"I Put That #@%$ On Everything!"

Surprising. Memorable. Disruptive.

The best marketing has these three aspects in common. Even if you hit one of these three with a marketing campaign or effort, you will likely have a good return on your objective. If you hit all three, you will have a marketing homerun!
Over the weekend, while watching football, a commercial came on for Frank’s RedHot sauce. I had never heard of Franks RedHot. However, the ad capitalized on several key marketing strategies.

1. They utilized a recognizable celebrity specifically targeting football fans, Eli Manning.
2. They placed their product in odd and surprising contexts such as gardening and fishing.
3. They ended the ad with a disruptive and surprising tag line.

In 14 seconds, Franks RedHot was surprising, memorable, and disruptive. While this strategy is controversial and not for every product or service, there remains key aspects to this strategy that can be harnessed for less dramatic campaigns.
Frank's RedHot TV Commercial, 'Free Time' Featuring Eli Manning - iSpot.tv

​As engineers who design public infrastructure, we do not produce commercials or use celebrity endorsers. However, we do create marketing messages and craft a public image of who we are, what we do, and how we do it. We place advertisements in our client’s magazines and journals, sponsor events and conferences, maintain a website, post on social media, recruit new talent, and tell the stories of our clients and their projects. When doing these things, it is good to push ourselves in a more creative direction. If we can accomplish these marketing activities capturing attention through surprising, memorable, and disruptive strategies, we will also reap the benefits of great marketing. Most likely, the effect of better creativity will produce even more dramatic results in an industry that is plagued with sameness.