Another awesome Breakout Session I attended at Affiliate Summit East 09 was hosted by Larry Bailin, the founder, CEO and thought leader of Single Throw, Inc.

He was brilliant, and very captivating.

While the title was “Igniting Viral Campaigns by Creating Relevant Conversations”, Larry announced that he was renaming the session “Clicking Ass”, in honor of his new book.

Figuring out who you want to target is a critical step and Larry has delineated the generation gaps very well. Reiterating the point that Gen-Y has never used the Yellow pages, it’s important to understand why; They do not think categorically. This is very important when creating a viral campaign. You have to connect with your audience in the correct way.

Larry mentioned a classic case of a lack of connection with the audience. He pointed out that in one of the ads that failed to go viral, (as was Bimer’s intentions) the advertiser actually tried to fancy up the phrase “Sheet metal”. I can’t remember what the exact blurb was, but it was to the effect of “Elegantly Crafted Sheet metal”. He says that “sheet metal” is a patently ridiculous feature to try to hype up and sell to the customer. “Sheet metal” sounds cheap, thin, weak. That is not the impression you want to give to your customers.

That all comes down to figuring out who you want to target, and stepping outside of yourself to become the customer for a moment. That being said, you have to think about the kind of customer that would buy a luxury car like a BMW or a Mercedes. One of his clients, Ray Catena Mercedes, in Edison New Jersey, has had extremely good results from a Viral Video campaign. Larry says that, “The success of any Internet marketing solution whether local or global is commensurate with the economics of the products or services you offer”. This is a critical realization when you’re creating an advertisement with the intention of going Viral. Understanding that the majority of the people who are looking for that type of automobile fall into the Baby Boomer generation. Remember, as Mike stated, those folks comprise 1/3 of all internet users. They are internet savvy but not really tech savvy. These people don’t want to hear about how “elegant the sheet metal is”, they want to know why the car is better than the next. Larry rounded up all of the Salespeople, and told them to go stand next to their favorite car in the showroom. Then he turned on the camera, and asked the Salespeople what they liked about that particular car.

Here is the example that Larry showed us in the Breakout Session.
Video at Ray Catena Mercedes website
Video at YouTube Proper

Derek did that in one take, with no script.

Larry tells us that Derek Fox now gets people calling the dealership, asking for him, specifically to sell them that car.

That is the power of connecting with your audience.

At one point in the session, he mentioned Knitting. He said that the first thing that came to mind when thinking about knitting, was his Grandmother, and prior to doing this research, he had no idea it was so popular among younger folks. He mentioned a site called Knitty, and I was compelled to chime in that the site rocked. He seemed surprised that I’d even heard of it. I told him that My girlfriend is really into knitting, loves the site, and visits it on a regular basis. He thought that was cool and gave me a signed copy of his book. big_smile

He went on to say that the power of connecting with your audience goes beyond preconceptions. Prior to doing his keyword research, he said knitting made him think of his grandmother. Knitty is clearly appealing to the younger crowd, as evidenced by offering shirts like this for sale. Larry quipped that if he thought his Grandmother would wear that shirt, he would take her shopping more often.

The point is that Knitty is clearly not trying to appeal to anyone’s grandmother, and has broken through the preconception that you have to be old to be into knitting.

This was a great presentation, and like Mike, I’ll be back to add more later. I still have tons of notes about this Session, but my hand is cramping.

I’ll leave you with this, for now: Throughout the month of August, Larry is donating 100% of all revenue generated by “Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From”, to his Charity Project, Billy Gives Back. I’ve only just started reading it, and I can tell you it’s a great book.

I’ll be back soon with a review of the book.

Peace!