Need some major marketing help....Ingenious idea..but need to get it out there more..

Alright so I am requesting some major help from you guys. I've been reading through the forums, and you've got some really great stuff here...so I look forward to some responses

Basically my roommate and I developed a site that we think is a pretty ingenious idea. The site is www.smashmyviper.com, basically we took the whole pixel advertising/milliondollarhomepage fad..but took it to the way next level. We're essentially destroying a Dodge Viper for the chance to make a million dollars (or more) using pixel advertising as the base model for how everything works....but there's way more to it. Without going through the whole thing, if you want to understand more, check out the FAQ and blog on the site.

Anyway, because the concept is really out there, people are all over it once they know. We've been on a few radio stations already, and it has been linked in a ton of forums and blogs....but nothing like the kind of traffic Million Dollar Homepage was pulling.

What I'm asking you guys for is any advice for what you can recommend we do in order to really get this out there to the press (I'm assuming more radio, newspaper, magazine, tv, etc) to get us out there on a more national and international level? We haven't issued a press release, in fact, all the traffic we generated was pretty much just from a couple forum posts, a few e-mails, and a couple submissions to some sites. I think for what we've done that's not bad...we were as low as 16,000 on the alexa ranking, and I think today we're like 25,000 or so. This is all in about a weeks time. We've also sold 900 pixels worth of advertising/damage to the car for all that matters.

How important is it to write a press release? If it is super important, do you recommend writing it myself and distributing through paid channels/free channels? Or do you recommend hiring a PR agency for help? Do you think this is what it will take for more people to pick it up? Is there anything else I should do? I would think that a site like Fark would have picked this story up in a second, but they haven't...

Looking forward to everybody's thoughts!

 

Just write it yourself. Shouldn't take more than a couple hours.

 

Try submitting to digg.com - that should get some buzz.

Oh - ooops -

http://digg.com/links/Smash_My_Viper_Launches

 

Hahahahaha - thats halarious!

 

Why don't you contact the same company that marketed milliondollarhomepage?

 

Apparenlty from what I've read, the person that did their marketing was Imal Wagner...who costs something like $7,000/month So that's out of the question...

If writing my own PR, do I need to try and do certain things that would help the press eat it up?

 

Yup, somebody already submitted to them (wasn't me)...but I didn't see all that much traffic from them. From what I've heard, you need to get on their homepage in order to get anything serious

 

a few more
submit to press release sites like prweb
contact all the tv stations, radio and entertainment/ news sites
use ebay to sell and to generate attention
get everyone to digg your article until its on the homepage
offer a commission based affiliate scheme and have people promote it for you

 

Nice idea!

It's good to see the pixel idea is actually being taken further and not just copied completely like many sites are doing.

Sorry, I haven't had a chance to read te FAQ through yet, but I was just wondering - If I am based in the UK and wanted to buy some of your pixels, how would I go about trashing your car?

Also, what happens if say only 20 people trash your car. What would you do with the slightly damaged car?

Cheers, and good luck..

 

Thanks for the tips. Ebay has been something we're thinking about, but how do you go about promoting that? I don't want to auction off an ad/damage to the viper and nobody seeing it....is that something that gets picked up by others?

I don't know anybody with Digg accounts, so that will be pretty hard to do.

 

start hitting the press releases, PRweb may be good to go through to get them out. I know there is one guy on the forums that has had great success with them. Created a lot of callbacks from media outlets.

 

Thanks for the kind words

Nobody has actually purchased pixels/damage and done it themselves. They have us do the damage, and then we do videos and pictures of their damage. We also integrate the advertisers into the videos. If you watch the first damage video, you'll see how it works. We went to a shopping center and had random people key the car for 6 advertisers. If somebody wanted to buy and do the damage themselves, that's no problem. Also, advertisers can pay an extra $100 to have one of the SmashMyViper.com girls.....since they know more people will want to download those videos and look at those pictures.

If we get less than the car is worth we lose money...simple as that. It's a risk we're willing to take though.

 

The videos with the advertiser promo is a real nice touch! You should create an archive of the video snippets and have your advertisers link to it on your site. Also create a little banner that says "It was a pleasure smashing this guy's viper - click here check this out!" or something similar.

Something else I was thinking about is get the media involved. How? Call up one of your local media/tv channels and offer a free wack to their correspondent. Also send out letters to the big media outlets and make the same offer.

Another thing is to find out if you have any famous people in your area, lets take Clint Eastwood/Pamela Anderson for the hell of it, then contact them and let them take a free wack. Video the Wack and then press release the crap out of it. "Clint Eastwood caught on video vandilizing Dodge Viper!" or "I can't believe I let Clint Eastwood vandalize my Viper!" - Make an interesting story out of it and send it out as a press releases.

There is a little more food for thought! Can I get a free wack now?

cheers
Frank

 

Also in your video archive, if you get some real good wacks have a TOP 10 wacks or if you get any bluppers have a TOP 10 bluppers area!

 

One last thing I forgot - go to the million dollar page and find out who advertised there, send them an email and see if they want to hop on board.

cheers
Frank

 

I like the idea of celebrity smashings. Cheaper idea yet, have imposters do it. Check to see if there are any in your area.

More photos would be nice too, might want to kick it up a bit and move the cars to a better setting than your garage.

Push the Press releases and see if you can get picked up by a major. Might be a nice kick in traffic to have and interview on Fox or the sort.

 

The banner thing is a great idea! Our videos are each on their own seperate page as well, so they could link right to there. I don't really know any famous people, and I can't see them doing it for free lol. I'm sure they would probably be scared of some sort of lawsuit or something. The local media we've been in touch with...radio we've heard back from, still nothing from newspaper/tv. I actually just got an inquiry from Motor Trend radio for this weekend (syndicated on 120 stations) which is a pretty big deal I think!

I just looked into a press release, and its like $700-$900 just do a national press release through PRNewswire

Any other alternatives I should start off with first? Or should I cough up the cash?

 

Many of the advertisers from MDH have been contacted already

Top 10 can definitely happen, we just need more damage!

 

I will keep those comments in mind

Again regarding the press release, see my comments above!

 

Smashmyviper,

I thought of PMing you on this info but thought I’d keep it short and make the info available for other members who have or may have a similar situation in the future. Or want to get a laugh from some of the sites I am mentioning below.

If we take a look at your initiative, it is something unique yet crazy, so what I would do is write two press releases one for real news sites and another for news bureaus that specifically deal with “crazy news” or “weird news” – Yes they exist.

Real News Broker sites:
If you go to the following link you will find a list of the higher end news brokers:

http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_E.../News_and_Media/News_Services/Press_Releases/

I would suggest you use the following news brokers:

Market Wire: http://www.marketwire.com/
This link gives you a comparison of other news sites compared to their services and they seem a little more affordable (http://www.marketwire.com/mw/wire_comparison) and give you some very good coverage. The coverage includes submission to the major search engine news sites including Google. For $375 its your best deal I think

Webwire: http://www.webwire.com/
If you don’t have tons of cash kicking around this service has some offers starting at $9.95 for distribution and a hell of a deal for $49.95 to get included in Google News.

Crazy or Weird News Brokers:

Googling for “crazy news” or “weird news” will bring up some nice healthy links that you may want to consider your crazy news release. I was reading through some of them and just about fell of my chair – they are hilarious. The following links caught my attention, it is a list of weird news publishers:

http://dir.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/Weird_News/

These sites seemed like good sites for you to consider-
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/
http://www.msnbc.com/comics/nw.asp
http://enews.ebaumsworld.com/
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/weird_news/
http://www.fark.com/
http://www.rotten.com/news/
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/weird_news/
http://www.uexpress.com/newsoftheweird/


Now if you really want the news to get out on the weird news outlets, you should consider Chuck Sheperd’s news of the weird column and submit your story to him at or P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679. Visit his blog at http://newsoftheweird.blogspot.com/ .

Here is an interesting excerpt from his site:

“…you can sign up to receive the weekly News of the Weird column by e- mail. Go to http://groups.google.com and sign up for the group NewsoftheWeird. (The group will have no other messages, except for the weekly column, so don't worry about having your mailbox inundated.)”

Anyways I hope this helps. Good luck!
Cheers
Frank