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You're Fired! Here's a Tchotchke
Ads don’t sell products—people do. That’s the premise behind one agency’s innovative viral-marketing work to get its clients’ products in the hands of what it calls “the inner vortex of influencers and opinion leaders,” even Donald Trump. "Whether it's Coke or a million-dollar software product, people usually defer to other people as their most important influence for choosing a product or brand," says Jeff Winsper, president and founder of the Boston-based agency J. Winsper & Co. "You can do a massive campaign that tries to convince people that the combination of chocolate and peanut butter is good, or you can go through the back door: Find out who the most influential opinion makers are and get them to say it on your behalf." With that in mind, Winsper and his team developed Brand-in-Hand as a way for the agency's clients—primarily purveyors of luxury products and services to high-net worth customers—to get some high-impact brand exposure. That's where The Donald comes in. Trump handed out gift bags that included an item from one of Winsper's clients, Moonrock Paper, to 60 of his closest friends at this year's U.S. Open tennis tournament.  Moonrock bags were also used to distribute various doodads to high-society types taking the Hampton Jitney bus to and from New York City during the July 4 weekend. The cost for these placements: less than $10,000 apiece, which Moonrock CEO Susan Hickey considers a worthy investment.
"We want to be more than a gift bag—we want to be the sexiest, most adored and most in-demand gift bag on the planet," Hickey says. "For less than $10,000 we have bought our way into the 'in products' that have high visibility and high exposure." How significant is the buzz? In the first three months of Moonrock's Brand-in-Hand campaign—the only PR initiative it has had in place—inquiries on its website shot up from 3,000 to 20,000 per month. "With an abundance of noisy mediums, nothing beats having your product in the palm of your target audience's hand," Hickey says. "It's brilliant." An important caveat with this type of strategy: The product had better be good. "If the brand doesn't meet the expectations of the user," says Winsper, "you're wasting your time." |
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