bethinkr

Against a panoramic backdrop of mountains and cityscape, I was inches away from moving to the championship. It was my first “real” disc golf experience, and I was paired in the semifinals against the Chief Awesome Officer’s omnific and barmy younger brother. Granted, Steven Sharp, the host, sponsor, and golf disc “advanced master” (yes, that Steven Sharp) of the tournament was in our way. Regardless, great heaps of pride were at stake with this pairing. Unfortunately, those inches were unkind to me, as my disc crashed against the basket and on to the conference room’s carpeted floor. The missed throw gave the Bohemian bachelor new life as he moved to defeat me, adding one more boast against his married counterparts.

The disc putting tournament was a free gift from Mr. Sharp to the top floor inhabitants of the Zions building downtown. I have always been intrigued by Steven’s disc golf stories, but now I really have a desire to participate.

If you follow me on Twitter, you may remember my ambiguous reference to The Curious Savage, a play that I had the pleasure to watch as a result of some free tickets from a neighbor in our building. While there, I noticed our neighborly Canadian couple were also enjoying the performance. During intermission, they sought out my wife and me to share with us their exuberance, during which they jocularly remarked that they thought the tickets they had also received were a “marketing trick”, because now they would have to come to another play. That got me thinking:

Hmmm, a marketing trick. Place that in the memory bank; I am always on the lookout for more sneaky tactics.

Actually, I’ve been thinking about how effective the Curious Savage and disc golf free trials were for different reasons. You see, the part about free giveaways doesn’t have the best application to my work, since we primarily sell fixed income securities by way of a free service (Zions Direct Auctions). What is insightful is the simple idea to attract the right people, at the right time, and then give them a reason to listen (maybe with a freebie, maybe with something else). And when they listen: then tell them something noteworthy so that they want to learn more and share it with others (if they are part of the 1% that are the sharing type of people).

Now that you’re listening, here’s the problem. I don’t have anything particularly noteworthy to say. Sorry. But I will give you some reasons to listen until the time is right and I do have something. But, in the meantime, you can view this old rice ad I came across yesterday. The pout is priceless. Compliance Girl ordered the booklet, so we’ll see if we get it.

Disclosure:

You may see that I like Zions Direct Auctions. I also work in marketing on that product, which means I may be a bit biased (but it also means I do something that I believe in).