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How To Compete With The Big Boys
By Jerry Bader (c) 2007

Every business needs to do everything it can to stand out from
the crowd, to differentiate itself from the competition. This is
a major challenge for companies that sell substantially the same
thing as their competitors.

The average business does not have the resources of a
multinational corporation that often uses its substantial
marketing muscle to buy market share or to drive competition out
of the marketplace. Big business also uses its deep pockets to
flood various media with advertising, making them a pervasive
presence.

The Web has always been an egalitarian environment where smaller
companies could present themselves using the same techniques as
the big boys, and if these companies did it well they could
stand side-by-side with their competitive behemoths.

One thing that small and medium sized businesses should take
some comfort in is that many large corporations are notoriously
poorly run, relying on brawn rather than brain to get the job
done. Many survive because over time they have acquired huge
resources, become oligopolies, or they use predatory marketing
practices to stifle competition.

As the Web becomes more and more a multimedia environment,
corporations are starting to use their financial resources, and
inventory of commercial assets and programming (not to be
confused with computer programming), to deliver their marketing
messages. The question is can smaller businesses compete, and if
so, how?

Slipstream Marketing

Dr. Max Sutherland, a Marketing Psychologist and Professor at
Bond University, has written about a concept he refers to as
'slipstreaming.' Anyone who is familiar with motor racing or
even bicycle racing understands that slipstreaming is a drafting
method where a racer tucks behind a front-running rival reducing
wind resistance and saving fuel and energy, and with a quick
move, the challenger can slingshot past the race leader.

The clever implementation of slipstream style marketing
campaigns can allow you to blow by your competition by using the
momentum of well-known and instantly recognizable campaigns.

Slipstreaming references a collective audience memory, a kind of
shared consciousness. Skillful execution draws instant
recognition and an "Oh I Get It!" reaction without a lot of
wasted setup or groundwork.

"Give Me The Same Thing, But Different!"

The key of course is how you make your version different.
What's the twist? Blake Snyder, a Hollywood screenwriter and
author, writes about entertainment executives' constant
refrain, "Get me the same thing, but different." What Snyder
has learned and what he preaches is that movie moguls understand
it's easier to get people to go to a movie they understand and
that was already a success, but the trick is making the new
version different, that is different but the same.

If you think slipstreaming is an easy way to be creative you're
wrong. Being different but the same is not as simple as it
sounds, but success can depend on it. Done poorly slipstreaming
comes off as lame and imitative, but done correctly you appear
clever and cutting-edge, and more importantly you deliver the
marketing message in a way your audience will remember.

There are an endless variety of things you can slipstream:
personalities, icons, slogans, music, advertisements, news
events, pop culture phenomena, movies, television shows,
commercials, and sporting events.

Personalities

One of our favorite personality slipstreaming techniques is the
use of voice-over. It can be implemented as part of a video
campaign or as a stand-alone feature. We have used sound-alike
actors to portray Rod Serling, Sam Elliot, Steve Irwin, Paul
Winfield, Tom Brokaw, and many others.

What makes this approach so valuable is that most people will
relate to the voice as someone they know, or are familiar with,
but not immediately recognize.

This method captures people's attention with the familiar sound
of a famous voice but without the cost of hiring the celebrity.
Often the voice does not even have to be that close to the
original, it's the cadence, delivery, tone, and script that
makes people sit-up and take notice.

Cutting through the jungle of advertising noise is a challenge
for everyone in business and this technique is a very effective
method of getting heard and being remembered.

Television Shows

Another slipstream technique we've used is to play upon the
audience's knowledge and familiarity with certain television
shows. We have created Web-videos, written scripts, added
dialogue and composed music that reminds people of the old
'Twilight Zone' series and the popular A&E show, 'City
Confidential.'

Commercials

One of our most successful Web-promotion campaigns was the
'Multimedia Versus SEO Campaign' (http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads)
where we took advantage of the well know Macintosh Versus PC
television commercials. Nobody needed an explanation or setup
to understand what was going on in the commercials. We basically
slipstreamed Apple's television campaign.

Slogans

Slogans are another resource for slipstreaming and if you think
only small companies slipstream, think again. The A&E Network
used the slogan "Time Well Spent" for many years, while The
Comedy Network slipstreamed it with their own twisted version
"Time Well Wasted" - the same thing, but different.

Music

With the popularity of Hip Hop music, the milk marketing board
developed a series of commercials with dairy farmers rapping to
a catchy Hip Hop tune well prancing around their farm animals.
Hip Hop was also slipstreamed by Smirnoff in their Raw Tea
campaign and 'Tea Partay' viral video.

Pop Culture

With the popularity of poker and the World Poker Tour, we
developed a Mike Sexton style character, host of the television
show, for one of our projects. We've even created nostalgia
radio-style audio pitches that hark back to the olden age of
radio plays.

Movies

We created an entire campaign for a client based on the idea,
"Life Deserves A Sound Track" where everyday situations were
described in dramatic style with familiar voice-over announcers,
which was our take on Will Ferrell's hit movie 'Stranger Than
Fiction.'

Sports

We've created presentations using the personas of famous sports
figures like Hall of Fame pitcher and broadcaster Dizzy Dean and
Mel Allan. We created scenarios and scripts using the voices and
personas of World Champion racecar driver Jackie Stewart and one
crazy script fashioned in the style of college basketball
analyst Dick Vitale.

Conclusion

As you can see from these examples, there are an endless number
of ways to take advantage of the public's shared experience. So
the next time you need to come up with a new Web marketing
campaign for your company, think like a Hollywood mogul: Come Up
With Something That's The Same, But Different.
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Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design
firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit
http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and
http://www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com
or telephone (905) 764-1246.
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