Can you believe this is at a trade show and not Halloween? That’s right, at this year’s DreamForce, salesforce.com’s annual user conference, ReachForce found a fun way to stand out from all the other booths. The theme was Let’s Make a Deal. You can see Monty Hall in the center with his wacky contestants around. The theme definitely worked and gained a lot of attention for ReachForce and their debut software product, Insight. One lesson learned though was that some people had a hard time having an intelligent conversation with Fred Flintstone. If you try to get noticed at your next event with costumes, choose wisely who will wear them.

Yep, you heard me, Mr. Happy Crack. The clever folks at Crack Team USA Inc. in St. Louis have managed to make a successful viral video campaign for their concrete repair business. According to the Wall Street Journal Independent Street blog:

“The video doesn’t preach, it’s not blatantly advertorial (at least in the beginning), it emphasizes brand over product and you might watch it even if you’re not in the market to get a crack repaired. Though chances are good that, next time you do, you’ll think of this company first.”

Check it out at:
http://blogs.wsj.com/independentstreet/2007/10/17/cracking-youtube-marketing-even-if-youre-boring/

Disclaimer: Shameless self-promotion follows. MarketingSherpa just published this summary of lessons learned from its Boston Summit last week. I had the privilege of joining a number of B-to-B Marketers who shared their successes in the area of demand generation, Viral marketing, and Web 2.0. Here’s the blurb about the NetQoS viral campaign:

Experiment with low-cost video. Video content is hot, but don’t assume the only effective videos are slick, broadcast-quality pieces with high production values. As long as the content is fun, engaging and relevant to your target audience, it can create a huge buzz.

Pam O’Neal, Senior Director, Marketing Communications, NetQoS, described a viral video campaign she developed based on a simple, animated depiction of network traffic developed by one of her in-house engineers. After creating a microsite for the video piece, posting it to YouTube, and seeding a few key industry sites with mentions of the demonstration, she created a viral video phenomenon that delivered a 6330% return on investment and cost per qualified lead of just $16.

“Always have your flip camera ready. [Video] doesn’t have to have high production values. When something great happens, be there to capture it,” said O’Neal.

Of course, this was just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re interested in the full presentation, stay tuned for –what else? a video of the presentation to be posted the day after the West Coast B2B Summit.

As new media has pushed its way into B2B marketing, many marketing departments reacted by hiring a specialist to tackle these new forms of marketing and PR, especially blogs. But as these new media have come to replace many traditional media and really become now media, all marketers need to accept blogging and twitter and YouTube and become educated, so that not just one member of your marketing organization understands these communities. In this podcast, I interview Josh Dilworth to discuss the changing landscape of marketing and PR in new media.
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The thought of undertaking a viral campaign may seem a bit daunting. But say you have created the perfect video, now how do you actually get the right people to view it and pass it on – the whole point of a viral campaign. In this podcast, listen to my interview with Josh Dilworth at Porter Novelli to explore how detailed planning and execution of the seeding component made my viral campaign at NetQoS a major success.
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Take a look at this wonderfully cheesy YouTube video from Symantec, the makers of Norton Anti-virus software.

Their web site is even better http://www.nortonfighter.com/.

To be fair, this has nothing to do with B2B Marketing but it is a cautionary tale applicable to anyone in the business of customer loyalty. Steve Jobs recently slashed the price of iPhones by from $599 to $399 only 2 months after loyal customers waited in long lines to buy a phone. This prompted an outcry and loads of negative publicity. Kudos to Jobs, however, for taking this step to make it right:

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la- fi-apple7sep07,1,4886852.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage&ctrack=1&cset=true

B2B Marketing Campaign Watch – ReachForce Customer Shares Lessons Learned in B2B Viral Marketing

ReachForce customer, NetQoS, was recently honored by Marketing Sherpa for an innovative B2B Viral Marketing program that continues to generate a steady stream of B2B leads for the company. Read about it in the Marketing Sherpa Hall of Fame. The campaign involved a blend of new media, traditional public relations, blogger relations, demand generation, and an elaborate seeding campaign. NetQoS placed the video on YouTube and Google Video, as well as on more targeted sites such as Digg, Techmeme, Brightcove, Grouper, Motionbox, DailyMotion, GoFish and Veoh. At that point, the viral effect took over netting 66,000+ views on YouTube, numerous press mentions, pickup by the popular TechCrunch tech blog, and more than 1,800 downloads, some of which have already turned into sales meetings. O’Neal will speak about how the leads from the Viral campaign compared to traditional Marketing Campaign leads and how she is leveraging Deliberate Marketing techniques to increase the value of those leads at the upcoming Marketing Sherpa B-to-B Demand Generation Summit this fall. More details coming soon on The B2B Lead blog.

Love him or hate him, but Perez Hilton knows blogging. He’s parlayed his celebrity juice blog into one of the most highly visited blogs on the Internet and transformed himself into a minor celebrity. I confess I too follow his blog to read his snarky updates on people whose lives seem infinitely more interesting than my own. And, I’ve picked up a number of techniques along the way that I use in my role as a B2B Marketer. Here are a few highlights:

Let me info-tain you. Today’s audiences want a hefty dose of entertainment with their information. Let’s face it, with all of the noise on the Internet and the myriad of sources spewing content our way; it’s difficult to capture attention without being outrageous, humorous, or at least somewhat entertaining. It’s more challenging to pull this off in the business world. Can you imagine pulling some of the stunts Perez is known for? Still, it pays to have some fun with your blog and take a few risks.

Don’t take yourself too seriously. If you are going to “make some noise” and get visibility in the blogosphere, you better expect to attract criticism and jokes at your expense. So, it’s important that you don’t take yourself too seriously, have some fun, roll with the punches…. If you do it right, you might even get Farked! Trust me, this isn’t a bad thing. Check out some of the comments made in response to my latest viral marketing campaign – http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=2729832.

Push some buttons. Notice how Perez engages his readers by reaching out to them to comment on his images or stories or pushing their buttons? Even better – he actually asks them to contribute to his content by coming up with celebrity Uni-Names—a personal favorite. And, let’s face it, he’s the master of stirring up a flurry of controversy which can be the tipping point for instant blog visibility. In the blogosphere, being opinionated pays big! So, if one of your posts sets off a firestorm of flames, don’t get mad, get famous.

Got any favorite Perez moments to share? Maybe a B2B Uni-Name you’ve coined like Funnelnomics? Send ‘em our way!

In today’s Marketing WTF?, we highlight a campaign that raised the hackles of the folks at PETA. Mike Rosenfelt, Executive Vice President of MessageOne, is never one to shy away from the outrageous in an effort to generate buzz. In an odd ploy to illustrate how unexpected factors—such as a goat chewing through your fiber conduit– can take down your email system, he brought a live goat onto the trade show floor at the International Legal Technology Association show. The next year he one-upped himself by bringing alligators and pythons. The connection? The alligators had eaten the goat, or so they said. Live animals have now been banned, so we are all on pins and needles to see what Rosenfelt will think of next. As he said, they only banned live animals…

Share your News of the Weird with The B2B Lead blog.