Creative Marketing Ideas?

Greetings All:

Well, we're finally nearing the finish line with the development of our sites and affiliate program. Everyone knows what that means: We're busy working out our marketing campaign! Fun stuff, really, honest, I mean it!

It's been a few years since I've launched a new company, and it got me thinking back to things I've done in the past. I'm all for unique, off the wall, creative and fun marketing campaigns. So, I figured it would be fun to talk about some of the most fun and entertaining launches that people have done (or seen). Ok, maybe I have a sick sense of what's interesting conversation......

The last launch we did, which was for a mainstream company that I had, we rented balloons from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, had them flown into the town we were launching in, and marched them down the main street of the business district along with dozens of volunteers from the community. Talk about a good time, everyone had a blast, and the PR we got from it was priceless (a front page story in all of the local newspapers, and massive word-of-mouth, not to mention the thousands of people that watched the parade itself).

I think it's going to be a little more difficult in the adult world, but we're up for a challenge.

So, tell me, what were the most fun and unique launches you've seen in the adult industry?

The most unique launch I've attended was probably the PrideBucks BoysGoneBad launch at LV Internext 2004. That was one hell of a party! Tons of people turned out to see the hardcore action.

BTW, not sure if you've been in the office lately, but I've been trying to get ahold of you. Email is noah at serialmedia dot com, and my AIM screenname is XENIGO. Or by phone, (925)254-5075.

I sent a detailed description by email, and I just wanted to confirm if you had recieved it, and it hadn't been spam filtered.

Greetings:

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Originally Posted by xenigo

I sent a detailed description by email, and I just wanted to confirm if you had recieved it, and it hadn't been spam filtered.

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Yup, got the proposal you sent us day before yesterday, just haven't had a chance to talk it over with the guys yet. Still waiting to hear back from my friend in the Bay area as well.

Now, back to this thread.....

who is it you want to announce your site to - surfers or webmasters?

JustMe:

I'm in the same boat too, new site launching (already live just not promoted yet) and I'm in Orlando too. Been talking to some clubs here about a co-branded event like a model serch or party to get name in press.

A hot lanuch party that can get some press seems like a good idea to me. If I go that route, I'll let you know how it goes.

An interesting question and, depending on where you want to spend your budget (or part of it) as well as who you primarily want to market to for launch is going to determine the best type of campaign to utilize.

For example, in our experience, when launching an affiliate program, the best time to launch is right on the first day of a tradeshow, the Florida show is happening soon and im sure that will give you a multitude of ways to market to webmasters.

On the other hand, if you want to target surfers, then youll be looking at the ways you can exposure both on and off-line (especially off-line, to establish your 'brand').

I beleive some of the gay soccer, rugby and football teams have sponsorship options avialble and, for around $1500 you can sponsor their entire team kit for a season, which is excellent exposure for example, if your site caters towards the jock type of model.

On the other hand, you also have the option of advertising in bar rags and magazines such as FreshMen etc, whilst the expense of these will be more over a continued period of time, it will build your brand to a wider audience however, be advised this really IS a costly way of building a brand and i wouldnt suggest you do this until you have tried alternate routes first.

As for a 'creative' campaign, think outside the box, rather than sponsoring a club, why not provide them with free soft drinks to hand out to their patrons? You can get custom designed soda cans from around $3 per drink and if you order around 10 cases (24 cans per case) thats only $780 compared to a couple of thousand to rent/sponsor the club itself.

A lot of gay clubs also dont mind if you place condoms on their bars or in the washrooms, the same is true for bathouses, just make sure you get their permission first, having your url/logo seen right before some guys fuck is going to be more memorable for them than an ad in a bar rag ;)

Another thing we have done in the past is hand flyers out during a Pride Parade, offering a discounted membership, it works if you get enough people handing flyers out across the entire vacinity of where the parade is happening.

There are a couple of ideas for you anyway that are really cost effective and, if you want, once we have confirmed details for our events during the Florida show this year ill shoot you over a media kit for that and you can see if you want to jump on board as a sponsor :)

Regards,

Lee

Greetings:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lee

There are a couple of ideas for you anyway that are really cost effective and, if you want, once we have confirmed details for our events during the Florida show this year ill shoot you over a media kit for that and you can see if you want to jump on board as a sponsor

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Softdrinks and Soccer teams, now that's what I call creative! Hehe.

Yeah, I'd appreciate it if you'd send me a media kit for the convention. I have the media kit that you sent me for GWW sitting here on my desk, and will get back to you once I have a firm launch date.

:groovy:

Just being honest. I just think there are so many porn sites that are launching a new one doesn't seem to catch my attention. Most recently i saw someone having MaleFlixxx launch on the GayWire. Because of it's continued presence on GayWire....I had to remove the GayWire News feed from the home page of my website. I have a no porn policy on my site so when they started promoting it through the gay wire I eliminated the new feed due to the fact that we focus on outreaching teen agers.