Buy Now: Creative Marketing that Gets Customers to Respond to You and Your Product

Chapter 12. Free Advertising?

The challenge advertising has always presented, in any form, including direct response, is how to pay the least to get the most valuable leads. Our DNA as advertisers has always been to try and get our message, our product, and our offer in front of you the viewer. The assumption is that we have to pay to sneak in front of you and hopefully reward you with something that gets your attention. What if that changed?

Assume you know nothing. Why do I watch the Super Bowl? Yes, I love pro football, but half the reason I watch the Super Bowl is that I love advertising. I can't wait to see the creativity of the guys and gals behind the E*TRADE talking babies, Budweiser, or FedEx. I like advertising; and so do you. The traditional assumption is that the viewer is avoiding advertising, avoiding messaging, and avoiding being sold to; but as we said in the beginning, that's just not true. We like advertising that is about us, that tells us about our lives, specifically, and how we can look better, feel better, and live better. The new challenge is about to become how to be self-selected by viewers to be on their "favorites" list for media.

The collision of the new technologies is going to allow for something that is almost unbelievable, free advertising—truly free advertising, or at the very least advertising that is self-sustaining direct response. Think about your e-mail. Buy a plane ticket, rent a car, or visit an online retailer and you get e-mail direct response ...