Monday, August 06, 2007

Good vs. Bad Opportunism

One of trickiest marketing maneuvers is to craft a press release or staged event around something in the news. Sometimes it can be clever and funny, or when organizations try to turn a tragedy into a quick sell, it can be crass and in poor taste.



For example, Ferrari Driving School in New York is capitalizing on the dangerous and stupid drunk driving escapades of the trio of trollops, Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie and Lindsay Lohan. The school is holding a DUI Awareness Day on August 17 in "honor" of the drunkard debutantes who will all be serving jail time this year because of their inability to control themselves.

This is good marketing because it is a serious and timely issue that leverages a pop culture phenomenon.

On the other hand, I'll never forget an Internet conference years ago when just a few days after an airliner crashed, the CEO of a video teleconferencing company told the audience that if the execs on the plane had only used a video teleconferencing software instead of traveling, they'd still be alive. The audience groaned and some even booed, highly unusual for a technology conference.

The line between savvy and tacky isn't firm, but when companies do it right, there is no better marketing pitch. The ability to do this consistently is what keeps public relations firms in business.

What's your favorite over-the-line marketing pitch?

By John Gartner at 09:46 AM | Comments (0)

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