In 2004, Larry Star wanted to raise some money for "beer and baseball tickets" and decided to sell his ex-wife's wedding dress on ebay. He described the dress as a "$1,200 shower curtain" and posed in the sleeveless dress displaying his tattoos, barrel chest and grinning bearded face. 16 million hits and five wedding proposals later he got a winning bid of $3,850.
What else did he get? A national tour as a guest on news programs across the country. Some would call it Free Publicity!
Did he look that bad in the dress that so many people wanted a peek? No, it was also the copy he wrote that drew people in. For example, when asked what his next wedding would look like he responded, "For my next wedding, I will be wearing a hairy, flesh-toned ensemble, because I will be buck naked with a toe tag lying on a slab in the morgue, because I would have killed myself."
When asked about what he thought of the popularity of his ebay listing, he responded, "This thing has taken more hits than that pothead that lives in the next building."
This was his magic: The magic of humorously worded prose on a simple wedding dress listing. His creativity is what people took the time to find on ebay. We now call this permission marketing, when people give you the permission to market to them; in fact, they come looking for your marketing.
The free publicity was being interviewed by newspapers, television hosts, and commented on by internet information sources that came as a result of his great idea. This "computer geek by day, guitar player by night" possessed the skills to create a viral wave of attention for a used wedding dress. Do you think a company could do the same thing by creating a funny scenario to sell their own products? Absolutely.
Free publicity is going to follow the newsworthy, attention getting ideas that are the buzz of the news outlet's customers. How can you crate such viral prose?
1. Look for the humor in customer situations or uses for your products.
2. Discover the employees in your organization who have the capability to write funny material.
3. What juxtaposition could you come up with in using your products (like a tattooed man in a wedding dress) that would be attention getting in a funny way?
People love to laugh, people enjoy those who are willing to poke fun at themselves, and as jokes get passed around through millions of emails, so could your humorous marketing productions.
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