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Are You Wedded To Your Marketing?

Written by: Jay Hamilton-Roth

Article Overview: The other day I received a most curious email from someone I’ve never met....

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Are You Wedded To Your Marketing?

The other day I received a most curious email from someone I’ve never met.

“My name is Liz Flowers and my fiance’s name is Scott Bland. We are a “not your average couple,” looking for a “not so average, ‘think out of the box’ type company” who would like to obtain some great exposure while truly showing pure generosity.

…

We were online securing vendors for our event and ran across a term known at “wedding sponsorship.” We read that a MAJOR Cola company granted a bride to be, $10,000 as long as she would give them publicity and serve their product at the reception!!

With that being said, we are seeking sponsorship gifts and or financial donations going towards both our wedding and honeymoon in exchange for media coverage and targeted publicity. Here’s how this would work…”

For the sake of argument, I’m going to assume that the couple is really going to get married and that they feel that they are entitled to having strangers underwrite their wedding. From a creative marketing perspective, is what they did good?

Certainly it was creative, since I hadn’t heard much about this before (although, as part of my research, I’ve found many other resources: ABC News and even a business specializing in this). However, is this an effective marketing campaign?

In a word, “no”. To be effective, it needs to clearly target me (or my business) and let me know how this opportunity will help me (other than being on their website, in their wedding program, and maybe incidental PR opportunities). First, why me/my business? The letter wasn’t tailored to me at all - it was a bulk emailing (”a spray and pray”). It puts the burden on me to read the email and figure out if there’s a tie-in worth my time/money.

What the couple should’ve done is identify specifically what services and products they wanted, and focus on vendors that could provide them. Instead of contacting everyone, contact only those that can clearly help them directly and create a win-win proposition. Furthermore, each contact should be directed to the right person in the organization. No doubt if another couple received a major sponsorship, they had a very specific request to the right person with a clear benefit to the sponsor.

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Article Tags: abc news, bulk emailing, cola company, creative marketing, effective marketing, email, fiance, financial donations, generosity, hadn, honeymoon, marketing campaign, media coverage, perspective, pr opportunities, publicity, sake, seeking sponsorship, time money, wedding program

About the Author: Jay Hamilton-Roth
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Jay Hamilton-Roth founded Many Good Ideas (http://www.ManyGoodIdeas.com) to help small businesses brainstorm, design, and implement effective marketing strategies. He combines creativity with common sense to demystify the process of getting great results. He has used his high-tech background from MIT to help him launch five businesses. He consults with companies in a wide range of industries and publishes a monthly marketing newsletter and daily marketing blog (http://ask.ManyGoodIdeas.com). He is the host of the new TV series "Business With Passion" (http://TV.ManyGoodIdeas.com).

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