Tul has launched a graphological analysis feature on their website, TUL.com. It’s worth your five minutes, I promise.

I can’t think that pens are at the top of the “most fun products to market” category, but that didn’t stop TUL from having fun anyway. And it works, at least in generating a little exposure. According to Compete.com, the site is getting 7k+ visitors a month, which ain’t too shabby for a pen.

What’s something fun-loving, even goofy, you can do with your company?

Thanks to Ron at the BusyNoggin.com for passing along the link.

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It appears as though there are faceless people making appearances in England these days (be sure to read this post and see the pictures). The latest spotting has been at Wimbledon, with some Blair-Witch-esque camera work adding an especially spooky element (see below).

Ends up it’s a viral marketing campaigned managed by Lotus, the automobile manufacturer. There’s lots of talk regarding these creepy creatures, but the one I’d like to address comes from Samuel, who is skeptical that this type of marketing works, claiming it’s doubtful that he’ll be purchasing one of these automobiles.

It’s dangerous and inaccurate to measure success of a viral campaign in terms of sales. Granted, all marketing must ultimately lead to sales, but not all marketing tactics have to lead to sales directly. Viral marketing must be measured in publicity, buzz and exposure. This exposure, in turn, should then lead to interest, which should then funnel down into sales. It’s not an all or nothing proposition; it’s a step-by-step process in which viral marketing is simply a piece of the puzzle.

Based on publicity, I’d have to say the faceless people campaign is working brilliantly. Just take a look at some of the talk that’s going around, that a simple newspaper ad or TV commercial could have never generated. In the past week, there have been more than 1,600 blog posts on the topic alone. Plus, I have to think this has been a much more economical tactic. It’s genius in how it presents something it knows will be talked about, blogged about, YouTubed and Googled about, leading to this ominous website, awaiting whatever it is they are about to launch.

Will it lead to sales? I can’t say. My main concern is with gaining mass appeal for something with such a high price tag could be a bit wasteful. But it is a successful viral marketing campaign, simply because it got us, the consumer, to talk about them, the advertiser. And today, we are as equipped, or more equipped, to spread the word than the media.

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This is a phrase I heard from Tracie McFadden Burns of Levenson Brinker PR that completely and effectively simplified the goal of viral marketing.

Get people to say and think, “this is a hoot!”

People talk about hoots. They laugh about them. More importantly, they like showing hoots to other people. And that’s the whole point of being viral, right?

What can you do to add some hoot to your product or service?

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