Tuesday, April 13  

Leverage what you have

Howdy. Hope your Easter was enjoyable.

We had a great break. Went camping in the Queensland bush - bushwalks, fishing, chatting by candlelight. Jack loves his camping and takes care of us all.

Spent hours and hours at the beach - perfectly clean surf beach about a minute from home.

Played a game of golf on Sunday. Tennis on Monday (thrashed my kids and wife. Easybeats!).

Pity we have to work to be able to take it easy like this!

Anyway, on with the shoe....... (Mel, my lovely wife usually reads the blog each morning and corrects it when I write "On with the shoe.....", thinking that it's a spelling error. But as we all know - I'm perfect! She never has got my sense of humour. I think I'm very, very funny. Very funny.)

Today I want to talk about leveraging. And by that I mean leveraging your marketing to best effect.

I thought of this topic when I was watching TV tonight. An ad came on that's been on for a while. This guy is at the bar when 2 friends come up and plead with him to take care of 2 pretty girls' not so perfect friend. The thinking being that with her out of the way the 2 guys can chat up the attractive girls (politically incorrect all that, but bear with me).

The not so perfect friend is an exceptionally tall woman. The fellow who has been set up with her is very short. But it's a perfect match. She is the perfect woman! She grabs the guy and carries him around the dance floor. When he surfaces for air from her cleavage, she pushes it back. He's a content young man! The 2 friends who are talking with the 2 perfect blondes are jealous.

The premise of the ad being that when you look after your mates, good things happen. (It's also promoting a beer at the same time.)

The next ad in the series has the little fellow sitting alone. His friends enquire where the woman is, but he doesn't know. All of a sudden the woman's hands appear - carrying 6 beers. She's buying him beers!

He's now an exceptionally happy guy.

These 2 ads have so far proven very popular. And they are leveraging off each other./ Each time the little fellow is seen, he's instantly recognised as the face of the beer. The ads are now starting to leverage off that little actor.

If the audience sees that same guy in a print ad, then it will be instant recognition.
Billboard ad - same.
Web ad - same.

By leveraging the assets of your ad you can gain greater recognition. Now recognition doesn't always equate to greater sales of course. But it's a good start.

I'd like them now to tell me why I should buy the beer. How is it better or different?

Cheers.

Brendon