The Guy At Home in His Underwear: Raising awareness for testicular cancer
October 16, 2010 § Leave a Comment
On October 6th, Stanfield launched “The Guy at Home in His Underwear” with the help of John St, Hard Citizen, and The Secret Location. The campaign is focused on raising awareness for testicular cancer, featuring Mark, the Guy at Home, wearing nothing but his skivvies on live camera feeds all day long. For every person who “likes” the campaign through Facebook, Stanfield’s will donate $1, up to a maximum of $25,000 to the Canadian Cancer Society.
From Day 1, the campaign took off. Within the first day, thousands gave their support by “liking” the Guy at Home in his Underwear. Since then, the campaign has gathered over 35,000 Facebook likes, managing to reach the 25,000 like and $25,000 donation goal within the first week. Stanfield’s decided to put up another $25,000 for the remainder of the campaign. Smart thinking, Stanfield’s! Since then, it seems every few hours, a few thousand more people jump in to like the campaign.
So why the huge uptake? With all the companies clamouring to “do digital” and to be the next viral sensation, what has set this campaign apart from some others that have not have met the same success? « Read the rest of this entry »
Free Pastry Day @ Starbucks: Marketing genius for so many reasons
March 24, 2010 § Leave a Comment
I was delighted to wake up to a Free Pastry Day at Starbucks this morning. In my mind, the only thing better than yummy, fresh pastry in the morning is FREE yummy pastry: a truly outstanding way to start the day. So as I walked down the street, pondering which one of three Starbucks locations I would get my free pastry from along my walk to work, I thought to myself, how interesting this is. Starbucks (and I’ll begrudgingly add, McDonald’s before Starbucks) is genius!
First, Starbucks had managed to reach me through their viral, word-of-mouth campaign. They had also managed to successfully obtain 100% of my morning pastry mindshare as I sailed past an array of charming coffee shops that smelled enticingly of fresh baked goods. Third, as I entered the store, I quickly realized that I didn’t want to be “that patron” who had just come in for a freebie, particularly under the purposeful gaze of the man behind the cashier. Since I don’t generally drink coffee, I walked out with an orange juice that even the Barista commented was expensive (but I enjoyed every sip of it). Finally, Starbucks had successfully gotten me in through their door and put their locations on the map for me for future reference.
So, for someone who normally doesn’t drink coffee, rarely enters coffee shops in the morning, and deliberately avoids the big-box franchises like Starbucks – Starbucks had accomplished a tremendous feat.
Interesting. Next ponderance… I need to do something about this pastry weakness.
