Recently, I heard a board member recount a story about a sale on Gilt that included a certain designer’s shoes. Apparently, Gilt sold 10,000 of these shoes in less than three minutes and the waiting list climbed to 40,000 members. Pretty unbelievable. The site currently runs sales in categories for men, women and children.

For those that are looking for an invitation to join, here is a link with the invitation code included.

Join Gilt Groupe

Dave Balter, one of the leading specialists on “Word-of-Mouth” marketing and the founder and CEO of BzzAgent, has published a free e-book (approx. 119 pages) on the how to successfully use word-of-mouth marketing to build buzz around a company, product or service. This is a great resource and best of all, thanks to Dave, it’s free!

Click here to download the book. (approx. 2.4MB pdf)

For those that require a hardback copy, click here to buy it online at Amazon.com.

Beal knows a thing or two about banking. He just happens to be a self-made billionaire who made his fortune in banking and real estate. He also might know a thing or two about advertising. Not two pages later, I found a four-page letter from Regions Bank Chairman, Dowd Ritter, reminding his shareholders (and those who advise his shareholders) that Regions is performing well in one of the toughest years in the financial services industry.

Coincidence? I think not. If you have $184,561.91 to spare, go ahead, write a letter, and let your message be heard.

The next time you’re in Starbucks, don’t stare at the person sitting at the table next to you licking his or her People Magazine.

The fruit juice maker, Welch’s, has launched a new print ad campaign appearing in this month’s People Magazine that offer readers the ability to lick Welch’s advertisements to sample its grape juice. Much like scratch and sniff ads, this new marketing strategy uses a peel and lick method.

Some critics claim that lickable ads are unsanitary, but advertisers are betting big that the new technology will take off. For Welch’s, the advertisements cost hundreds of thousands of dollars more than its traditional print advertising. All in the hopes that you, the consumer, have a delicious day.

Inc. Magazine published an article in its February issue about the positive effects of marketing viral videos online at places like YouTube and Google. In the article, Inc. profiled three companies, gDiapers, Personality Hotels and RJE Business Interiors.

All three companies took a simple approach to producing the videos and spent between $5,000 and $25,000 for production and marketing. gDiapers focused on the benefits of using its reusable nylon pants and biodegradable liners. Personality Hotels gave a 5 minute tour of the company’s hotels. And RJE Business Interiors created a reality series that showed company employees installing furniture and performing community service.

After publishing these videos, gDiapers experienced double digit revenue growth, Personality Hotels increased reservations by 5% and RJE Business Interiors increased revenue by 22%.

The Winning Strategy

In the article, Inc. also discussed the success of Blendtec, a maker of commercial blenders. The Company created a more creative series of videos entitled, “Will it Blend?”, which showed its blender chopping marbles, golf balls and even an iPhone. The videos have been viewed 35 million times and since launching these videos, the Company’s sales have grown from $2 million to $10 million. 

Top Online Video Sharing Sites

• Google Video
• YouTube
• Revver
• VideoEgg
• JumpCut
• Eyespot
• Ourmedia
• vSocial
• Vimeo

My Favorite Viral Video

Just for fun, I wanted to share my favorite viral video created by Smirnoff. Enjoy…

The Evening Standard has developed a new strategy for reaching and attracting customers. Instead of growing subscriptions, The Evening Standard is focused on growing daily circulation numbers by offering patrons an easier system for purchasing afternoon papers…

The new Smart-Card system, named “Eros” after the winged figure on The Evening Standard’s logo, allows customers access to a prepaid “tap and go” payment system. Other features include discounts based on frequency of purchases and additional rewards when customers submit their demographic data.

Currently, the technology is available at 150 locations throughout London.

 

If you’re searching for new ways to communicate with potential customers, then consider becoming a guest blogger. Most bloggers are on a constant search for content. If you approach them with a good topic, more than likely you’ll be offered the chance to contribute to their blog.

How would becoming a guest blogger benefit you? Consider this. If your company offers financial services specializing in commodities, you could reach your target market by writing a post about the future of the oil industry on a commodity trading blog.

Keep in mind that when you write a guest blog posting, its common practice to submit a byline. This will give you 2-3 sentences to describe your background and include a link to your website. Don’t forget to do this, as this advertising is the primary reason you wrote the post in the first place.

5 Steps to Successfully Becoming a Guest Blogger:

1. Identify your target blogs. (Hint: if you search for blogs on Technorati and sort by Authority, you will know which blogs are the most popular. The ones with the highest authority rankings probably have the most reach as well)
2. Review each blogs’ archives. You should also pay close attention to see which blogs have used guest bloggers in the past. 
3. Identify the editor of each blog you intend to contact
4. Draft an email introducing yourself, identifying your topic of interest and explaining why this topic fits with the theme of the blog. Also be sure to tell the editor that your blog will not just be a commercial for your company
5. Follow-up after 1 week if you haven’t heard a response

The Company is also planning to receive its registered representative license in a few months, which will allow it to execute trades on behalf of users who want to shadow top investors.  

There’s only one catch. In order to see other profiles, you will need to signup for an account, but don’t worry; from what I can tell, it isn’t required to link your own brokerage account immediately.

At least that’s according to Pepperidge Farm, who is helping women improve their social lives through its “Connecting through Cookies” campaign. The campaign was launched on its website, http://www.artofthecookie.com, and offers women the opportunity to learn successful strategies and tips on how to meet others and maintain friendships.

Pepperidge Farm pulled Sally Horchow, author of The Art of Friendship: 70 Simple Rules for Making Meaningful Connections, to be the spokeswoman for the campaign…

Who knew that women had such social problems?

Well, that’s not quite the full story. Although the campaign helps women learn new ways to stay “connected”, Pepperidge Farms hopes that this $2 million campaign will help it develop new ways to reach its consumers and give them a reason to purchase Pepperidge Farm cookies.

This is not an unusual strategy in for Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies. Other large CPG companies, including Jockey and Dove have been implementing similar initiatives. Jockey came up with the site jockeyunderwars.com and Dove launched its campaignforrealbeauty.com, which speaks about body image and self-esteem.

In anticipation of this interview, I wanted to share with you an interesting and innovative business concept that I read about in Monday’s USA Today.

The Lobsterman Cometh

Have you ever wanted to be a lobsterman? Well, now you can…Two brothers in Maine are selling the rights to entire lobster traps. That means, for $2,995, you can own the rights to whatever lobsters are caught in your designated trap for the entire season. They will then ship your lobsters overnight wherever you want and will include mussels, clams, Maine-made gourmet desserts, and bibs. Customers are guaranteed at least 40 lobsters for the season.

Brothers John and Brendan Ready own the Company, Catch A Piece of Maine, which launched in October 2007 with eight other fishermen. They are offering 400 traps for sale, which according to the article, 30 have already been sold. What’s even cooler – those who purchase traps can track their catches online.

Why is this concept so cool?

First, it shows how the Internet is helping small (wholesale) businesses connect directly with consumers. Not only can these lobstermen go around the traditional middlemen, but they can increase their profits while offering products and packages at less than retail prices.

Secondly, the article reported that in recent years, the lobster catches have doubled and tripled and that fisherman are working to find new channels in which to sell their lobsters. This new strategy could be the solution.