I'm a professional cartoonist, illustrator, and writer. I've been studying around the marketing forums to see how best to utilize my cartooning skills. I'm doing an experiment right now with a marketer to see if the toon project I've proposed to her will work. Can we used toons to sell her products/services etc.. When we're done we'll post the results. I'd be happy to hear from anyone who has used cartoons/animation for their marketing projects as if this experiment is successful I'll want to offer it as a service at affordable prices. Also, any other cartoonists on board here at Digital Point I'd welcome their comments too.
that's a really unique and intriguing marketing approach. You don't often see products taking the "cartoonist" approach to marketing their products. I have seen some companies that have a mascot for their product..for example a teddy bear or something that represents the company and allows them to brand their product using an animal or something like that. What industry are you getting into? What types of cartoons are you using and how are you integrating them into the website to promote the product/service? It'll be interesting to see what the results of your marketing technique can bring, hopefully it all works out for you in the end!
Thanks Le Dangles! Glad you can see the potential too. I expected to see armies of my fellow cartoonists and animators in the internet marketing field but they are rare. I got the idea as I use toons to sell other things and I've worked in mainstream news, radio etc.. I realized I needed to get back to learning more about today's latest internet marketing tools and skills and noticed so many IMers selling products, articles, programs and more and they generally looked so bland and cookie cutter like and weren't taking advantage of the mascot brand that should have sent their sales and brand names soaring not to mention the product licensing potential which is a massive industry. Like having your toon brand on t-shirts, stickers, posters, clocks, and more. So what I'm experimenting with is I'm taking one marketer, maybe two, and using them as the spokesperson in the comic like cartoon presentation. They can use a mascot if they like but I'm an expert caricaturist and portrait artist so I wanted to show off. ( Just think, you come home with your picture on a t-shirt and your kids and girlfriend freak out. ). Anyway, with YouTube and other tube sites and the handheld markets I can easily tailor the toons for those formats too. Add voice and music and you have a kick butt package that normally would have cost high five figures or six figures for pennies on the dollar and not only fun to do but you can imagine the marketing potential with resell rights, affiliates etc.. My thinking is the professional marketers and their affiliates need as much punch to sell as they can get and toons and good graphics impinge on the surfer so they remember whom and where they got that valuable product or service and come back for more. It's a great idea but as you and I know marketers want to see the stats. If the stats show a boost in sales then the approach is well worth the meager investment of time and money. I can do this because my storytelling skills as an illustrator and writer are unquestioned. I know how to sell something and am now testing it with IM. I'm only doing the experiment with marketers who have their "A Game" on though. That way we can see the stats as to what happens when applied. I'll post the results here when we're done. After that I'll take on clients.
Satire? Yes you need to add humor to the pitch. Get the surfer laughing and they know that the person on the selling end is confident enough to smile about their product and the surfer's situation. Keep a stiff upper lip and all. Don't get too political but focus on selling that client's product. Get those stats up. That leads to expansion and we all know a hit campaign can make the difference between crawling around and making that major goldmine of money.
I think that this is funny and innovative approach. Anything out of the box is making me cheer up - so thumbs up for your idea !
Thanks Chancey! Normally it's very expensive to get a cartoonist is probably why we don't see the volume that we should as with other marketing. The way I'm building this business model should make it so affordable for the professional marketer. For newbies too if we can do things right. The key is that a marketer has to be able to communicate their target and product and audience and the cartoonist has to be sharp enough to get that idea and translate it into something that brands the product and impinges on the customer causing them to be drawn into the upsell and easy to remember and translate to others. See, people send funny things to each other by email and social networking. If your ad is funny, people will send it all over. With my approach it's easy to make YouTube videos out of the toon ad and you KNOW that's going to drive traffic like crazy. I'm getting so much great feedback from marketers I can't wait to go fully online with a service like this. It makes money for the marketer and affiliates.
SeoKungFu!!! I would LOVE to do a toon project for someone with a name like that! Thanks for recognizing this approach. It's guaranteed to work but as a marketer yourself you know I have to prove it with statistics. I'm trying it with one product and then with an older product to see if it boosts the stats.
It's a nice approach and I think it would be great for some niche.. Would def keep you in mind for future biz!
Thanks Justin! When I'm done with the first client experiment I'll know better how far the product can go regarding sponsors, affiliates etc. and then be better able to gauge costs and ROI. If all applications work out a client may not need to pay up front if they're a real smart marketer. The backend money could be enormous. I'll be formatting a childrens cartoon book I did for a stem cell company I work for into ebook format soon along with video and articles from our director and owner. He's the foremost authority on the subject and built the first commercially successful adult stem cell treatment center. That should go up for sale and for affiliates soon. Then I'll be packaging some comic books of mine too. Right now though I think providing cartoons for IMmers may be just what the doctor ordered. Low overhead but huge returns when you have the right marketer. By also embedding graphic based hyperlinks into the artwork, for example lets say a character in the cartoon is standing near a billboard or is wearing a tshirt and the customer can click on them and goes to a website that would be one of those "secret goodies" to really make them happy. Like "find the secret link to the free course or discount course or whatever". I've done it before and it was successful but not for IM.
For all of you out there reading this post.. FYI.. Greg is an excellent writer. Used his service and he was spot on with his article.