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The best way to learn is by watching others do it and then implementing it ourselves by adding a twist, a little spice to what has already been done. Sometimes you just have to rock the boat.
The above statement is true for pretty much everything. When it comes to marketing the same rule applies. There are not a whole lot of examples where we can say “Wow! That was genius marketing.” But today I bring you a story that will not only surprise but hopefully will give you an idea that sometimes you need to rock the boat to make it to the shore.
Today I want to talk about a company, Half.com which was founded in 1999 and was later acquired by eBay for roughly around 350 million US dollars. The way Half.com operates is similar to how ebay works. Although I would like to go into details of the service that is not my purpose for this post so we will spare all that details. Its the marketing strategy they applied when they were getting ready to launch this site in 1999.
When Half.com was preparing itself for a launch they had quite a few competitors. Everyone was coming out with services similar to theirs and of course eBay itself was a prime competitor at the moment. They needed a plan to create some buzz for the opening day. Of course they could have applied every marketing tactic out their and could have tapped into every conventional marketing strategy, but they decided to go a different route. A different route that some might think is crazy as hell and some might think a product of a marketing genius. Creating a buzz was the main goal for Half.com so as to gain as much publicity and exposure during their launch.
Half.com literally put their name on the US map with their marketing plan. So what did they do? When Half.com was getting ready to launch they approached a small town in Oregon named Halfway. They proposed the town to change their name to Half.com. Yes, it is crazy and the most unconventional marketing that you might have ever heard of. Oregon halfway at that point in time had only 300 plus residents which was a perfect town for marketing geniuses at Half.com because they knew if they could get them to change their name, not only would Half.com be on the map but the town would be known all across the nation as well.
The marketing group actually convinced the city to change their name to Half.com for a year. The company was literally placed on the map and Half.com got a huge, huge exposure with this marketing tactic. Every major media was covering this with titles such as City changes name to Half.com. It was one of the best marketing strategy ever carried out. Half.com was successful in getting the small town of Halfway to change its name which gave them a huge boost and great exposure on their launch day.
Try some keywords and give it a whirl on google to find more information on this if you would like. At that time this marketing tactic implied by Half.com was one of the best marketing gig ever carried out. It was amazing, refreshing and simply genius. I wanted to point this story out because this is a perfect example of buzzmarketing. Creating buzz, making people talk about your product and services is key to letting others know about your product/services. I tell you, you tell your friends and your friends talk about it to their friends – that is the central concept of buzz marketing. What Half.com did was a very well done case of buzzmarketing because by changing the name of the city first they made everyone living in that town talk about it. It must have been one hell of a conversation starter at that town back then. Second, they were literally placed on the map and everyone was talking about a city changing their name to Half.com. Third, every major media channel covered the story so it was being talked about around dinner table, across cubicles at work and while waiting for the bus. It is one of the best examples of buzz marketing.
The essence of buzzmarketing is simply to create buzz. Have other people talk about it. You reach 10 people and those 10 people reach 20 and so on and on. We will talk more about buzz marketing in the coming days. As for today, we just wanted to set the context going by giving an example on how Half.com perfectly launched a marketing campaign.This is a prime example that sometimes you just need to rock the boat. The saying “don’t rock the boat” might work very well for somethings but when it comes to marketing just remember : Rock the boat, rock the boat baby![ad#336x280]
