Selling Souvenirs the Seth Godin Way

Seth Godin recently put together a promotion for his upcoming book launch of Linchpin that involved donating to charity. I chipped in to get an early review copy before I even knew what the book was going to be about because I follow his blog just about every day, have become a fan, and bought the book virtually as a souvenir.

Seth talks a lot about this idea of giving a lot away for free in order to sell souvenirs most commonly in industries like music and book publishing, but I think the application goes further than that. Just a few examples:

Consulting services can be sold around this concept - give away ideas for everyone to take advantage of for free and companies will hopefully come looking for you to customize solutions just for them.

People can buy wine anywhere, but many choose to buy from WineLibrary.com because they want a souvenir from their experience of watching WineLibary TV (for free). Buying wine from Wine Library tells a story.

Twenty Two Fresh built a company around some cool baseball pants, but they sell "souvenir's" like hats, belts, and hoodies around baseball fashion. That logo stands for something in the baseball world because Kip and his team focus on building community first and selling second.

The Saskatchewan Roughrider's main product is selling tickets to games but they increase revenues by slapping their logo on pretty much anything they can find and sell it through The Rider Stores. All their marketing revolves around selling gear, not the game. By buying something with that Rider =//S//= on it you have a souvenir that tells a story to anyone that sees it. Why does Jim Hopson insist on lifting the television blackout for home games even if they're not quite at a sellout? To give the game away for free and monetize on the souvenirs!

So the next time you wonder why you put all that time into creating free content, just remember that people love buying souvenirs from people that give first and ask for nothing in return.

A Lesson in Personal Branding From Kevin O'Leary of Dragon's Den

Today's video is continuing on yesterday's topic of monetizing brands, but today's video focuses more on personal branding.

Dragon's Den is a Canadian television show on CBC that recently provided me with a good lesson in monetizing personal brands when I saw a pitch from Vantage Wire targeting Kevin O'Leary. I wasn't so concerned with the service that Vantage Wire provides, but more with the way they approached the pitch and how Kevin O'Leary reacted.

Both Vantage Wire and Kevin recongized the value in personal branding. Vantage wire made no bones about the fact they wanted Kevin O'Leary's name on their product and focused their pitch on him. That tactic annoyed the rest of the dragons, but Kevin recognized the opportunity that was in front of him. On it's own Vantage Wire might do alright, but if Kevin put his personal brand behind it the success would certainly come much quicker. Kevin O'Leary is a recongized brand in financial circles as he appears on BNN and CBC News Network along with being involved in equity funds and the Richard Ivy School of Business. He saw the opportunity to at least explore the possiblity of adding his name to the Vantage Wire service.

Possibly the biggest sign that personal branding is important was when Kevin said needed to control 50% of the company because he needs to control his name and might rebrand the company O'Leary. If that doesn't tell you that personal branding is important, I don't know what will.

Monetizing Brands - The Biggest Loser Way

The Biggest Loser is a popular television show on NBC that gives us a great example of how to monetize content through branding, product placement, and licensing deals. The Biggest Loser recognizes that the 30-second spot won't keep television shows in business much longer, so they have to turn to other avenues of monetizing their content and brand.

In my opinion, they've done a great job of product placement. Even though it's blatant, the products promoted throughout the show are logically related to the content of the show. You want your marketing to be as targeted as possible? The Biggest Loser solves that problem for weight loss and fitness related products.

And if you're interested in checking out some of the products that I mention in the video, there's the protein powder, the meal plan, video games, dvd's, music, exercise equipment, and more.

Give a Day Get a Disney Day

Disney is advertising a great promotion to support charities across North America by asking people to volunteer a day of their time to a worthwhile cause. In exchange, Disney is offering a day's admission to one of their Disney Parks to say thanks for volunteering.

This is a great example of businesses using promoting good things through philanthropy and turning a bigger profit in the process. Disney does a good deed by spending a ton on an advertising campaign that will benefit the charities who get the additional volunteers. The people who volunteer win twice, because volunteering is awesome and they get to visit a Disney Park for free!

Finally, Disney wins because they get to remove the barrier to entry (gate admission) for a lot of people in a creative way. That will no doubt get more people through the gate who in turn will spend a boat load on food and souveniers. Everybody wins!

So how can you incorporate philanthropy to grow your business and help out a good cause?

Here's something that we got involved with and I talk about Seth Godin giving back here.

And if you're interested, the commercial for the Give a Day Get a Disney Day promotion is embeded below:

Seth Godin's Linchpin Review Copy Promotion

Seth Godin is sending out 3,000 copies of his new book Linchpin to the first 3,000 people to donate at least $30 USD to the Acumen Fund. What a remarkable and philathropical promotion!

You can see the offer posted here and you can donate here.

I know Jeff got in on the deal - have you helped out yet?

WJHC Organizing Committee Listens To Customers

The World Junior Hockey Championships are coming to Regina and Saskatoon in 2010 and the organizing committee for this great event has done a great job listening to customers and adapting their product offerings accordingly.

Throughout the lead up to the tournament, the WJHC organizing committee has put out ticket packages that people have asked for. When the market told them that supply had dried up for that particular package, they created additional packages that catered to the new demand.

Let's hope that the World Junior Hockey Championships are a huge success for Regina, Saskatoon, and the whole province of Saskatchewan!