106 • 100 GREAT BUSINESS IDEAS
Rather than simply presenting customers with a manifesto of
reasons to purchase your product, try to entertain, intrigue, or
reassure them.
The idea
It can be tempting when creating an advertising campaign just to
focus on why your product is superior and how you can persuade
customers to purchase it. But the reality is that most of the people you
reach with your advertising will be cynical and overloaded with other
campaigns. Consequently, they have little interest in an unsolicited,
short statement about why your product is better. This means you
should fi nd a new way of talking to them. Creating a marketing
campaign that potential customers fi nd amusing, fascinating, or
heart-warming will help you reach even the most jaded consumer.
Cellphone company Orange devised its “Orange Wednesdays” offer
of free cinema tickets for customers, through a series of adverts
that aired before movies in Britain, which humorously lampooned
the movie and advertising industries. The short clips showed movie
stars unsuccessfully attempting to pitch ideas to an “Orange Film
Commission,” only to be shot down because the movies did not do
enough to promote Orange cellphones. Over-the-top and deliberately
laughable suggestions were made to the aspiring movie-makers,
including “making the fourth in the trilogy” for Lord of the Rings, and
renaming it “Lord of the Ring Tone.” These non-traditional adverts
satirized advertising, while subtly attempting to win customers and
form positive brand associations.