I had the pleasure of attending TS2 2008 here in Philadelphia today. The keynote speaker this morning was David Meerman Scott. His message to the attendees, mostly Event and Exhibit professionals, was clear. The old way of marketing is dying as people don't care that you have the latest, greatest whatchamacallit. Social Media and viral marketing are clearly the way marketing is going. 99% of attendees had searched or researched a product through Google or a search engine, while 25% had used the yellow pages or TV or radio. The lines have been drawn.
David had a great example for those companies that don't have the latest celebrity or glamorous product to promote. What's more mundane than toilets, how about toilets for commercial or institutional use. Enter the CWS Cleanseat Universal, a self cleaning public toilet - what can you do with that as a product?
Check out this great viral video that David shared from CWS - you'll be passing it onto friends, trust me - hilarious.
Now if that doesn't get your company to work on doing some viral or social media nothing will. Very clever and thank you David for bringing it to our attention.
By the way, another interesting tidbit from David, the back button is the third most used button used on the Internet. Are you engaging your audience or customers enough that they aren't hitting the back button? Let me know.
Until next time, Tim