Jurassic Marketing
I was listening to the radio this morning when I heard an ad for a company that mentioned their website. This company doesn’t sell anything over the web - this was simply a corporate website. Here is what caught my ear in the ad:
“Our website is available 24×7.”
We are not professional marketers here at Select Metrix, but I’m not sure that is a strong value proposition.
In case it is, I am here to proudly announce that The Hire Sense is available 24×7.
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We recently heard a strong argument for being available only “12 of 24.” After struggling with the company who hosts our web site, blog and email - trying to contact anyone in any way during 3-days of missing service, we ran into a hosting company with a different offer. They are only available from 8 AM to 8 PM - but they are actually available those hours. What a concept.
I’m still laughing, though, at the company radio ad above. However, it’s got us thinking. Maybe we’ll post this sign on our blog during the night: “Oh Get Serious - Go to Sleep or Read a Good Book - and then Come Back in the Morning!”
Another way to look at that “24/7″ marketing claim is - it served the primary purpose of great advertising - it got your ATTENTION. Those of us old school marketers may recall the mnemonic AIDA as the guideline for reaching an audience: Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action. This ad certainly created awareness. Whether anyone will go through all the stages to positive action is uncertain.
It also had an clever viral marketing aspect - people who saw it began to talk about it with colleagues, mention it in their blogs and invite responses (like this one). It created ‘buzz.’ For those reasons alone I would call it successful in cutting through the banal clutter of typical feature/benefit ads.
All right you guys, you have turned me around on this one. Yes, it did cut through the clutter. And I do like the idea of a nightly message imploring the visitor to come back in the morning.
Ok, maybe I was a bit quick on the publish button.