… I’m not too sure, did I?
Well actually, that’s not strictly true – if mention MailChimp, I definitely did mean to, because it’s not something I tend to shout about.
In their own words, MailChimp is a
“creative company that gives other companies digital tools to grow in their own creative ways”,
which basically means a platform useful for designing and sharing a mass-delivered email newsletter to your mailing list (I see what they did there though, makes it seem more valuable and less see-through).
However, I wouldn’t be talking you through the uses of MailChimp if they hadn’t caught my eye for their own promotional campaign – they created 9 individual concepts that all revolved around puns of their name. These consisted of:
- 3 short films released in cinemas nationwide in the US – MailShrimp, KaleLimp & JailBlimp
- WhaleSynth, a real musical tool made entirely out of whale noises
- VeilHymn, a musical collaboration that resulted in a hit single and music video
- NailChamp, a world-wide platform for nail artists to be pitted off against each other for the title
- MailCrimp and SnailPrimp, hear and beauty trends
- FailChips
Check them out here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8FGi6BwjJE
For more analytics and details on the campaign and its results click here, but what I wanted to touch on was the way they used a paid search campaign to ensure they were noticed. In terms of marketing and PR, I’m gradually learning that it’s a bit of a taboo subject. Paid posts and content are now more obvious than ever before, and hence it has become more difficult for small businesses to promote themselves in a way that is tailored as opposed to targeting the masses simply for ease and guaranteed exposure (see what I did there with the photography pun? I’m learning…)
MailChimp dropped themselves into every part of culture and waited for the right people to pick them up, leading to some amazing coverage and results as summarised in the video above. This campaign really highlighted to me that in order to reach a specific audience, the most effective path isn’t always the obvious one and maybe it does require you to be a bit more creative to get noticed…
Whilst I appreciate the aid paid for posts can give you, I also now understand how much more aware of this people are and can disregard you for it… a lesson for all of my friends running a small business!