I had a huge idea for a marketing stunt a few years back when Engage Marketing progressed from a part-time business that i was operating on the side of my Entrepreneurship studies to my full time occupation and my main passion.
It never saw the light of day (you’ll read why soon) but i’m posting it here so it doesn’t go to waste. Who knows. Maybe one young marketing agency somewhere in this big world with a little more cash than I had stumbles across this post and gives it a go.
The marketing stunt
What better way to draw attention to a growing marketing agency, the people in it and the effect that great marketing can have on regular everyday businesses than to showcase a regular everyday business undertaking a marketing transformation.
My idea was to purchase a local bottle shop and market it damn well. There would be nothing special about the shop that was purchased but with Engage Marketing’s talent and some hard work, we could grow sales in the business and showcase that to the world.
But wait, there’s more
Rather than release a crappy PDF case study at the end of the exercise, we would do one of the following:
- Pitch it as a TV show to networks (unlikely)
- Partner with some smart young people and make our own online video production & blog of the project (likely)
- Have a daily interactive in-store video stream talking about the whole exercise and what we’re doing to turn a business in a market with very little creativity or marketing effort into a top performer. At the end cut together a slick video of the project. (what we would do if we were to do it now)
Why it never saw light of day
- It’s a lot of work
- I’d spend a lot of time running the bottle shop instead of Engage Marketing
- I didn’t have the balls
- I couldn’t be bothered chasing funding and taking on debt in order to market a lean business (bottle shops cost between $150k – $600k)
The idea still really appeals to me but I doubt I’ll ever do it. Feel free to borrow it and let me know if you do use it!