Given my previous post on the truth being the best long term communications strategy, you can probably guess that I'm not a fan of stealth marketing. Whenever a marketer uses less than honest means of delivering a message, it makes it just a little more difficult for the rest of us who are trying to hold a straight forward discourse. However, every now and then, there is one that's creative and unique enough that an exception can be made. Case in point, the following press release regarding a corporate appointment was carried by today's Globe & Mail.Baker, Underhill, Tilly and Taylor Chartered Accountants
[Image]
William Shatner
Photo - CNW GroupTORONTO, May 3 /CNW/ - Bob Baker, President and Chief Bean Counter, of Baker, Underhill, Tilly and Taylor Chartered Accountants is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. William Shatner as Receptionist and Managing Director of Making Fibre your Friend. Mr. Shatner will lead a team of chartered accountants through the Kellogg's All-Bran Two Week Challenge, answer phones and take messages. In this position, Mr. Shatner will increase awareness among the firm's employees about the benefits of fibre and encourage them to improve their overall health by increasing their daily fibre intake with just a 1/2 cup of Kellogg's All-Bran Original cereal a day. Mr. Shatner also aims to offer simple and tasty solutions for the diversification of fibre consumption with the rollout of two new fibre delivery systems: Kellogg's All-Bran Bars and Kellogg's All-Bran Strawberry Bites cereal.Mr. Shatner has extensive experience in escalating fibre consumption. In his previous positions, Mr. Shatner served as a Firehall consultant where he increased both response times and fibre intake. Before that, Mr. Shatner worked as a Personal Trainer and Motivator, helping clients set-up training and fibre consumption programs. While he held both positions for only two weeks, outcomes were successful, with all involved reporting they "felt better" after having taken the All-Bran Two Week Challenge led by Mr. Shatner. Mr. Shatner has no experience as a receptionist, but is well groomed and has a pleasing manner.Baker, Underhill, Tilly and Taylor Chartered Accountants is an international accounting and consulting firm. With over 45 years of consecutive growth, the managing partners attribute the firm's solid track record and high client satisfaction rate to its extensive employee health and well-being programs.Now that was some damn fine marketing. I don't know about you, but I ignore almost all the ads in a newspaper. They don't even catch my notice. This sneaks past such filters by posing as a corporate appointment. Mind you, they make it obvious enough in the first couple of lines that it's an ad. Smart thing. If you tip that hand at the beginning, people can appreciate the joke for what it is. As a result, I'm willing to bet this ad got passed around a few watercoolers today. Tip your hand too late into the game and people will feel that the joke was on them. Woe unto you as an advertiser if the public feels the joke is on them. Now - odds are, if you're perusing the Corporate appointments, you're a good candidate for their All-Bran cereal, so not only does it slip past people's selective blindness towards traditional advertising, but it hits exactly the target market. Kudos to ApexPR and Kelloggs Canada for a job well done.