Pow! Right Between The Eyes! Andy Nulman's Blog About Surprise

Hit or Myth

Spent part of the holidays reading Karen Armstrong's heady but fascinating "A Short History of Myth," and came across a majestically eloquent explanation of the need for constant Surprise.  To wit:

"Every day
we are forced
to die to the self
we have already achieved"

In other words, the "same ol' same old" leads you the the precarious position that companies like Starbucks, GM et al find themselves in today.

Re-birth.  No longer an option.  A necessity.

Uh, look at the calendar...what a perfect time to start, n'est-ce pas?

The Gift That Keeps On Giving--A Great Review of Pow!

Well, the vacation lasted two days...but for really good reason.

Don't know what you woke up to under your tree today, but this was what was under mine--a review of the upcoming Pow! book from the folks over at Publisher's Weekly, THE source of news and info for the book industry.

I can live with gift quotes like:

"...astute insight about how companies can create a bigger bang for their buck"

"...colorful and enlightening...will engage business readers looking for innovative ways to win without breaking the bank"

Here's the review in its entirety:

"In the midst of a recession, Nulman offers a way for marketers, advertisers and entrepreneurs to capture consumer attention by harnessing the power of surprise marketing.

"Starting with entertaining forewords by comedian John Cleese and talk show host Craig Ferguson, who both understand the necessity of shock and timing in getting laughs, Nulman proceeds to offer (and amuse) with astute insight about how companies can create a bigger bang for their buck by imparting the unexpected in their marketing.

"Using case studies of ad campaigns, the author describes what successful shocking marketing is (Oprah declaring, 'Everybody gets a car,' to her studio audience, which sent her Web site's traffic up 800%) and is not (St. Louis using the ubiquitous arch in an ad campaign to portray the city as 'surprising').

Drawing on 15 years of experience as the CEO of the Just for Laughs Festival, the author emphasizes that the element of surprise is pertinent for anyone trying to sell a product or gain attention for a cause or event. This colorful and enlightening book will engage business readers looking for innovative ways to win without breaking the bank."

Now, if Santa would be kind enough to pre-order a few million copies for next year...

Ghost of a (Surprise) Xmas Present

Well, my Christmas gift was indeed a special one (see above), but one good turn deserves another, hence this story of giving, not receiving.

I had to send out a special present to four companies who have been very good to me and the upcoming Pow! book, namely the folks at my publisher (John Wiley and Sons), my new speaking agent (Tom Neilssen at the BrightSight group), the good people at 800 CEO Read, and Bill Gladstone, the Super-Agent who cut the deal in the first place.

Being the Prince of Pow!, the standard basket of chocolates or popcorn can just wouldn't cut it; I had to walk the talk and do something Surprising that would not just get people talking, but embody the spirit of Surprise and incorporate some sort of Pow!

Another fine challenge I got myself into...

To the rescue came the brilliant Nancy Essebag, the Concordia University student I hired to be my assistant for all things having to do with the aforementioned book (which is a story for a whole other blog post). 

Her suggestion?

A pinata.

Pow!?  I guess so...once you take a stick and whack the hell out of the thing.

Surprise?  Yup...when the candy and other innards come pouring out once whacked.

But...and here's the BIG BUT:

Given who it's coming from, and who they're going to, they had to be more than the ol' reliable striped burro or cutesy animal or Santa Claus or any other traditional party Pinata. 

Next level necessary.

So Nancy got to work and somehow found the amazing Jo Juarez somewhere in San Antonio, Texas, who worked with some graphic elements of the book and this blog and CUSTOM-MADE the Pinatas pictured below, which--in my opinion--were WAY TOO special to be smashed...but I digress:

 

The end result?  Some of the sweetest and hysterical thank you notes I've ever received.  The grizzled vets of the publishing ans speaking industries LOVED 'em.

So Nancy...what do we do NEXT Christmas?

(And if you haven't already done so, check out Jo's work at PartiesToGoByJo.com.)

The Best Of Pow! '08--Vacation Rules Again!

Well, once again, vacation time is upon us. And what better way to nurse the aches and pains of my first full day of snowboarding at the steep and very elevated Schweitzer Mountain in Idaho than to pop a few Tylenols, sip some hot coffee, sit before a raging fire, and fire off the Third Annual 12 Posts of Christmas post.

As has become the tradition, I have compiled two lists of posts designed to regale old FOPs (Friends of Pow!) and to give cherished newbies an idea of the philosophy, the headspace and the raison d'etre of this blog:

List #1 is the oft-imitated but never rivaled 12 Posts of Christmas. What I did was pick out the one post each month over the past year that best exemplified the spirit that drives the theme of Surprise marketing.

List #2 is a simple collection of faves; rants, raves, theories and experiences of 2008 that were a blast to write and stand the test of time...even though they may stray off topic a bit.

So there we go.  And before I leave you for the season, I also must re-state the Vacation Pledge that "postings will be sporadic"...which I always say, but this year, I may actually mean it.

So until January 5--or more likely, until inspiration hits--thanks for being such an interesting, interactive and faithful audience, and for making my commitment to this blog a labor of love.

And enjoy what you may have missed below!

LIST #1: The 12 Posts

December        Question #3: Bad To The Bone
November        Pow! The TV Series
October            A Steaming Bowl Of Yellow
September       You Must Remember This
August              Gotcha Gets 'Em, Gets Results
July                  Sometimes, It Ain't What You Are...
June                 Send Me Something
May                  Chris Cross
April                 Diamond Shreddies Sparkle
March              Cheeses Christ Almighty!
February         Getting Off           
January           The Best Blog Post Of All Time (Probably)

 LIST #2: Rants, Raves & Faves 

Walking The Talk
What's In-Store For The Music Biz
My Son, The Maverick
Free Advice--Getting What You Paid For
The Three Integral Factors of Sports
Old Hates Die Hard
How To Fail By Doing Nothing Wrong

A New Twist On The Ol' Surprise Wedding Story

Gotta have big cojones to pull this one off!

Read and enjoy: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20081221/NEWS01/812210385

Revealed! Pow!'s First-Ever "Surprise Marketer of the Year"

What better way to celebrate Post #600 than to inaugurate what is sure to become one of the most cherished honors in International Commerce--the title of

"Surprise Marketer of the Year"

And perhaps the biggest Surprise of all is who the folks at Surprise Central have decided to bestow said title upon.

Namely... Woot.com.

Actually, faithful readers of this blog will recall my first-ever mention of Woot way back when in April of 2007.  What I marveled about then I am even more enthusiastic about now.  

Everything wrong with bricks-and-mortar retail is right with Woot, which makes them a must-visit even if you're "just looking."

First of all, there's the spirit, with wacky contests and a forum where people do a lot of talking (and believe me, Chris Wilson, the company does a heckuva lot of listening.) The site's statistics and metrics alone (click the "Product Stats" tab on the front page) are more entertaining and interesting than most sites, period. (For example, each day's first purchaser earns the distinction as "First Sucker").

And then there's the writing.  Ahh, the writing!  Everybody here at Surprise Central is green with envy at the way these guys can bring the most mundane product to life with perhaps the most creative wordsmithing on the web.  I can just see the copywriting team (jeez, I hope it's a team and not some lone genius) cackle with delight, Dr. Victor Frankenstein-like as they inject the juice of life into moribund overstock electronics every day.

Steve Jobs and Apple, the only other real contender to this post's honor, do the trick every few months or so.  Woot keeps the Pow! flowing on a constant basis, extracting the Battle Cry of Surprise "What will they think of next?" every 24 hours.  Incredible.

And it doesn't stop there.  Just check out this email I just received from them (which come at random, not on some regular basis, increasing the likelihood that it will be read and not immediately booted into the "Delete" sinkhole):

Welcome to Woot's first official recession-era newsletter! For the next 12 to 24 months, all citizens are expected to fret over, worry about, or even directly experience the nadir of a consumerist society - OMG! What will we do when we stop buying stuff? Economists now agree that we're headed through a prolonged period of decreased consumer spending (you really need an advanced degree to come up with insights like that). Beyond that, it's anybody guess. Will the only growth sectors in the economy be shoe repair, pipe salvage, and roadside apple sales? Or will we bring on a quick recovery by doing patriotic things like buying stuff we can't afford and spending more money than we make?

As a retailer, it'd make sense for us to fall in with the BUY STUFF, AMERICA conga line. But by now, you know that we at Woot never do things the "normal", "sensible", "rational", "intelligent" way. We're not about to follow the herd over a cliff. When we go over a cliff, it's because of our own poor judgment, not someone else's. That's been our credo since about five minutes ago, when we first thought of it. And we've stayed true to it ever since.

That's why we're encouraging you and your fellow wooters to save this holiday season. Save your money! Save until you pull a saving muscle. Horde your money until you are literally choking on it. Save until maybe, like, mid-February or so, when the market will be a-glut with great deals for the taking every day. You'll avoid the crowds, take advantage of desperate retailers, and not have to hear "Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time" even once.

Sure, maybe you'll disappoint some of your loved ones. But if they really love you, they can wait a couple of months, especially if your finances are at stake. Besides, if your so-called loved ones wanted you to set yourself on fire, would you? Of course you wouldn't. And that's the kind of independent thinking that will one day break the mindless conformity of our consumerist holiday ways.

But be warned: you'll want to stay far away from Woot.com this week. The breadth and scope of bargains we'll be offering - especially starting Tuesday morning at midnight - will be powerfully tempting. They could even lead you back down the spend-spend-spend path with the rest of the sheep. And that would make us sad enough to cry while we're taking your money.

See you in February!

Woot.com

So what can I possibly say after that?  Except...

CONGRATS WOOT.COM!
POW!'S FIRST-EVER
SURPRISE MARKETER OF THE YEAR!

Shock! Wireless Carrier Delights Customer!

This example of great, unexpected Pow! comes from Randy Ovaskainen, our Sports Products MVP here at Airborne Mobile.

"Just got a text message from Telus…I get free unlimited local calling tomorrow for my birthday."

Checked the Telus website, and this "Extra" is buried in the fine print on one of their pricing pages.  This is not one of the drivers they use to sell phones or plans.

But I checked the Blogosphere, and found lotsa buzz on the unexpected treat, particularly for those like Randy who got the text message...and probably rung up some free minutes telling others about it.

Now this one silly treat will probably not be the reason of choosing one carrier over another.  But it is mos' def a reason to speak joyfully about a wireless carrier, and how often does that happen these days?

So for putting some Happy into birthdays, Telus gets props from Surprise Central.  

Little things mean a lot.  If a mega-conglom like a telco can do it, what's stopping you?

Keep Them Votes A-Coming!

After about a week, votes for the author photo to be included in my upcoming Pow! book seem to be leaning towards a split personality.  The video below (also found at the home of business books, 800 CEO Read) explains the concept, and the votes so far are:

Photo #1:    36%
Photo #2:    19%
Photo #3:    45%

I'll keep the voting open until the end of the year, and crown a winner on Jan. 1, 2009.  Until then, here's another look.

The Dirty Truth

This comes from faithful FOP Jon Lebensold, who saw it first on Boing-Boing, and figured it would make us at Surprise Central equally happy.

He was right.  (There's more where this came from. Click here to see 'em.)

The Hans Brinker Hotel in Amsterdam is famous (infamous?) for its conditions, and its honesty.  This statement from its retro-simplistic site:

"Here you will find:
NO PARKING, NO SAUNA, NO BELLBOYS, NO AIR CONDITIONING, NO MINIBARS, NO ROOM SERVICE...but you will find clean basic rooms in central Amsterdam"

If you dig that, check out their equally-honest (and hilarious) Eco-Commitment and their promo videos here.

One of the nine major tactics in creating Surprise (#7 actually, as outlined in the upcoming Pow! book) is something called "Business Stupidity." I concocted this as the antithesis of Business Intelligence, where things are done so ridiculously wrong, they're right. The tactic urges users to: "Forget the smart thing to do; twist logic and act like an idiot."

Would anybody be writing about this hotel if it were yet just another budget overnighter, a Motel 6-clone?  No chance in hell.  The Hans Brinker folks have made their deficiencies into their strengths, and can get away with murder by doing so.

Can't wait to see what they do next.

Or what YOU do...if you have the guts to adopt Tactic #7.

Steve Jobs Adds A New Season To The Calendar

What a great way to start a week--magna-vindication coming from perhaps the king of Surprise Marketing, Steve Jobs.

Such is not the thinking merely of those here at Surprise Central, but of Forbes Magazine's very prolific Brian Caufield.  In a piece entitled Steve Jobs' Greatest Surprises, Caulfield lays down these bons mots:

"Mark your calendars. Thanks to Steve Jobs, January has become the season of surprises for the technology industry.

"What's next? Nobody knows. That's what makes Apple so dangerous. The only certainty: Apple will surprise us with something during the first full week of January at MacWorld in San Francisco. Anything is possible. That's in large part because Apple has been so unpredictable over the past decade.

"Even the widely anticipated iPhone was a surprise. While reporters had teased out the new product's name, few guessed that Apple would introduce a touch-screen phone that didn't sport any buttons."

Caufield goes on to present a fascinating slide show of Jobs' Greatest Pow! Moments (well, he doesn't call it exactly that...but all FOPs know what I mean). Check it out here.

So, the lesson once again:

• Any one Surprise doesn't last. 
• TRUE Surprise requires a continuum;
• a shocking of the system again and again and again. 
• It needs a constant discovery of a new extreme.

And NOBODY seems to do it better than Steve Jobs.

But someone does it almost as good. 

And that someone will be bestowed with the title of Surprise Marketer of the Year for 2008.

The winner revealed right here on Friday.

Diamonds Keep Up The Sparkle

It's like watching one of my kids graduate from college...

Post Cereals' ingenious "Diamond Shreddies" campaign, first touted here way back in April, was recently bestowed with the title of "Best of The Best" in the Canadian Marketing Awards.

Ogilvy was the Agency of record, but the real hero is Hunter Somerville, a 26-year-old intern at the agency, who was fooling around with some back-of-the-box copy when he was hit with the "tilting" brainstorm.

Better than the accolades though, the real Pow! was this chain of events for the sparkling Shreddies: 

• It attracted hundreds of stories in both the traditional and digital media
• It sold out a run of "Limited Edition" boxes in two months
• It increased year-over-year sales of the product by over 18%

Once again, strong vindication for the power of Surprise.  I think we'll celebrate at Surprise Central with a bowl or two of the stuff...

Oh, Deer!

Gotta love Vancouver, particularly North Vancouver, where there's definitely something in the air and the water and the...

Last week at a speech in that fair city, I commented on--and showed--a Pow!-worthy "Pick Up After Your Dog" sign that knocked me out almost two years ago:

 

Well, after the speech, a handful of Vancouverites headed over to see me at the book-signing table and said that if I thought their dog poop signs were unique, wait until I saw their deer ones. 

So kudos once again to the Surprising folks who communicate with the roadside public in North Vancouver.  Like Pick Up After Your Dog warnings, "Deer Crossing" has become one of those generic sights that most people come to ignore while driving by them.

Unless they look like this:

 

Can't wait to see what these guys do during the upcoming Olympics, where visual communication is paramount to a smooth-running event.

One Calorie; Tons of Attention

Suicide is far from funny.

This ad, however, is.

It's part of a Pepsi Max campaign over in Germany (!) and created by BBDO in Dusseldorf (!!!) (Check out the other two ads here.)

You may hate 'em, you may love 'em, but folks ain't ignoring them.

There are always inherent risks in pushing the boundaries of the extreme, but what other option do marketers have?  Well, there’s boredom, invisibility and irrelevance to name just three.

Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov once said “What separates a winner from a loser is the willingness to do the unthinkable.” If you’re going after consumers, you might as well hit ‘em between the eyes, because a soft shot is a wasted shot.  Stand out or sit down.

Perhaps prolific marketing blogger Sally Falkow said it best in her thought-provoking "PRoactive" blog when she said:

"There are already 550,000 results for ‘Pepsi suicide ads’ in Google. 
A blog post about the ads is already at #11 when you search Pepsi Max.
Five of the ten results on page two for Pepsi Max are about these ads. 
Give it a few more days, with the links being created to these sites, and they’re going to end up on page one."

We have a name for this kind of stuff at Surprise Central.  It's one of the nine basic tactics of Surprise Marketing, and it's called "Shock and Ahhh..." which is best explained by saying that:

"...it penetrates senses swiftly and deftly, opens eyes, mouths and minds, and then settles the message’s recipient down with a feeling of 'Oh, I get it' relief.   In physical terms, it’s like a slap in the face immediately followed by a hug."

Worth your while to read Sally's whole post here. And to perhaps get a sense of humor.

Pow! The TV Series Strikes Again

The love continues over at 800 CEO-Read, the business book site that's premiering the five videos that Scott Brooks and I are doing to promote my oft-mentioned (and hopefully never forgotten) Pow! book.  Millions of thanks again to Kate Mytty, Dylan Schleicher and Aaron Schliecher.

This one treads into dangerous territory by examining the relationship between authors and their author photos.  Even better, it allows you to vote on one of three author photos I took with the madman named Stéphane Najman (that's him and me below, as well as a shot of one of the 100 or so times I had my make-up fixed).  The mugshot that gets the most votes gets to be my official jacket flap photo when Wiley releases the book in February.

You can also see the first in the series by clicking HERE. 

Enjoy, and please...send to a friend!  Or two. Or two dozen.

 

Surprise: Not Habit-Forming, But...

Ouch.

That's the cry of marketers everywhere if they take Dr. Neale Martin's doctrine as gospel.  The addiction counselor turned marketing PhD (what ideal qualifications!) makes this sledgehammer statement in his thought-provoking and quite fascinating new book Habit:

        95% of what consumers do
        is pre-programmed behavior
        impervious to marketing.

Uh, better update the ol' CV.

Still, this comes as a chance for vindication for FOPs and everyone here at Surprise Central.  As Dr. Martin explains:

"We refer to the part of the brain where conscious, cognitive processing occurs as the executive mind.  We call the region of the brain responsible for unconscious processing the habitual mind. 

"To take a customer away from a competitor, you must break the customer's existing habits by first getting him to consciously think about the product."

Here comes the good part...

"For all its remarkable abilities, the executive mind has the limitation of being able to consciously able to focus on only one thing at a time.  If the mind perceives a situation as novel, the executive mind focuses on the problem.  Novel situations activate and focus the executive mind."

And what, pray tell, can be more novel, more focusing, more habit-breaking than...

...well, you-know-what.

See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Clothe Me...

The latest from the journey of the Pow! book:

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2008/11/prweb1670194.htm

Another industry first!

Holy Jeez! My First Review!

I can live with this:

"Nulman's radical new methods are bound to POW through traditional marketing and leave their mark."

Check out the rest HERE.

Here's a Fine Incentive

The front pages of Incentive Magazine go Pow!

Check it out by clicking INCENTIVE.

P.S.  That's NOT my picture on top!

The Skinny on Shula's

Don Shula's got big balls. (Almost as big as Stephan Pastis'.)

Passed by his beloved restaurant in New York's Westin Hotel a week ago, and was FLOORED by the inclusion of an item-by-item calorie count on the lobby menu.

Holy jeez, I thought Arizona's infamous Heart Attack Grill and its Quadruple-Bypass Burger was bad, but some of the dishes that Shula's offers contain more calories than a healthy human specimen should consume in a week. 

Okay, I exaggerate...but not by much. 

While I kick myself for not taking a photo or at least copious notes, let's just say that I'll be staying away from the 48-ounce Porterhouse, the 24-ounce Prime Rib au Jus and the Apple Cobbler lest I want a stainless-steel chest-spreader for my birthday and a nano-bot crawling through my arteries for the rest of my life.  Even the French Cut Chicken Breast upped my cholesterol count just by looking at it.  Faithful FOPS, we're talking calories in the MULTIPLE thousands per plate here!

Go figure...the legendary former Miami Dolphins coach is a spokesperson for Nutrisystem.

Man, if he can do that, maybe Mark Fortier can get me a spokesperson gig for the NBA Players Association...

Best After-Speech Compliment Ever

Not that I deserved it (Pow! speech still being polished and refined to my liking and standards), but I'll take this from a wide-eyed, idealistic 20-something after last week's Art of Sales conference in Vancouver, who said:

"How can I be you?"

(P.S. My answer:  "Get a sex change, wear flatter shoes and put some grey in your hair.")

Launching Pearls From A Cannon

 Man oh man!  Gotta say one thing about my friend Stephan Pastis--he's got some super-sized cohones.  Always rather outspoken in his criticism of the staleness of veteran comic strips and their artists, this weekend's Pearls Before Swine Sunday panel threw down the gauntlet with the force of an Albertan meteor crash.

Here it is in all its cynical splendor (click on it if it appears cut off on your computer's screen).  Please do not read if you're a fan of Blondie, Beetle Bailey or Hi & Lois.

Question #3: Bad To The Bone

The final installment of the immutable trio I call "The Questions" is the series' simplest...yet most profound.

You see, you can answer the other two majestically, and still fall flat in making them real by falling flat on this closer.  As business and/or life success goes, Question #3 is "The Last Mile," the difference between thinking or doing, between mere conception and gritty delivery. This is the one you ask yourself while staring at your reflection in the mirror.  To wit:

HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT?

This is the simple choice between doing what you want to do, or doing what you have to do.  It's working the weekend vs. another visit to the mall.  It's going to the gym vs. sleeping in.  It's ordering the grilled trout and vegetables vs. the smothered steak and fries.  It's doing homework with your kids vs. watching the game on TV.

You get the drill.  And believe me, you know the question.

The tough part is the answer.

This is what separates the victory laps from the starting line stalls, the satisfaction of "did" from the excuse of "could've."  As my business partner Garner is oft to point out: "Ideas are cheap.  Execution is invaluable."

Let's face it, sometimes you may not want it that badly.  And that's fine if that's your answer. Your prerogative.

But don't lie to yourself when it comes to Question #3.  Don't answer "Really bad!" yet live "I don't really care."

You know all the clichés about inspiration and perspiration, about the harder you work the luckier you get.

If you've gotten as far as Question #3, answer it truthfully.

And then move on.

So there we go.  Three ephemeral blog posts?  Or the basis, the foundation for my next book, speech or movement?

Guess it depends...

On how bad I want it.

ONE LAST RE-CAP!

Question #1:   What is the gift you give?
Question #2:   Is this worth that?
Question #3:   How bad do you want it?