See Andy's other stuff:

Contact Me >>

Newsletter #902: The “Deals Worth Talking About” Issue

[Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]

Most transactions in our everyday life are routine. We don’t think about them and we don’t talk about them.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. To prove it, here’s how some clever marketers are making deals worth talking about:

1. The great bacon barter
2. Something special for the hipsters
3. Ice cream instead of ads
4. Check it out: Codecademy

1. The great bacon barter

Right now, somewhere out there, there’s a man on the loose with 3,000 pounds of bacon. Josh Sankey has no cash, no credit cards — just a trailer full of delicious bacon. His plan: To drive from New York to L.A. and barter his way there. The project — which is sponsored by Oscar Mayer — is to find out if America loves bacon as much as it loves money. It’s one big awesome stunt, and if Josh can deal his way to L.A., he’ll have spread a whole lot of bacon love and started a whole lot of conversations.

The lesson: Hey, maybe people don’t love your stuff as much as they love bacon. But, then again, some probably do. Is there a fantastic trade out there you could pull off to get people talking?

Learn more: Bacon Barter

2. Something special for the hipsters

Kickstarter is where all the cool kids are launching fantastic projects. To attract supporters, project creators offer bonuses for people who pledge contributions. The whole site is home to creative and remarkable offers, and a recent great example was for Seth Godin’s upcoming book, “The Icarus Deception.” He had a whole bunch of remarkable offers for his potential backers, including the LP (on vinyl) of the first 40 minutes of the audio version (which he described as something collectible for the hipsters), a mystery box of $900 worth of goodies, and an interview opportunity in which Seth tells your story to the world.

The lesson: People don’t talk about average sales. People talk about once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.

Learn more: Kickstarter

3. Ice cream instead of ads

Here’s a deal that’s almost always better than buying an ad: Give your customers a great experience instead. That’s what on-demand car service company Uber did when they used their tech for a day to let fans demand ice cream trucks come to their location. The best part: The only offer was five ice cream treats for $12. And what do you do with five ice cream treats? You either eat them all yourself (hey, we’re not judging), or, more likely, you share them with four friends. That’s a great deal, a great experience, and a great reason to talk about Uber’s car service.

The lesson: Create great conversations by offering them a deal they can’t help but share.

Learn more: SFGate

4. Check it out: Codecademy

Whether you’re just looking to learn the basics of HTML and CSS or are looking for more advanced stuff like Python and JavaScript, this is a fantastic place to start. It’s all easy, intuitive, and it won’t cost you a thing.

Check it out: Codecademy

[contact-form-7 id="27185" title="contact-form 3 TellAFriend-Post"]