A closer look at marketing ideas that were good in theory but failed miserably. Despite the best-laid plans, history is littered with tales of businesses whose marketing stunts ran amok. To help you learn from other business’s mistakes–and avoid these PR nightmares–here’s the final installment in this week-long series of marketing stunts that flopped.
Pontiac.
Two years ago, Oprah Winfrey gave away a Pontiac to each member of her studio audience–her entire audience–for free one day.
Sure, audience members were thrilled, but who actually today remembers that the car given away was a Pontiac?
Everybody was applauding Oprah Winfrey for her generosity, but not Pontiac, which came up with the idea for the giveaway.
The Lesson: While it can be useful to partner with a bigger entity than yourself, if you partner with somebody really big, every time you’re in the same room, you might find that you’ve simply become a prop.
Photo by Harpo, Inc..
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