iDiz Incorporated

Winter isn’t quite over, we’re all very impatient for Spring to arrive…. we need a spark, a bit of light, to get us through the next few weeks. Here, in reverse order, is a look at what Entrepeneur.com calls 10 of the Most Brilliant Marketing Ideas:

• In T-Mobile‘s ‘Life is for Sharing’ campaign video, created by Saatchi & Saatchi in 2009, a “flash mob” of hundreds of people performed a well choreographed dance in a London tube station. The video, and several copy cat performances from around the world, went viral on YouTube.
• Presidential candidate Barack Obama‘s grass roots ‘Change We Can Believe In’ campaign. The campaign used the web and social media, including YouTube and Facebook, to attract younger voters.
• The Diet Coke Geyser. Yes, it really does work. Drop Mentos into a bottle of Diet Coke and you can create a fabulous fountain of soda. Sales of both Mentos and Diet Coke skyrocketed. (I wonder… were people drinking the Diet Coke or just making fountains…?) This came out in 2005 and quite possibly marked the beginning (and the huge potential impact) of viral videos.
• Chiat/Day’s ’1984′ spot for Apple that ran during the Super Bowl announced the new Macintosh computer. It introduced Apple as a “rebel and a game changer,” a reputation they still have today.
• TBWA’s Absolut Vodka campaign highlighted the bottle’s shape and name and showed that U.S. consumers were happy to  pay more for this premium vodka. The campaign is still in use, more than 30 years after its inception.
• Joe Namath and pantyhose, what a great combo!  This 1974 spot for Hanes resulted in sales of pantyhose surpassing those of stockings for the first time ever. Most importantly, this was the start of using celebrities to endorse products.
• Focusing on the obvious differences, Volkswagen‘s risky “Think Small” ads for the Beetle in 1960 made small sexy when big cars were popular. Being different was made cool.
• Does she really color her hair? That scandalous idea (it was 1957 after all) gave birth to the infamous Clairol Girl and the alluring question: Does she or doesn’t she? The ad tapped into the start of the sexual revolution and the idea that sex sells.
• Before 1955, Marlboro cigarettes were marketed to women. Can you imagine? Leo Burnett’s creation of the Marlboro Man cowboy marked the advent of image marketing. No product features were mentioned, yet Marlboros became the best selling cigarette in the world.
• N.W. Ayer and De Beers have the top spot with their ‘Diamonds are Forever‘ campaign. This is where the “2 months salary” spending rule was born along with the idea that a marriage proposal has to include some bling. This ad tapped lots of warm, fuzzy emotions and is still famous today. The year it was created? 1939!

What if we could create a list of 10 Most Brilliant Credit Union Marketing Ideas from the last 50 years? Please comment and let us know what campaign or promotion you think deserves a spot on the list. We’d love to hear from you!