Stopping off for a coffee between meetings in London today, I noticed the pictured tent card on my table. I could win coffee for a month ... OR a free iPad. My immediate thought: A month's worth of something as inconsequential as coffee adds up to an expensive item like an iPad? Jeez, this is expensive. Must buy less.
Probably not what the marketer behind the campaign had in mind. Perhaps my reaction was a renegade, pedantic one-off. But it did bring to mind some rules of sanity checking before launching a campaign.
ONE: Ask your mum. Or your kid, or anyone else who has nothing to do with what you're promoting. We all tend to get blinkered by our own little worlds. It's amazing how some distance can reveal the blindingly obvious.
TWO: Think like your enemy. Put yourself in the shoes of the person selling against you, and then poke every hole you can think of into your argument. Find your weaknesses. Because, believe me, they will.
THREE: Keep it simple. Had they offered me free coffee for a month, I might have found that a fine offer. A chance to win an iPad? Cool. (Although I, like seemingly everyone else in that particular Costa, already had one.) But offering me both invited confusion.
No more coffee "out" for me this month. Maybe I can save up enough for an iPhone 4.
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