Marketing
Co-ordinated marketing
A little while back I was having a pint or two with my brother in a local pub when he spotted the offer of a promotional t-shirt for customers who were drinking the Fullers Discovery Blonde Beer. By the end of the night, they kindly gave us two of the t-shirts to take home (we got the impression they had quite a few left to give away).
The t-shirts had marketing for the Discovery beer on the front and, in the spirit of the name, also had a compass on the back with a pair of geographic coordinates within it. Recognising them as coordinates in the London area, I didn't think too much more about it, presuming they were the coordinates of the pub that was selling the beer, or of the Fullers Brewery that produced it, but it wasn't until the other day that I actually tapped the coordinates (51º29'15.24"N, 0º14'56.96"W) into Google Maps and - after switching to the satellite imagery view - discovered that this was all a part of the brewery's larger marketing strategy.
Presumably not too far off the flight path for Heathrow airport, and always under the attentive gaze of the electronic eyes in the sky, the Fuller's Brewery had used the prime marketing real estate of their roof to advertise themselves to the world. Of course this isn't a new strategy, with many other companies and organisations doing the same thing around airport areas for year, but the coordinated (excuse the pun) approach did strike me as a nice way to market their product.
Having said that, unlike in the early days in the web when, purely out of curiosity, I'd visit any URL I saw advertised, I don't think I'd do the same with a pair or coordinates that I saw on the back of someone's t-shirt...
Note: Aerial imagery copyright Google
Is your business on the map?
Did you know that you can list your business for free on Google Maps and have it highlighted to people who are searching the map for businesses like yours within a certain area?
When I was building the Cronk-e-Dhooney Cottage B&B website a few months back, I was looking for ways to promote it. I added it to TripAdvisor to give it some visibility in the world of travel (and it's recently had its first glowing review) and then tried to add it to Google Maps using the Local Business Center.
Trying to add it, I stumbled when it came to entering the address (which doesn't have a street name, and has a Manx postcode, which wasn't recognised by Google). Without a working address, there wasn't a chance of getting it listed.
When I saw today's release of Google Maps for the Isle of Man, I thought I'd give the process another shot this evening, and try once again to add Cronk-e-Dhooney Cottage to the map. This time it worked much better (though not painless, as it still didn't like the postcode) and I've managed to get the information (and a couple of the photos I could get it to accept) onto the map. For the extended profile that pops up on the map, you can add photos and a wealth of information about your business.
Now, do a search for bed and breakfast in the Isle of Man and you'll see the cottage come up in pole position. With free publicity like this, can you afford not to have your local business on the map?
Tip: When adding the address, type it all out except for the postcode, click the link to change the location of the pin on the map, move it to pinpoint your property, and only then add your postcode. That's the only way I could get it to accept the address.
