OUTRAGEOUS Advertising and Marketing 101

I went to Orlando last weekend to attend Bill Glazer's Outrageous Academy and Workshop. I was invited to this workshop because I entered Bill's YouTube contest, and won 2nd place. I accepted the invitation, and definitely decided to check out what the Glazer-Kennedy experience is about. It's rare that people get this opportunity to learn from renowned experts in such a great value, so I decided to take it (I still had to pay for room and travel, but that in itself wasn't bad, since I bundle-booked them...).

But, to get back to the story... before I headed to the Workshop, I decided to read Bill's book "Outrageous Advertising that's Outrageously Successful". It had a lot of ground breaking ideas that a lot of business owners can use, most especially in direct marketing. Bill definitely gave a lot of great examples to capture the attention of the customer, in many facets of business, such as when it comes to sending your mailer, how to write your advertising, etc. I was surprised what he put in that book, because a lot of his techniques are unconventional techniques that rarely many people use, and the fact that he shared them in a $20 book was rather odd. But, I'm grateful to him that he shared it. :-)

Now on to the Workshop. I would say that it was definitely worthwhile. I was grateful that I got invited to this, because there was such a wealth of information in that whole weekend. I particularly enjoyed the first two days, in which Bill and his partner Dan Kennedy did most of the teaching, where he showcases lots of his OUTRAGEOUS examples first hand. And as far as advertising, they really are pretty outrageous. Everyone who knows me knows I'm usually the one to think of "out-of-the-box" ideas, even I was pretty impressed with what they taught. In fact, during the weekend, I came up with a whole new idea that was spawned by a couple of their ideas that may really capture the attention of the college market, through mail. (And my fellow speaker colleagues in the college market know exactly how hard it is to capture the college market today with ordinary direct mail and brochures). And, I have a good feeling that my idea will work, because it's so crazy different and just totally stands out that it just might be crazy enough to work. Not to mention, it's related to one of the things in college that most college students love (or should I say, eat). I'm not gonna tell exactly what my "idea" is in this entry because it's still in it's "development" stage, so I'll blog about this in a future entry. Although, I will say that did send a "prototype" of this idea on Tuesday to Bill to immediately show him the idea.

But, those beginning days of the seminar were pretty good, because it was content rich! The rest of the seminar brought in other speakers so they can either entertain, tell about their experiences with Glazer-Kennedy, hock their wares, or all of the above. But all in all, it was a great weekend.

The best part is, that a lot of the stuff that was taught can be applied to ANY business. Most in attendance were insurance salesman, retail managers, online marketers, etc. I'm in the speaking business, and I've gotten a few ideas on how to help myself in my current business. But, if in the small chance that what I'm doing now, simply doesn't happen to work out (which I'm not counting on), I know for sure that I can apply some of this stuff to whatever field I'll transition to. So, it's definitely great that I went to this. And for those of you who are have a chance to get Bill's book, or attend a Glazer-Kennedy event, I say you go for it!

I will say, that I did have a slight disappointment about the Glazer-Kennedy experience. I was hoping that they would also show the "Rhymes Altering Perception" (R.A.P.) video that won 2nd in their YouTube contest. It was pretty outrageous, with a pretty nice rap that ethically promoted my stuff, while at the same time, carefully alluded and made fun of a lot of things, so I was rather disappointed that it wasn't given a chance to be shown. It would have definitely helped me sell a few CDs and books I'm sure, and get my message out there. But, in case you haven't seen my video, definitely check it out below...

But congrats to my Aussie buddy Greg Gillespie for winning the contest. Can't say he didn't deserve it (because he did). He used Google/Search Engine Optimization to get more hits than me, so he won. You can check out his video (as well as the other "Outrageous" videos) in the Glazer-Kennedy YouTube page (under "Favorites").

So in conclusion, I do recommend this workshop, as well as Bill's book. Like I said, it has a lot of outrageous and advanced marketing techniques that are so out there, that they are just crazy enough to work.

D4P...PD!!!

-John