Captain Morgan is Running for President

By now, most of American knows that Barack Obama, John McCain, and a slew of others are running for the presidency of the United States. Did you know, however, that Captain Morgan is running for President? Yes, this is Captain Morgan’s second time running for president (his first wasn’t that successful). According to Susan Gunelius’ blog, Brand Curve – Captain Morgan launched a new social media marketing campaign on August 22nd. The campaign includes content with social media heavyweights YouTube and Facebook. According to the Captain’s Facebook page, his interests include Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. What type of music does he like? LOUD. What is his solution for the economy? Two day workweeks (hmmm, that just might work). In a nutshell, Captain Morgan is doing his all to strengthen his brand image.

Captain Morgan’s parent company, Diageo, is the official wine and spirits company of the Republican National Convention and the preferred wine and spirits company of the Democratic National Convention according to Ad Age. The marketing campaign includes a costumed Captain Morgan who is making appearances at bars near both convention sites.

Overall, I think the campaign is fun and fresh. It definitely speaks volumes about the Captain Morgan brand. Here is what I think about the marketing campaign:

Value Proposition – Let’s see, Captain Morgan’s is fun. That is the only value proposition that I gather from this marketing campaign, and to be honest I guess that is what they are trying to project. It would be interesting to see Captain Morgan debating versus the other less fun spirits. It would coincide with real Presidential debate, and if position correctly, could be great for late night TV. Who can argue with two day work weeks?

Differentiation - With the reemergence of pirates in popular culture, a pirate, in and of itself is not hardly different. Captain Morgan, however, is very interesting. Bringing the Captain to life will help potential consumers connect fun and crazy with it’s brand. How about some “negative” ads about Captain Morgan? What if Captain Morgan had a scandal? These are a few ways that the brand managers could build on Captain Morgan’s differentiation. If does in fact speard well, it will go a long way to building the brand and awareness about the product.

Marketability – Most people in the target market might consider this cool, but why should they care? To extend this campaign the brand should try promotions to really drive home the point of the Captain Morgan brand. Why not have a contest or promotion via YouTube for Captain Morgan to pick a running mate? Not only would people like to be on YouTube, but they would quickly forward their video to family and friends as well.

Overall, I believe that the person (or people) that came up with this campaign have a really good idea. Although the campaign has not been a viral marketing star (only 300 supporters on Facebook, 6,500 views on YouTube) it has the ground work to really pick up, if they tweak it just a little bit. It is an interesting strategy to build brand awareness, especially for a product that has strong following. Check out Captain Morgan on YouTube:

Can A Panhandler Actually Boost Your Business?

There is now a “new” way to reach your customers, Bumvertising. Yes, it is in fact what you may think. Bumvertising is using bums (for lack of a better term) to advertise your business. An entrepreneur named Ben Rogovy has begun paying panhandlers and people on the street to promote a website called PokerFacebook. This is accomplished by replacing the “work for food” signs with similar home-made styles ads that promote the website. Now at first glance, this may seem extremely cruel to those that are less fortunate, but he does raise some good points:

• These individuals usually reside in high-traffic areas

We all have a story or two about the interesting signs that we have seen individuals hold up on the side of the street. For instance, after exiting the freeway to get to downtown Columbus there is a person with sign that gets seen by literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of people on a daily basis. Talk about exposure….

• Employing the less fortunate

Otherwise these people are begging for money. Bumvertising will provide a type of quasi-employment for the less fortunate.

• Advertising for attention (from the media) rather than customers is a great way to garner awareness

Rogovy is boldly going where no one has gone before. He is using the world around us, in order to promote his website. Why is this interesting? Because no one has done this before (other than the panhandlers of course)!

There is a happy ending at the website has recieved a considerable amount of hits after the bumvertising went into effect. What will creative geniuses develop next?

Buzz marketing, how much is too much?

Recently, I read Mark Hughes’ book Buzzmarketing. The book covers a variety of ways to promote a product or service through buzz or word of mouth marketing techniques. The author mentioned a few different schemes that he used. For example, he tried to get a small city to change it’s name to Half.com and generate tons of national publicity. In another example, he was able to generate buzz by advertising in urinals. He pushed the envelope, however, there may be another company that has him beat!

Today, I stumbled on a revolutionary company website called Just Toilet Paper (don’t ask me how I got there). The company has everything related to toilet. The company will even place ads on toilet paper! Is this madness or pure genius?

It would depend on your point of view, in my opinion. I can see the ads now….CLEAN UP YOUR CREDIT with Company XYZ or YOU DON’T HAVE TO GO TO URANUS to find great prices! The opportunities are endless.

Have marketers gone too far? You be the judge…maybe Mark Hughes was right, any publicity is good!