Over the years, savvy marketers have systematically discovered and created not only the greatest products to sell, but precisely how to package and push them upon the world.  No matter the negatives, or how unnecessary a certain product or service is, corporations have found a way to portray themselves and their products as indispensable.  To reject those products and services is to reject happiness, or so the consumer should believe.  Over the years there have been some extreme standouts in this advertising game, most notably the following fifteen:

BMW vs. Audi

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The automobile was one of the first products to be sold to a global market in the 20th century.  Car companies have come and gone, but some heavyweights have lasted throughout.  Two German monsters in the industry are BMW and Audi.  Both were created in the early 1900s and outlasted two world wars to continue to sell cars to Americans.

Of course, they hate each other.  In 2006, Audi put up a racy little number in the form of an attack billboard in California.  It read “Your move, BMW” on an all-white background with an image of Audi’s A4.  The billboard was quickly countered by the local BMW dealership, Santa Monica BMW, who responded with an all-black billboard with an image of the BMW M3 Coupe.  Underneath, one word: Checkmate.

What could Audi respond with?  There’s absolutely nothing to do but just shut up and admit defeat.  And snatch down your billboards that make you look foolish, of course.  This kind of marketing coup is the stuff of CEO dreams.

Coca-Cola Bottle

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Coca-Cola has long been the most important soda in the world – very much because its makers decided long ago that it wasn’t just going to be a soda, but a symbol of eternal happiness.  Created in 1886 in Atlanta and marketed to a small consumer base, Coca-Cola quickly became a force to be reckoned with in the 20th century.  It’s the kind of product that accompanies men to war and can be sold in hundreds of countries, because no matter what someone’s experience, the brand’s mythology and promise shines through.

A million different things went into creating this mythology, but one of the most important is the shape of the bottle.  In 1915, the Coca-Cola Company challenged its bottle suppliers to design a bottle so unique that people would recognize it instantly, even if they couldn’t see it.  The bottle was supposed to be so distinct that if you picked it up in the dark you would know exactly what it was.  One man, Earl R. Dean, rose to the challenge.  Whether you call it the “contour” bottle, or the “hobble skirt,” we all know exactly what was done.  Dean shaped the bottle based on a woman’s figure, the most popular and recognizable shape on earth.

Coca-Cola was destined for greatness before this development, but it simply pushed them over the edge.  In India, they call the Coke they serve there “Thums Up,” but it still has the exact bottle shape that let’s everyone know who makes it.  Most recently, Coke made the genius move of converting every bottle they make (including the giant two liters) into the contoured, womanly bottle shape.  By imprinting this shape on our minds since infancy, they define themselves to us in a way that guarantees brand loyalty and recognition.

Lucky Strike: Edward Bernays

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Sometimes one man can make such an ingenious marketing move that his story will echo in the annals of history forever.  Such was the case with Edward Bernays and Lucky Strike.  Lucky Strike was created in the late 19th century, originally as a chewing tobacco, and soon after as a cigarette.  Early attempts at marketing itself were slogans such as “It’s Toasted,” or “L.S.M.F.T.,” or Lucky Strike means fine tobacco.

This was all well and good, but Bernays thought they could do better.  In the 1930’s, Lucky Strike was mostly recognized for its forest green pack.  Instead of focusing on convincing people that Luckies were the best, Bernays focused on green.  Letters, phone calls and visits were made to prominent fashion designers, interior designers, and women of society.  They didn’t mention Lucky Strike, just suggesting (sometimes with payment) that green be the color for 1934.  It worked.  Balls, window displays, clothing and gallery exhibitions all over America in that year emphasized green.  As a result, Lucky Strikes sales went up.  Once women realized that Luckies would match everything, they had to have them.  It was another masterstroke in marketing.

Bear Bryant: Call Your Mama

Bear Bryant, a legend in college football for his time with Alabama, was finishing up his career in the late 1970’s when he was asked to do a commercial for the South Central Bell Telephone Company.  He was supposed to look into the camera and say in a gruff voice, “Have you called your mama today?”  But Bryant’s own mother had recently died.  So instead, he ad-libbed.  He looked into the camera and softly and honestly said “Have you called your mama today?  I sure wish I could call mine.”  Before the viewer was even ready to leave Bryant’s face the commercial jumped to the South Central Bell logo, inexorably tying the two things together.  Because of the raw, real emotion (and how rare that is in advertising) the commercial did incredibly well.  Even today, try watching it without feeling anxious and wanting to call your mother immediately.

I Love NY

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Sometimes, advertising and marketing are pushed into over-drive where you would least expect it.  Tourism and New York are almost synonymous terms today.  It’s well assumed that all over the globe there are blood-thirsty people who would do anything to blow all their hard-earned wages on just a few days vacation inside the greatest city on earth.  But this wasn’t always the case.

In the 1970’s, Milton Glaser, a graphic designer, created a campaign on behalf of NY state tourism.  It was simple, eye-catching, and ignored the grime, crime and disarray that the city was mired in at the time.  It featured a dark, bold faced I and NY separated by a bright red heart.  It was an immediate hit.  The logo was used to not only promote the city, but state parks, wildlife, and essentially all of the things NY State has to offer as a whole.  Through today, the logo is still incredibly popular, and is often hijacked by imitators far and wide.

McDonald’s: No Child Left Behind

An essential demographic to reach is children.  Especially in America, but also across the globe, marketers have exploited the fact that children get what they want — and bring their parents with them.  No company has embodied this better than McDonald’s.

Created in 1940 as the ultimate speedy service eatery, McDonalds quickly rose to the international juggernaut that is today.  In the 60’s, it invented a character whose goal was to make kids all over the world recognize the brand: Ronald McDonald.  The clown represented a world where food was quick, delicious, and followed immediately by running into a ball-pit (no coincidence).  Ronald was followed by such favorites as the Hamburglar, a daring hamburger thief, Mayor McCheese, an accurate portrayal of a politician and Grimace, a purple butt-plug, among many others.  Today 96% of all American children in school recognize Ronald McDonald.  Burger King who?

Kanye West vs. 50 Cent

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Marketing can be very subtle and deceptive.  Other times you pull a giant stunt in the hopes of driving up your record sales.  Such was the case when Kanye West and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson squared up against each other in 2007.  The two were slated to release their respective records, West’s Graduation and Jackson’s Curtis on the same day — 9/11. What shows more respect to our historic disaster than album sales?  Nothing does.

Jackson declared that if West’s record sold more than his he would retire his solo rap career.  The two played up the competition on TV, in interviews, and to anyone who would listen.  The internet caught fire.  Was it a true feud?  Was it just a ploy to sell records? Yes.

One week after their personal holiday, West’s record triumphed handily, selling nearly a million copies in its first week.  Jackson was just under 700,000, his weakest showing ever at the time.  On top of it, he had to rescind his retirement boast.

When it comes down to it, in a decade where album sales plummeted, both of these showings in first week sales are remarkable.  West summarized the bout: “And after all of the drama, Kay slayed him.”

Marlboro and the Man

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Sometimes the product you intend to sell comes with a lot of baggage,  like when it’s directly responsible for cancer.  You still have to make the best of it!  In 1924, Phillip Morris and Co. created the Marlboro cigarette brand, and focused on the female market.  By the 1950’s, the company was filtering their cigarettes, due to recent scientific evidence that cigarettes were bad for you (which was news when Watson told Sherlock Holmes it seventy years before).  As a result of Marlboro’s core market, filtered cigarettes became seen as women’s cigarettes.  Neither Phillip nor Morris was pleased.  Fortunately, they had a plan.

Advertising executive Leo Burnett saw the problem and the solution at once.  Marlboro needed to be baptized in manhood.  A story in Life magazine about a Texas cowboy caught his eye, and the Marlboro man was born in 1954.  The Marlboro Man would be an icon that rejected the male patriarchal family structure and suggested to men around the world that they should rely on themselves and Marlboro alone for a satisfying life.  The Marlboro man was usually pictured alone, roughing it in nature, puffing away and feeling amazing no matter what anyone said.

In 1955, when the campaign truly began, Marlboro sales were $5 billion.  In two years, sales rose to $20 billion, and who would look back?  What was even more insidious and effective was the way the campaign re-framed the image of cigarettes at a time when health concerns were beginning to loom as a threat to sales.  Instead of worrying if the product would hurt them, people were encouraged to man up and move to flavor country permanently.  The Marlboro man campaign was one of the most successful of all time, commercially, socially and temporally (it lasted almost forty years).  In 1999 the campaign was ended in America, and doesn’t exist in most of the world any longer.  But the damage was already done.

Cloverfield: Viral Marketing

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J.J. Abrams is no slouch at using mystery, the Internet and science fiction to make a buck or two.  The producer of TV giants such as Alias and Lost, in 2007, Abrams began marketing a film he planned to release in 2008. It was without a title, a plot summary, famous actors or any of the trappings of a successful film.  The first teaser trailer for what would become Cloverfield aired in theaters before Transformers with no title, just a date of release.

Attempting to promote a movie without a title, or while stifling all meaningful information about it is ridiculously hard.  But doing so with wild success is almost impossible.  What Abrams had realized– and exploited to no end — was that marketing could be done on the Internet for next to nothing, and that the less it told people, the more interest they would have in whatever it was you were advertising.

Websites began to pop up that seemingly had nothing to do with the movie, but were somehow related (Japanese soda companies, information about their drilling procedures, still shots of things that happened before the movie began, etc.)  Speculation ran rampant about what exactly was going on in the film and what kind of monster was involved.  People needed to know!

Cloverfield lived up to the hype, releasing to critical and financial success.  In its opening weekend it grossed $40 million, and was the first movie in 2008 to gross over $100 million.

Miller Lite

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All over the world, beer is a wildly popular drink.  The only problem with drinking beer every day (besides rampant alcoholism) is that it makes you fat — something that is widely looked down upon, especially in America.  It’s pretty much entirely empty calories that give you a beer belly and make you hate yourself.  That’s why Miller developed a campaign to change the game.

In the 1970’s they invented a new beer, Miller Lite, which contained way fewer calories. Men could drink more of it (spending more money) without getting (as) fat.  What they quickly discovered was that men didn’t care about getting fat.  However, the legendary ad agency McCann-Erickson Worldwide pulled a Marlboro Man and started showing the beer with only the most masculine, burliest men they could find.  Sales jumped from 7 million barrels to 31 million — an outrageous success.

NFL Fantasy Files

In 2009, 18 videos hit the Internet showing NFL stars doing incredible things.  This was brought to us by Reebok and the NFL, and was an immediate viral sensation.  The most amazing thing about it was how much speculation appeared on the Internet about the authenticity of these videos.  Considering they were called Fantasy Files, it would appear obvious — but apparently wasn’t.

The videos showed stars doing the impossible, such as wide receiver Braylon Edwards catching balls blindfolded, or running back Maurice Jones-Drew buried in sand and exploding out onto the surface.  The budget for the videos was incredibly small, and they mostly utilized simple special effects to achieve the impossible feats.

The NFL isn’t exactly the kind of business that desperately needs more attention or financial success, but their use of viral tools to promote themselves drummed up interest among audiences that don’t usually watch football is refreshing and diverse.

VW: Think Small

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Anytime you’re told to do the opposite of your instinct, you take notice.  In an advertising world saturated by the obvious (don’t be scared, be a man, take our product because it will make your life better) anything subtle or counter-cultural is a breath of fresh air.  Enter Volkswagen.

In 1959, Volkswagen decided to aggressively market their Beetle (already a huge European success) to America. They faced many challenges.  For one, the Beetle was seen in America as a Nazi car (because it had been.)  Furthermore, it was oddly shaped and incredibly small, very aesthetically dissimilar to most successful American cars.

Whereas most previous American car ad campaigns had focused on revealing as much information about the cars they were selling, VW took a new approach.  By relying on simple advertisements that made sarcastic disparaging comments about their Beetle, they were able to tap into the rebellious nature of American consumers with much success.

Beetle ads during this time told consumers to “Think Small,” or portrayed the car as a “Lemon.” They almost challenged American consumers to buy a car that was so different and alien to everything they were used to.  In doing so, VW changed advertising forever.  Instead of focusing on giving people what they want through advertising, VW decided they would define who they were, and in extension force new wants and needs upon a new consumer base.

Absolut Advertising

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America was consuming quite a lot of vodka in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s,  to the tune of 40 million cases a year.  Of those cases, only 1% was imported, and within that 1% of imported vodka, Absolut accounted for only 2.5% of imported sales.  That’s only 10,000 cases a year.  Imported Vodka was seen to be authentic only if it was Russian, and Absolut was a French-owned company that produces its vodka in Sweden, which wasn’t a big help.

Starting around 1980, Absolut sought to redefine itself as the hippest, coolest, most necessary vodka that the world had ever seen.  It was mainly through an ingenious print campaign where the distinctive Absolut bottle was pictured in countless situations and was labeled ‘absolutely’ everything.  The ads were everywhere, and they were so clever and appealing to look at that people all over America started collecting them.

Essentially, Absolut’s marketing became a giant experiment to see what was acceptable, what was too much, and to market to every demographic out there (young, old, gay, straight, black, white, etc.).  The print campaign (which spawned viral, musical and video counterparts) has produced over 1500 ads, making it one of the longest running ad campaigns in history.

Nike: Just Do It

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Sometimes an ad campaign is built around something so simple it appears that no one created it, like it just always existed.  Such is the case with Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign.  In the late 1970’s/early 80’s Nike was a very small part of the sports apparel market.  Reebok had a stranglehold on it, due in part to the raised interest among women and young people in exercise and aerobics.

Rumor has it that while discussing their vulnerable place within the market, Nike and Wieden & Kennedy (an advertising firm) decided they just needed to ‘do something’ about it.  And thus the slogan was born.  It came to represent an all-out take-no-prisoners approach to sports apparel, and its ads reflected this instantly.  They were hip, funny, and showed stars of various sports doing incredible things with ease, all due to their Nike gear.

Most importantly, they worked.  In the 1990’s Nike saw their market share more than double and their sales went from $800 million a year to $9.2 billion a year.

Get a Mac

A classic strategy of advertising is to do a campaign which works on two levels: on the first level is “here’s our competitor” (boo!) and on the second level, “we are the greatest” (hooray!).  This is essentially what Apple applied in their “Get a Mac”  campaign, which lasted from 2006-09.

In the commercials, famous actor Justin Long appears as a comfortable, hip Mac computer.  John Hodgman, a previously unrecognizable actor (he has been a correspondent on the Daily Show) plays a PC.  They then act out a vignette in which it’s made abundantly clear that Apple makes the superior computer.

What is astounding about the commercials are their abundance and ability to imprint them on a consumer’s mind after only having seen one or two.  For example, in the three years the campaign put out over 70 spots on North American television alone.  In the first year of the campaign, Apple sales rose 36% in a tough economy.  Apple was awarded the Grand Effie (the most prestigious of the Effie awards, which honor achievements within marketing) for the campaign.

 
In this day and age, someone is always trying to sell you something.  Look around yourself right now; it’s incredibly unlikely there is not an advertisement within arm’s reach. In such a crowded market, it’s no wonder advertisers have tended toward bolder messages and devices in an attempt to break through the average American’s consumption haze.  Then there are those who see “bold” and think “license to be offensive, patronizing, and hopelessly insane”.   
 

Chevy Tahoe

A lot of advertisers have become disillusioned with the whole “doing work” thing, and have instead been outsourcing their advertising to fame-hungry consumers.  Why pay for video editing, actors, and stunt drivers when you can drum up word of mouth and street cred by having someone else make videos for you? This usually isn’t a bad idea and it can generate some ads that are uncharacteristically not terrible. 

While this strategy works well with products that are generally liked, it starts to become treacherous when you ask the tech-savvy, progressive, and “No, F*ck You”  comment-leaving generation to promote the generally-hated SUV.  Unsurprisingly, environmentalists swarmed the contest with entries that romantically described the SUV’s lack of efficiency and environmental harm.  To be fair, it’s hard to tell if these are attacks, or simply stem from the impossibility of finding a good reason for owning an SUV  

IBM PCjr

Fresh off the raging success of their IBM PC, execs were looking for another market to expand their personal computer business into.  Apparently, someone decided to go for “educational computers”, was met with several bored sighs, but then went forward with the idea anyway because they didn’t have anything better to waste money on.  Thus consumers were greeted with the IBM PCjr. 
On the surface, the PCjr doesn’t sound like an especially bad idea.  At the time, schools were just beginning a trend of spending millions of dollars annually on educational computers, and IBM wanted in on the leading edge.  In addition, the PCjr featured a wireless keyboard almost a decade before they became the norm. 

So how did IBM decide to pitch this revolutionary, forward-thinking dream machine?  By inexplicably putting it in the hands of a 1930s silent film star.  Based on Charlie Chaplin’s flailing about with the wireless keyboard, consumers unsurprisingly deduced that the product was ancient and difficult to use. 

PSP

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After having once dominated the gaming industry, Sony struggles mightily in the current generation.  Criticized for an inability to listen to its customers, Sony eventually ditched the “You’ll pay $700 and your firstborn for a console and consider yourself lucky” line and tried to reconnect with their customers through a series of quirky and viral ad campaigns. 

First they paid artists to vandalize several buildings with what they hoped would be interpreted as genuine, organic expressions of love for the PSP.  After bullshit was called multiple times, they decided maybe they would have more luck with racism.  Failing that, they went all out with incoherent ads in subways that encouraged commuters to jump on the tracks and a fake “viral” site that fooled exactly two grandmas in Wisconsin. 

Calvin Klein Jeans

One can only imagine the conversation that went in to the creation of Calvin Klein’s creepy near-porn advertisements. 

“We need something edgy as balls.  What’s edgier than anything in the world?”
“Pedophilia?”
“GREAT IDEA!” 

The videos feature barely-legal models posing on what is obviously supposed to be a 1970s porno set, answering awkward, innuendo-laced questions asked by an off-screen director whose voice makes his pedo-stache all but visible.  

Reebok and 50 cent

There’s a long, storied history of marketers trying to make their product appear more “hip”  and “streetwise” by associating it with popular hip-hop artists.  Usually this consists of an awkward rap and a half-hearted endorsement — in other words, the sort of ad audiences pay absolutely no attention to.  Seeking to avoid this, Reebok recruited 50 cent and made the entire ad about how he was shot nine times. And also has on Reeboks, maybe? 

The ad was pulled after being heavily criticized for glorifying violence in order to sell shoes.  Though thinking that anyone watched the ad and came away with the idea that they should buy shoes instead of that 50 cent was shot nine times is something of a charitable interpretation.   

New Coke

While criticizing the New Coke marketing campaign is like shooting sea bass in a thimble, this nonsensical campaign is simply too good to pass up.  It seems like a tautology, but every marketer will tell you that the first rule of advertising is to “know your customer”.  With such a simple maxim, it’s amazing how so few companies choose to follow it. 

Coke was looking to break in to Pepsi’s greater market share by updating the comparatively bitter Coke’s flavor.  Then, ignoring their own market research, Coke tried to shove the new brand down consumer’s throats through every means possible. 

A strong, vocal minority lambasted the new product and eventually irrevocably tarnished its image.  It didn’t help that Coke decided to pitch their products with the most ridiculous videos of Bill Cosby feverishly rambling about how great New Coke is.  

Crystal Pepsi

You can’t mention New Coke without talking about Crystal Pepsi, a similarly well-conceived but poorly executed product.  Following a popular trend of the 90s, Pepsi decided to revamp their product as a “clear” alternative to the run-of-the-mill colas.  Apparently never having heard of Sprite or 7-Up, Pepsi created a sexy marketing campaign that made absolutely no flipping sense and released the product nationwide. 

But in a twist that will shock and amaze the preschoolers in the room, Crystal Pepsi tasted terrible.  Instead of a crisp refreshing drink, consumers were left drinking a thick, syrup mess that taste like sugar water mixed with pond scum.  Pepsi got so caught up in a slick marketing campaign that pitched their product to the latest fads that they forgot to make their soda taste good.  And that’s not snarky commentary either; when asked why the product failed in 2006, Yum Brands Chairman David Novak’s response was essentially “I forgot”.  As he put it, “It would have been nice if I’d made sure the product tasted good.” 

McDonald’s

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Sometimes a company’s ad campaigns make you think that they just start with an edgy concept, then play word association until they pass out or overdose.  In the case of their unfortunate “I’d hit it” ads it seems like they started with the edgy concept “sex,” then corralled a bunch of frat boy interns into the room to fill out the rest.   

You can imagine the backlash when these banner ads hit otherwise wholesome sites that usually featured some harmless McDonald’s ad like “i’m lovin’  it” suddenly found themselves headlined with talk of banging Big Macs.  There’s a fine line between titillating innuendo and tastelessness that serves no purpose other than to be crass.  McDonalds toed this line, then they… hit it, hard.   

Skittles

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Advertising as an industry is a slave to fashion.  Currently, it seems like everyone and their mother who is selling cat figurines has decided that they need to “social market network synergize” their product.  A generally good idea that allows companies to get closer to their customer base, it often fails to take into account the fact that the Internet is full of petulant manchildren. 

When Skittles briefly turned their main page into a search redirect for #skittles on Twitter, internet pranksters all got in on the joke and briefly caused people to think that there was a serious debate about whether Skittles cause cancer.  Though this marketing ploy was eventually praised as a bold move toward transparency and honesty with customers, it goes to show that while companies are often condescending and deceptive toward consumers, in the modern era their customers can be just as terrible back. 
 

Fruity Pebbles

While there are a million and one examples of companies updating their image with hip-hop in an effort to be more “modern” and “urban”, some of these stand out as being of particularly criminal tastelessness.  This was the case in the early 90s when someone at Post got wind of those kids and their rap music and decided to update characters from the stone age with M.C. Hammer’s image.  You say you’re jaded — you say no advertisement can penetrate your air of cynicism?  Well I dare you to watch this video of Barney Rubble rapping and tell me you didn’t cringe and die a little inside.   

Jones Soda

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Some things are edgy because they are cool; some things are edgy because they repulse and revolt.  And much like the McDonald’s “i’d hit it” campaign, Jones made the mistake of thinking that things that disgust people would be a winning combination with things we put in our mouths.  This was the case with their new, “cuh-razy” flavors that included such lip-smacking offerings as “Perspiration” and “Dirt”.   
 

Orville Redenbacher

As a company with a long, traditional history emerging from down-home Indiana, Orville Redenbacher suffers from something of a stodgy, outdated image.  Apparently, a product with a picture of a geriatric on the front doesn’t resonate with today’s with-it generation.  In order to address this, a sane company would ask why it matters if popcorn is considered trendy. A mediocre company would attach their product to an aging hip-hop artist. 

But not Orville Redenbacher.  They went the hopelessly ill-conceived route of resurrecting their founder and having him talk about MP3 players and other things you kids are crazy about.  What deluded lunatic thought they could update a brand by taking the exact symbol of the brand’s outdated nature and place him firmly in the uncanny valley? 

Budweiser

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In 2005, Miller unveiled a clever, if unremarkable, ad campaign that featured referees chastising fans for drinking Bud Light.  The ad featured all the stand-bys of cheap beer advertising: humor, sports, and unverifiable claims about some quality of the beer — in this case, that Miller Lite had more taste.   

Budweiser took issue with being called out as the tasteless light beer (as if that weren’t a redundant statement) and fired back with ads that depicted the referees stealing the Bud Light in order to secretly drink it.  Budweiser’s campaign failed miserably, mainly because by responding to the Miller ads, they gave credence to their rival’s claim that any cheap beer has anything resembling “flavor”.   

McDonalds (again)

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The McDonald’s marketing department clearly has a tenuous grip on things that matter in reality.  Previously, it was their inability to understand that a blatantly sexual campaign wouldn’t go over well when it told you to bang your sandwich.  In this latest iteration, McDonald’s can’t seem to get the whole free giveaway thing right.   

First they began handing out free Hummer toys to children, as if that weren’t the most reviled car brand in America.  McDonald’s freely admitted that they were trying to deliberately manipulate parents through their children.  Then, just to prove the weren’t anywhere close to competent, in 2006 they handed out MP3 players branded with the McDonald’s image.  The players contained 10 free songs that users could obtain by plugging the devices to their computers — at which point the Trojan virus also accidentally contained in the devices was released.   

Blockbuster

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Back in the day (2003), Blockbuster unveiled what seemed like a revolutionary and economically infeasible strategy: no more late fees on their rentals.  The marketing campaign was tremendous, every store featured giant banners, and the airwaves were peppered with ads for the new Blockbuster.  But remember the part about it being economically infeasible?  It still was, but they just never told customers the whole truth. 

At the time, Blockbuster was the rental behemoth, the port of call if you wanted a movie.  The “no late fees” campaign was supposed to cement their place at the top of the market; instead, it most likely killed them.  In reality, customers had a certain period of time after the return date.  If the item wasn’t returned before then, they were charged the whole value of the movie.  If they thereafter returned it, their money was refunded in store credit only.  This campaign’s duplicity ended with several lawsuits and alienating just about every single one of Blockbuster’s customers, leaving them incapable of competing with Netflix.  Blockbuster re-instated late fees recently this year, which coincidentally will probably be the last year most people set foot inside a Blockbuster.

Infographic byWordStream Internet Marketing

Infographic by the Pay Per Click Blog

But then it happens….I pull out my iPad and almost like a switch heads pop up and necks begin to turn towards me as if they are on some country road and pass a herd of deer. I am the deer!

Most people go back to their cocktail and chicken wings as they rumble under their breath…..I gotta get one of those. However, there seems to always be a bold few that venture towards the deer for a better look. Typical questions are, is that the 3G version and how do you like it? After I respond my natural instincts take over and I ask….”so, what do you do” and after they respond I tell them what I do and how I  use the iPad for my business. This usually turns into further dialogue about our respective businesses, a couple more comments about the iPad and typically ends with the exchanging of business cards and all of a sudden…..BAM, a new prospect added to my pipeline that I can stay in touch with to see when they finally take the plunge and get an iPad.

Aside from the traditional value props of owning an iPad….the contacts I have made by having an iPad have more than paid for the product.

At ProspectMX, we try to do a variety of activities to counter balance the stress of working for one of the busiest web marketing companies around. And almost all of us have different things we do to relieve stress.

Some of us carry Nerf guns around the building and shoot darts at co-workers. Some of us wear t-shirts with funny one-liners that only geeks can enjoy.

And some of us, well… some of us smash pies in the face of our bosses.

Last week, as the culmination of a series of events and activities that raised over $1600 for March of Dimes, the co-founders of ProspectMX donned trash bags and had all of their employees gather outside during a lunch break for an especially sweet event.

Three lucky employees got to live the dream with an opportunity to “pie” Rory Wilfong, Steve Young, and Dave Conklin. And it was all done in the name of raising money for March of Dimes.

Luckily, we caught the event on film…

Rory, Steve, and Dave (along with COO John Fraunfelter, Sales Manager Jim Bradford and Customer Success Specialist Mike King of ProspectMX sister-company GetMyHomesValue.com) got pied by individuals who placed the highest bid on a pie during a week long silent auction fundraiser held for company employees in April. All funds raised during the silent auction were given to March of Dimes.

All proceeds raised and donated to the March of Dimes helps fund research and efforts to reduce premature births, birth defects, and infant mortality. To date, ProspectMX and GetMyHomesValue.com fundraisers have helped raise over $1600 to benefit the March for Babies campaign.

Matt Cutts has officially been launched into space in his rocket, Spam Blaster!  We don’t want to fill this space with a whole lot of words.  We just want to thank those who came up with names for the rocket and those who voted!  What did we learn from this experience?  Well, Matt… you may be incredible at fighting spam… but as you will see, you may want to keep your day job. 

Oh, Adam and Joe… Your hard work and long hours were both AMAZING. Thank you!

Well, ok, not the REAL Matt Cutts… and not really into space, but…well watch the video if you haven’t heard.

ProspectMX is Sending Matt Cutts to Space! from Dave Conklin on Vimeo.

That’s right, we had a doll of Matt Cutts made and we’re going to send it on various adventures in the coming months. Hopefully, other prominent members of the SEM community will be on their own adventures, too.

Joe Latrell, a fellow employee, also happens to be a Rocket Scientist (isn’t everyone?). He volunteered to build us a 10 foot rocket to help Matt on his journey.

But there was one critical piece left that we didn’t have for the launch next week.

A name.

So, we polled the community and got a couple great suggestions as to what to call this magnificent beast of a rocket. After much deliberation, crying, voting, and tallying – we have reached a consensus. The rocket will be called…

Drumroll please…

SPAM BLASTER!

Yes, the rocket will be called Spam Blaster. And what better name for the rocket-fueled-speed-machine that will hold Matt Cutts on that fateful day? A phrase that not only encompasses a giant rocket but also Matt Cutt’s day to day responsibilities at Google?

We’re quite pleased with the name and would like to thank everyone that suggested names and voted.

So it’s the final countdown. We have a rocket. We have Matt Cutts. And we have a name.

There’s less than a week left until the launch, so we hope to see you all back here next Monday at 2pm to see how it all goes down.

When we announced that we were going to launch Matt Cutts into space and asked for your ideas on what we should name the rocket we received many emails asking for specifics on what we were going to do.  So, we had our video pro Adam Perry create this demo video that explains it all a bit further.  It’s well worth the watch… check it out.

Be a part of the experience and share this on your site! We’ve already put together the code for you:

Vote Now For What The Matt Cutts Rocket Should Be Named!

Comment Below To Name The 10 Foot Matt Cutts Rocket That Sends Matt To Space In April

OK, not to space. BUT, we are indeed going to launch a rocket… and Matt Cutts… really freakin’ high.  The flight should last about 2 minutes and will be videotaped with both on board and exterior cameras.  If you’ve never see an on board rocket cam, you’re going to be in for a treat.

For those of you who don’t know (many of our readers are not actually in the internet marketing world), Matt Cutts is the spam engineer for Google. He’s kind of the “face” of Google at search conferences and the like.

We Had A Company Make A Custom Matt Cutts Action Figure

Last year, our team decided that we were going to spend a few bucks to have action figures created of different SEO’s and do some crazy videos and things with them throughout 2010.  Of course, it seemed appropriate to start with Matt being that he is the Greenspan of the search world.

Joe Latrell, a rocket scientist who works on the ProspectMX team with the top portion of his custom made rocket that is set to send Matt rocketing to space this April

Understand that when we ordered the Matt Cutts “doll,” Matt had just shaved his head and was looking extremely buff. So, you’ll notice that the action figure is that of a “ripped” Matt Cutts with a shaved head.  haha… We love you, Matt. 

After debating in our meetings about what we should do with him, we finally decided the obvious:

Build a 10 foot rocket and launch it into the air, with video cams on board.

It just so happens, that Joe Latrell (who is a rocket scientist… literally) works on our team and has been lauching enormous rockets (some the whole way to space) for years. While this one isn’t going to go to space, it will go about 1 mile into the atmosphere.

Matt Cutts relaxing in his ergonomic chair inside of his custom made rocket

So, the launch date that we’re shooting for is some time in April. But we have a problem. We need a name.

We Need Your Help To Come Up With A Name!

Soooo… All you have to do is comment below with what you think the name should be. Then, in a later blog post, we’re going to allow you to vote for the winner from the best 5 (as decided by us). The final name selected will be placed on the rocket.

We will keep you updated with the progress of our rocket as it’s assembled with videos and pictures right here on the ProspectMX blog.

So… go ahead… What should we name the rocket?