Extreme Marketing - What It Takes to Get Noticed

In 1947, Chuck Yeager was the first pilot to break the sound barrier while flying an experimental rocket-powered airplane. It was a very big deal. Flash forward 65 years to the day, and we get Felix Baumgartner—the Austrian skydiver, daredevil and base jumper—setting the world record for skydiving an estimated 24 miles, reaching an estimated speed of 834 miles per hour (Mach 1.24)! His October 2012 jump broke the sound barrier without any vehicular power on the descent.

The Better the Story, the More Impact You Will Achieve

This small step for man earned Baumgartner a place in history and the record books forever. Red Bull, who sponsored this gigantic ad placement/commercial, has received (as I write this post) 29,614,647 views of its YouTube video post. Not bad for one promotion on one day. Frankly, this is what you call a “HOME RUN” in brand marketing!

Perhaps what is most instructive about this promotional stunt is how much it takes today to truly break through the clutter and get your brand noticed. Making nice statements such as “High Quality,” “Excellent Customer Service,” “Money Back Guarantee” and all of the other general promises that thousands of companies make each day is no where near enough to be heard, let alone noticed.

Frankly, it’s a cop-out to think this kind of bland messaging will bring your company one iota of value. It simply doesn’t work anymore, so stop it.

The reasons for this are legion. There are literally hundreds or thousands of brands in each brand category all fighting for attention. The media world has become incredibly segmented. These factors, along with many others, have given buyers and consumers thousands of choices, which create a very difficult marketplace for a brand owner to stand out. That, in turn, has created real cynicism among buyers and consumers who are literally bombarded by brand messaging morning, noon and night.