occasional shitty-troughs you have to get cracking and do something about it.

That something is whiterosenewmedia, a new media marketing agency designed to bring the new web to the house-building industry.

A typical example of some of our cgi work

Where we go, nobody knows, but we are talking to some of the UK's largest house-builders already about providing, what to the UK is a very revolutionary marketing experience.

The usuals response to the word blog is something that they install in houses..we have a long hill to climb.

Interestingly though, the house-builder's detractors are already well and truly embracing the internet...maybe it is time they fought back.

Speaking to a senior sales manager at a major national house-builder, the response was "thanks for the link, I'll have a look at that"...13 days later, the snagging website forum alone had more complaints about his company than he has sold houses in the last 5 years.

In the true spirit of Pinko I will open ideas up to you guys as well as (start) posting some new ideas which may be applicable to any of you, although I wll try to keep most of my house-building ideas to WRNM.

Any ideas, please send me an email and I will put them up (and credit them as appropriate!)

Pinko Marketing and new house builders

So, my new job (which has taken a lot of my time recently!) seems to conflict with my blogging.

Many house builders barely have a marketing department to speak of and those that do work in a very simple and formulaeic fashion.

So where does Pinko marketing fit in with these people? Is there ANY point in trying to speak to these people a) about blogging and b) about Pinko Marketing.

I am a BIIIIGGGG believer in Pinko (as many of you will testifty!) but I am REALLY, REALLY struggling to think about how to bring these people into the digital age!

My current company do what we do VERY WELL but how do I bring Pinko or even blogging to my new company without sounding like a total fool??!!

Help!!

A great "oh no...the sh*t's hit the fan" solution

Tara points to a great story about how flickr were able to manage their recent down-time crisis and I think it holds a lesson for all of us.

After acknowledging that they had gone down (sorry, no smut here!!!) they didn't post your usual run of the mill "sorry, we're doing everything we can" message. They used their typical friendly, humourous, but ultimately, respectful tone to turn it to their advantage.

Miffed users were invited to print off and colour in two round circles! Genius.

Further highlighting the benefit of tags, the entries were tagged with a "flickr is buggered for now" type tag which would be searchable once they submitted their photos (of the circles) and when flickr went back online.

Just think about the sheer genius of what they did.

1) Acknowledge the problem (respectfully but in a friendly tone - we are only humans!)

2) Use the very tool that draws people to the site to "divert" attention without looking like they were diverting.

3) Buy time to allow them to get things sorted (some of the entries are works of art)

4) Gave people something they wanted

5) Turned negative buzz into positive buzz.

6) 1,032 entries later you have not only sorted the problem but also have not pissed off your regular users.

Gotta love it. Simple.

Tags: pinko marketing, pinko, flickr, tara hunt, flickrcolourcontest

Selling houses the Pinko way

I was speaking with an agency this week who speaclises in marketing and advertising material for house developers and it got me thinking about how Pinko could be implemented in such a business.

 

What do you see wrong with this image:

 

 

Building site..dull, nothing of interest...nothing interesting to see...even though the crane stands out a MILE!

 

How about inviting 2 or 3 primary (Kindergarten?) schools to come down and paint the fence? Why not make the fence look appealing instead of a cold, industrial eyesore?

 

Why would it work?

 

a) The parents have to give permission (and in doing so become aware of the development).

b) Buzz is created as the kids get to do something fun (and inveitably talk abotu it with their parents).

c) The kids have something to show for their work/fun.

d) The eyesore fence attracts more attention by having something interesting on it.

e) The local rag becomes interested...and you get free coverage.

 

Result?

 

You sell houses without having to sell.

 

 

Motorola Q - Wiki

The new Mortorola Q is the latest attempt at getting a phone to do what a computer does, for a 100th of the size and a quarter of the price!

BUT, they have struck a great idea by asking users to create a consumer-friendly user manual based on user's experiences with the phone.

To quote the wiki

Because the possible applications for the Q will always expand, the "ideal" user guide would also be able to grow and change. This wiki is an attempt to do that. It's a place to capture and share the knowledge of the greater community of Q users.

Chapeau!

Merci a Francois Goube!

 Tags: motorola q, pinko marketing, pinko, wiki

A GENIUS idea

OK, strike me down if this isn't suitable for the Pinko blog, but I just have to post one of the most ingenious ideas I have seen in ages!

Million Dollar Homepage on a BUILDING:

It's real, it's in Holland, it costs 19.99 a brick and SEEMS to have got some big takers already!

Tags: million dollar homepage, pinko marketing, pinko

Offline Pinko Idea #1

So as you know, I am a big part of Killinghall Bathrooms, as well as Big Hippo a small online and offline bathroom business in Harrogate, UK.

Keen to implement what I spend all day theorising about (!), I have started the ball rolling on a quirky idea which I feel taps into the local community very nicely indeed.

I have arranged for 250 packs of Killinghall Bathroom branded crayons and 10-page colouring books (with bathroom-related line drawings) to be distributed to all local BBQ's, Car Boot Sales etc. which we sponsor. There are about half a dozen where we have a banner ad, so even indirect PR should be fairly positive as people tend to go these events in flocks (hmmm!). The competition isn't about the parents - the kids get the prizes (Toys R Us vouchers) slap bang in the middle of the end third of their summer holidays when they are the most bored!)

I am also asking (as a tie-breaker) the kids to tell me the best part of their bathtime. The idea behind this is to get the kids, with their lack of prejudices and suspicion to reveal the things they use most in the bathroom.

As many kids (under 10) as possible are given these colouring books and asked to send/drop in their favourite picture back to us at the showroom. The revelation of the winners is perhaps the best part of the idea.

Sundays are always very quiet, so we are revealing the winners on a Sunday at the showroom. Now this may not seem particularly exciting until I explain that the pictures will be covering two of our massive front windows. (Our premises are a car dealership) so we have got some BIG windows to fill! And it will be VERY noticeable.

Our window becomes a display for the endless kids pictures are currently getting sent and I am also toying with the idea of having a sort of kids gallery inside the showroom to stay longer. I am then toying with incentivising the family-centric bathroom suites to make sure they are irresistible (based on what the kids revealed to us in the tie-breaker question) to their parents.

The local paper is already booked to photograph the entry window and should generate a lot of great PR.

We have already spoken with the local schools to provide the same thing for them (all schools want free pens, pencil, drawing tools etc.) and hope to make it a regular event.

What lessons to draw from this idea:

1) It is not a sell - it is a kids competition.

2) It is not a sell - not even to the parents.

3) It is not a sell - it is PR.

4) It is two-way interaction (colouring + prize incentive + showroom prize display = showroom visit).

5) It is fun.

6) It mobilises the parents who might otherwise not care about coming to us.

7) It generates positive PR (banners and in local paper).

8) We meet people and develop relationships (we are not bathroom salespeople - we are "those people that did the funny colouring competition).

You ever walked into a shop and shied away when the sales person asked if they could help? Me too.

Make people want to come to you for reasons other than a sell.

I would love to hear your comments on how this can be improved. Hopefully, we can then create a neat little ideas collection which will be full of great, prtactical ways in which we can implement Pink Marketing.

Tags: pinko marketing, sponsorship, advertising, pr, sales

Pinko Marketing Podcast - #1...an unmitigated disaster!

Guys...bad news!

The recording was running along sooo smoothly until the SONY VAIO WINDOWS XP-running laptop damn-well crashed before saving the previous 37 minutes of the conversation. The PC then even refused to reboot before I had to call Jay back on a landline!

PC's SUCK, SUCK, SUCK!

Can anyone find me a cheap Macbook Pro?! I'd rather spend hours learning how to use a Mac than using this damn f*ck!ng Windows piece of sh1t.

Anyway, (rant over). Jay and I had a great chat and talked about how the methods in his book "The Customer Marketing Method" would stand up against the newer, more open and flexible consumer environment and his take on the seed-based community/Pinko marketing philosphy.

There's some interesting points that came out of it and alas, due to the crash, I am in the process of having to type up my notes and they will hopefully form an interesting pdf of the conversation in the next couple of days.

Jay has also given me some useful resources which we may be interested in, one being the way in which marketing departments can adapt their thinking to the constantly-changing consumer environment.

I hope you aren't all too disappointed about the lack of audio (to be honest, I sounded crap anyway!) but I look forward to learning from my mistakes. After all, Rome wasn't built in a day - but then again it was built properly!

Tags: jay curry, pinko marketing, podcast