Tuesday, October 12, 2010

It's a trebuchet kind of thing

Let me explain a gorilla marketing approach to getting some exposure. The example begins with the building or making of a trebuchet. Trebuchets were siege weapons used to tear down the walls of castles. They are similar to catapults except they add a sling to increase the throwing ability. I've built several of them over the years. The last one was built using 2x6s for the frame and man hole covers for the weights. This was a rather large project. We built it it's own trailer. The treb could throw stuff. bowling balls, pumpkins, type writers or bags of flour. The local news paper thought it news worthy that I would build a trebuchet in my back yard. Renaissance
Faires and pumpkin patch events paid us to bring the Treb to their events. Local news papers found . pumpkin chucking to be news worthy.  People loved seeing it fire. People would pay to see it chuck their stuff. Small computer monitors, etc. People purchased small trebuchets from us as well as plans for larger ones.
    Do you see a difference between setting up your stuff at the local craft show with a hundred other people to gain exposure and getting paid to show people your wonderful interactive kinetic sculpture. One of those two approaches is going to get your picture in the paper = real exposure.
    Sounds pretty simple doesn't it. Just make something real cool and let people see it. Here's the trick. It's not a big secret. But it's the part that most makers don't do.  Write your own press release. Take pictures
   Tomorrow I'm going to write about the care and handling of the media.   

1 comment:

  1. Great points, Brad. Have had some press (including "local interest" type TV spots). We're now looking at online press (of course!). Thanks for this reminder about the importance of blowing one's own horn in the right direction. P.S. Do you still have the treb? We still own a potato cannon that our kids built in high school. Warmest regards ~ Penny and Claude, Marco Polo Designs Contemporary Glass Jewelry

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