A Closer Look At Some Successful Campaigns
When talking about marketing most will automatically bring up the usual suspects. Promo codes, emails, social media posts, and other such things. These approaches are fine and work wonders for something like online slots in Australia. But there is a very big difference between sending out copy/pasted emails, and really hitting a marketing home run. The question is, of course, how to approach marketing with a difference that really matters.
Good marketing can do far more than just grab a few extra sales. It can inspire, get people talking, start a conversation, and even turn your brand into a hot topic. Plus, good marketing doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. By simply going the extra mile to understand a target demographic, plus thinking outside the box, you can turn a modest budget into an incredible success.
Let’s take a look at two of the most successful campaigns of all time.
Two Kinds Of People
Our first example is going back decades, 1983, and it happens to involve Kevin Costner. But before you start getting in a huff about not being able to afford a celebrity, the campaign we’re talking about occurred before he was a celebrity. In this case, he was simply an advertising actor.
We’re talking about the Apple campaign referred to as Two Kinds Of People. The first thing to take into account is that, at the time of this advert, the PC industry was very different.
Computers were seen as a luxury, and very few could afford to own one. So the idea of the campaign was simply to appeal to those who could not only afford a computer but also saw themselves as living on the highest rung of society. In other words; if you didn’t own an Apple computer, are you high society at all?
The lines used are ‘there may be two kinds of people; those that use computers and those who use Apples.’ Most interesting is that, if you explore some of the company’s campaigns since then, it is clear that Apple has stuck to this approach to this very day.
Operation Santa
USPS launched Operation Santa, and it is perhaps the most genius campaign ever conceived. The concept is simple; the company encouraged children to send letters to the North Pole, suggesting that some children may even have their wishes fulfilled. But, of course, in order for anyone to see the letters they had to log on to the USPS website. Additionally, in order to respond to any of the hopeful children, charitable individuals had to also use USPS to mail the package.
The angle of leveraging hopeful children as a means to boost business is inspired. The truth is that many hopeful children did indeed have their dreams fulfilled. Hence USPS got kudos not only for being a charity middleman, but also saw an incredible boost in business. The campaign was so successful that the company decided to engage in a similar tactic annually. Many even now associate USPS with Christmas charity.