Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Seeking Websites Offering Novelty & 'good Lessons'

Posted by Billd724 on 2/24/2005 at 7:49 AM ET 3000 Points
Boy, do I need your help!

I've been asked to help create a 'learning experience' for business owners who are interested in growing their revenues by marketing their products and services better in the future than they are now.

I have a 'final student performance' in mind that's driving the basic structure of the workshops -- built largely around 6 elements of content: Mission / Market, Message / Media, Methods and Management.

Since the best teachers I ever had were the ones who drove home their points using stories, real life examples, situations in the news, etc. I'd like to do the same to make the abstract concepts above as concrete as possible for these owners.

To this end, I am seeking to identify websites that offer representational examples of 'best (or. worst!) practices' in such areas as:
1) advertising / business promotion
2) customer service / customer retention
3) employee empowerment / motivation
4) creative business development tactics
5) good management principles and practices
etc.

Oh yes, the website examples I'm seeking to use to drive my points home must be, if at all possible:
FUN,
MEMORABLE, and
NOVEL.

Why? Years ago I was involved in a training program based on the princples of Accelerated Learning. Among other things, I learned that my resistance to learning was inversely proportional to the degree of FUN I was having in the process.

That, dear colleagues, is what I'm seekng to do here -- make the learning incredibly FUN! so their abilities and futures can be better after we've shared some time together in these workshops.

If you can offer some helpful URL's I'd be much obliged. While I don't mind 'resource' websites, I do want to emphasize that NOVEL and FUN sites are more likely to engage these owners Minds and that, as we all know, is 'where it's at'.

Obviously, not all sites I may choose to use will offer 100% entertainment, but they must offer substance that supports the above mentioned areas . . . for example, I'd also be happy to be pointed to blog entries -- as long as they offer a transferable insight or two. '-)

BTW, here's a partial listing of some sites it's been suggested that I consider using:
[inactive link removed]
https://www.despair.com/
https://www.skyhighairlines.com/
https://www.cartoonbank.com/
https://www.hyperorg.com/misc/DoubleTreeShow_files/frame.html
https://www.psychotactics.com/fun9.htm
https://www.mazdamovies.com/
https://www.kottke.org/03/07/business-lessons-donut-guy

I hope you find some 'joy' in looking at these and that they 'prime your Mind' for still others that you can share with me in return.

Good luck! And, "Thank You" in advance.

Bill

P. S.
If you'd like to know about what comes out of all this, drop me an email by clicking on my name. I'll keep you posted on what develops.

[Moderator: Inactive link removed from post. 2/14/2011]
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by koen.h.pauwels on 2/24/2005 at 2:08 PM Accepted
    As I just taught this case, BMWfilms (https://intl.bmwfilms.com/clap.asp?template=index&country=eurorussia&film=&...) is a great example of how to create an engaging experience that young potential customers actually want to see (in contrast to their scepticism on and resistance to traditional markeing), while limiting exposure and thus risk upsetting your loyal conservative customers (you had to go to the web, and download only movies from directors you like)
  • Posted by Billd724 on 2/24/2005 at 7:30 PM Author
    You folks are great!

    Fern, the chicken site's a definite novelty I'd forgotten about. Thank you. David, Levinson's Guerilla Marketing e-book is chock full of great resources -- like Seth Godin's Purple Cow. Good suggestion. Koen, there's a movie in your BMW -- right on -- Mazda's got a similar make a movie on the moment. If you haven't seen that, I'll send you the link. Very cool and interactive. And Steve, you are a kindred soul . . . life's too short not to grab some laughs on the way to the grave! Yours are simply excellent links.

    I do soooo appreciate your input and each response. I'll leave this question open a bit longer, in deference to others in other timezones of the world. But this is very helpful so far and you're all wonderful to be so gracious and offer up your favorite sites. Thank you all.

    Bill
  • Posted by Carl Crawford on 2/24/2005 at 8:48 PM Accepted
    www.dribbleglass.com

    www.engrish.com

    https://www.prankplace.com/index.htm

    The naughty bits, brought to you by parents.

    The Parents Television Council wants there to be less sex on TV, right? So they bring the most titillating clips together on a single Web page so we can catch the parts we missed.

    The organization's "Worst of the Week Clips Gallery" actually contains not just one week, but almost a year's worth of videos. These range from Motley Crue using the f-word on Jay Leno's Tonight Show to a hilarious commercial in which a teenage girl tastes Dentyne Fire gum and is overcome with the urge to make out with her boyfriend — while she's introducing him to her parents.

    https://www.parentstv.org/PTC/clips/main.asp

    My favourite is the South Pack Clip

    Carl Crawford
  • Posted by sammykarij on 2/25/2005 at 8:05 AM Accepted
    Talk of a blog built and updated by a very busy CEO of CEOs and you will definately talk of www.tompeters.com by the management guru Tom Peters.

    A highly successful blog with alot of information about women entreprenuers and is such fun for women https://reinventioninc.blogspot.com/

    . It beats most top websites in terms of traffic.

  • Posted by Billd724 on 2/26/2005 at 12:25 PM Author
    Excellent input. My sincere appreciation to each and every one of you. Some of the links were not what I expected, but a little 'poking around' often led me to find something I can use.

    And 'honorable mention' to Cal . . . the ArrogantBastard beer site is an outstanding example of what 'customer loyalty' really means. It reminded me of the comment about Harley-Davidson: "If your customers are willing to tattoo your name on their chest, you don't have to worry about customer loyalty". Good one, Cal!

    I'm closing this for now, but if you should have any other 'must see' links that could illustrate or demonstrate important marketing / promotional concepts, I'd still love to hear about them from you.

    All the best!

    Bill
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