October 1st, 2009 → 2:39 pm @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
Phone calls don’t work anymore, usually. Letters… who opens them? If you want to get the attention of somebody, or a business, in today’s busy world, you should make a video. This guy did…
Darren Bryant of Pensacola, Fla. spent hours in what he calls Bank of America’s “phone maze,” getting bounced from person to person, never reaching somebody who could address his situation.
Finally, in one last desperate attempt to get someone’s attention, he uploaded a five-minute video to YouTube in which he explains his predicament and gives his phone number and email address.
“The reason I’m making this video is to get in contact with somebody from Bank of America that can make a decision,” Bryant says in the video, which he uploaded on Monday. He then emailed a link to over a dozen Bank of America email addresses he said he found online.
August 19th, 2009 → 8:58 am @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
Now this is how you promote a book! You make a really informative, fun, viral video that your audience will drool over. Then you release it to the world on YouTube and let them send millions of people to you… without having to lift a finger or pay for an ad. Pretty darn smart.
Erik Qualman has written a book called “Socialnomics” which is, of course, about the business of social media. To promote it, he prepared a video. See below. At the time of this blog post here, there was about 116k views of the video. But I fully expect it to get over a million soon enough.
The video is also on his blog. Which of course has a passive sell for his book.
This is a case study on how to generate attention. Nice work Erik, you will be featured in the book for sure!
July 9th, 2009 → 12:05 pm @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
More proof positive that people love dancing babies. The video below was released 2-days ago and at the time of this posting, it has close to 3-million views.
Want attention? Just make dancing baby stuff. Can it be that simple? 
Need more proof? Here’s 20+ million views.
July 8th, 2009 → 9:39 am @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
In the past, if you made a customer angry by being negligent, you could pretty much ensure it would be swept under the rug. But as we’ve seen with Domino’s pizza and now with United Airlines, social media and the quick spread of content now makes it VERY easy to get noticed, in a bad way.
This band had their guitars broken on a flight and because they didn’t get any assistance/help from United, they made a song about it. I’m sure United wasn’t too happy about a few hundred thousand people learning about this.
Attention &Bad Press &Podcasts &Traffic &Uncategorized &YouTube Marketing
July 2nd, 2009 → 10:28 pm @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
This ad probably won’t run on network television in the USA because the networks believe that American’s find this offensive. Watch this and you decide.
From Huffpost… This new television commercial for Hardee’s “biscuit holes” probably won’t entice your appetite — but it is likely to grab some attention.
One thing is for sure, it gets your attention.
June 30th, 2009 → 9:37 pm @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
So is this video really from Microsoft? Or is it a fake to make it look like it’s official? The link off the video page goes to a site that is copy written by Microsoft. So it must be real?
If it’s really from them. Is it so over the top and gross on purpose so that we’ll all talk about it like I’m doing right now? Hmmm… At what point do you have to scream so loud to get attention?
For example… does anyone really care about Internet Explorer 8? I sure don’t, and frankly, it’s going to take something just like this to make me even think about it. Interesting marketing/attention for sure. What’s your take?
November 26th, 2008 → 10:38 am @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
You get noticed by doing something different. You get noticed by doing something fun. You get noticed by solving a problem.
I could go on and on…
The point is, a sure-fire way to be successful, quicker, is to get noticed. To create attention.
Here’s an idea and example for you to steal right now. Not sure if it’s been done, but it would work. Please do it.
The Economic Bailout Show – Create a daily web show where you keep tabs on the USA economic bailout. If you’re a financial person, or economist, this would be perfect for you. But a domain like DailyBailoutShow.com and put the videos up there.
Point your Flip camera at yourself every day and talk about the bailout. Here’s a sample script.
“Welcome Americans, my name is Joe Smith and welcome to the daily bailout show, where we keep tabs on how the Government is spending YOUR money. After all, it is our money, so let’s make sure we keep them accountable.”
Now, pull out a big chalkboard, or chart that you’ve been updating daily that shows where the money has been going, to whom, and when, and the amount spent, etc…
“Looks like so far our government has spent 20% of the initial bailout funding, and today have announced that they are going to need an additional $800 billion.”
You get the idea? I would tune in every day for a 5-minute update about where my government is spending MY money. Wouldn’t you?
You don’t have to be Gary V. You don’t have to be Cramer. Be yourself.
THIS IDEA WILL WORK. I WILL WATCH, AND SO WILL OTHERS.
What, you don’t have 5 minutes a day? C’mon. If you know this topic, you can do this.
Think about how viral this would be right now? This is a HOT topic. Think about how many people would share this with their friends. Think about the press coverage you would get as “the video bailout watchdog guy/gal” or something like that.
Steal this idea, please. Then let me know when it’s done so I can feature its success in the book.
