Marketing Freeconomics and The Chocolate Rainmaker

Don't be discouraged if your 2009 marketing budget has been cut - there's still hope! Take a look at the success of the Chocolate Rainmaker, Tay Zonday. This baritone claims no formal musical training, and uses a cheap clamp on light with a fluorescent bulb as his signature hardware for on-line video production. His YouTube video "Chocolate Rain" has been viewed 33 million times, voted one of the best according to the Washington Post, and got him multiple appearances on national television. Check out the original version below:

Don't think for a minute that the opportunities of this current on-line video age do not apply to direct marketers. The rise of direct marketing freeconomics is a maturing concept, and NextMark is embracing it. Why not you?

We're looking to enable list managers to post video content on data cards as a free service in late Q1 2009. Traffic continues to soar on free list search portals now that word is out that they can be used to gather market intelligence in addition to list research. List managers can embrace direct marketing freeconomics, and become rainmakers for list and data sales, by posting quality content about their files in direct marketing forums and blogs. A simple URL applied to a data card is all you need to promote your list title no cost. Here's an example:

Check out the list popularity index (LPI) on the data card for The Swiss Colony Catalog Food and Gift Buyers mailing list. Now that's not only an impressive statistic, but valuable information for list brokers. Take a look at the highly correlated lists section and you'll see Godiva Chocolatier. Maybe it's time to start thinking 'Outside The Box of Chocolates'?

Comments

[Craig]

Don't you worry about the poor quality affecting your professional image?

[Chris DeMartine]

Actually, yes. The YouTube quality has improved since I posted this example. I believe that the efforts of Vimeo and other similar services is putting pressure on them. It will be interesting to see which companies rule a year from now. My bet is that Google will continue to adopt, although with a relatively high price to pay, the service organization with most potential -- and subsequently leverage their revenue model to win the competition for attracting viewers.