What “Dry Erase Board Girl” Can Teach You About Marketing

Posted on August 11, 2010May 5, 2015 by MD

If you have no idea who Dry Erase Board Girl is, click here first. You can find her follow up to it here.

1. It doesn’t have to be fancy

33 photos that appear to be taken in someone’s living room were engaging and got the point across. Not only did it get the point across, it made it easy to share (and boy did people share it) because you could view it from just about anywhere whether you were using a computer or a smart phone.

2. It needs to resonate

While some people are upset over this not being real, most are still okay with it. Many people suspected it was a hoax before it was announced but still shared it. Why? Because it resonated with them. Who hasn’t worked at a job where they wish they could quit like this despite the repercussions?

3. Yes, sex sells, but it can still be subtle

Would this have gone viral if it were a cute guy instead of a cute girl? Probably not. But it also didn’t take a mostly (or completely) naked girl either. Yes, there is a photo of her in a tank and short shorts highlighting her HPOAness, however, the remainder are a head shot and a dry erase board. One thing I’ve heard over and over is how great the actresses’ expressions are. Proving just how powerful a smile can be.

4. Keep it real

While the situation itself may not have been real, the concept was, as well as the actress. Going back to the sex sells point, they could’ve hired someone who looked like a Playboy Centerfold or a model, but they went with someone who was more girl next door. Why? Any of those descriptions would have fit in with the HPOA quitting frustration. Because it would have taken this into the realm of over the top and wouldn’t have resonated as strongly with the audience. Most people know someone or might even be someone like Elyse Porterfield. It added to the realness of it.

5. It needs to fit your goals

The big marketing cliché lately is taking something viral. But… why? Why do you want or need something to go viral? Unfortunately, too few marketers can answer that, or answer beyond a mass marketing mentality.

Does Viral=Sales? Sometimes. Does Viral=Money? Maybe. Does Viral=Branding? Sometimes.

See a trend here? Nobody can accurately predict what will or won’t work 100% of the time.

For TheChive.com, which describes itself as “Probably the Best Site in the World”, the goal more than likely was to drive traffic and probably subscriptions. You know what? I bet they succeeded.

Learning from your customers

Posted on October 8, 2009May 5, 2015 by MD

Do you know how your customers use your product? It seems like a simple answer to a dumb question, but sometimes, those are the ones that you have an iceberg of an answer for. Companies are often surprised to learn how differently customers use their products from how or what they intended. Sometimes of course, this results in new legal warnings, but other times, the company is actually able to learn something.

Samsung’s new DualView line of digital cameras is a great example of what can happen when you pay attention to your customers. When camera’s were still film reliant, consumers did whatever they could to make sure every picture was a winner because otherwise they were wasting money developing bad pictures. Digital cameras of course have changed that. Consumers are a lot less likely to worry about pictures not coming out because it no longer matters if it takes one time or ten times to get the shot. The arm length self-portrait shot has become commonplace, but as many people complain, it’s often difficult to get the shot you want unless you’re willing to take several shots. This is where Samsung has paid attention and gotten innovative. To be honest, I can’t believe it took this long for one of the camera companies to do this, nor do I think it will be alone on the market for long. What Samsung has done is put a small screen on the front of the camera so you can see what you’re actually taking a picture of if you’re taking a self portrait. They have some additional features that you can use the front screen for, but this is a big one.

Are you listening to your customers?

Analyzing Yahoo’s Know Your Mojo

Posted on August 14, 2009May 5, 2015 by MD

To promote their new homepage, Yahoo has released a fun little flash site that analyzes your public tweets and tells you what kind of tweeter you are. Whether or not it’s accurate it is up to debate, but it is some simple fun. You can check it out here.

While this has the potential to go viral, the bigger question remains….is it effective?

First up is the home page:

I think Yahoo did a good job with the landing page. It’s not overly cluttered with graphics or text and is very easy to figure out what to do. Plus it’s simple. You enter your user name and click the “Gimme Mojo”. They don’t require you to register, nor that you have a Yahoo account to use it. This is good because more people will play with it and tell their friends because there is a very low involvement factor.

I also like how they’ve incorporated the Yahoo purple, and have the Yahoo name twice, one in conjunction with advertising the new Yahoo home page. As a user, I appreciate how unobtrusive their logos are, however, the page is definitely designed so that your attention is immediately drawn to the center making it very easy to overlook Yahoo’s involvement completely.

Next we’ll look at the results page:

Again, we have the Yahoo purple and the same size & placement for the logos as on the home page. On the left, you get a cute description of your tweeting style. As you can see, I’m a Name Dropper. On the right side, Yahoo offers suggestions for websites you can add to their new home page that might suit your mojo style. Is this effective? I think it could be very hit or miss. If their suggestions really are a good fit for you, then there’s a good chance you’ll check out their new homepage. If not, you may be less likely. However, here, I know I am already slightly biased. I might be in the minority, but I don’t use MSN, Yahoo or Google as an all encompassing home page. I would be very interested ot hear what others think on this.

The Share Mojo button is nicely prominent, however, in my opinion, should have been larger than the try another username button. When you click on it, this is what you get:

Yahoo makes it very easy for people to share this on either Twitter or Facebook with the message short and to the point with a personalized bit.ly link. I especially like the bit.ly link. Not only are they tracking the traffic directly from it, they’re making it possible for others to go to the bit.ly site and see how much it’s been clicked on. (As of this post, it was currently at 15,117 Total Clicks, mostly from the U.S.) You can also see who’s tweeting about it using the link. Want to check out the stats? Click here or put http://bit.ly/knowmojo+ into your browser.

Finally, After you’ve received your result, Yahoo makes it easy to see what the other mojo types are, and what they mean. The only thing I don’t like about this page is it’s inaccessible directly. Most people won’t want to go back through it to figure out what their friend’s mojo results mean.

Overall, I think this is a fun promotion by Yahoo, but don’t expect it to last more than a few days. It definitely has the potential to go viral, but whether or not it will help their new home page is yet to be seen.

What do you think? Is Yahoo’s Know Your Mojo promotion effective for their new homepage?