Remember the trapped Chilean miners? The story captured the attention of the whole world.
As a PR "stunt," Oakley Sunglasses supplied sunglasses for all the miners to wear as they surfaced.
PR guru David Meerman Scott counted 119,000 Google references to Oakley which he estimates as a publicity value of $41 million.
It's a good idea in your marketing campaigns to encourage your prospects to take some sort of physical action.
For instance, a mail order marketer of pipes (the kind you burn tobacco in) told his buyers:
"If you are not 100% satisfied with the pipe, snap the stem off and mail it back to me in an envelope for a full refund."
One reason this worked is that it was dramatic and unexpected: the marketer encouraged the customer to destroy his product if dissatisfied.
But it also made the guarantee more tangible by linking it to a physical action: the copy creates a mental image of breaking the pipe in two with your bare hands.
The headline of the ad boldly stated: "TRY BURNING THIS COUPON."
Copy tells the reader: "Hold a match to this ad. It will start to burn. Now take the match away. It will stop burning, because it is treated with our special fireproofing chemical." (The ad was an insert sheet coated with the chemical, not a regular page of the magazine.)
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