Well, it was a model of a building site...but here's the story.
But first, why the pic?
Well it was sent to me by a friend of mine the other day with the caption
" Good marketing can make you believe anything!"
And indeed it can, it needs to be a good story though and capture the imagination - and this is what this story is all about.
Many years ago when I was a real Ad Man,
Mad Man of the '80's, where lunches lasted for days, I had a Housebuilder as a client.
In those days, the strategy was to pre sell the site with a series of "teaser ads " and more, to get people to the launch and reserve their plot. More often than not, the site was fully sold before the work even started - usually a short time after the said launch.
We produced a scale model for each site so the house buyer could see what he was buying
( no 3d stuff in those days ) and duly commissioned a model maker to do the job.
These were cool models, a bit like a toytown if you get the drift.
Well unbeknown to me, this bloody model maker stuck a couple having shenanigans on the hillside behind the model village.
And then some smart arse mentioned it to someone in the pub who happened to be a journalist for the Journal.
Next thing I knew there was a front page story going out the same day as the launch in the Journal Homemaker where we had a full feature being advertised.
Too late to pull. Too late to stop. (The ad and the launch I mean!)
The client went berserk when I told her. I went berserk with the model maker who quite jovially told me every model he makes, he puts something like this in it - it was his trade mark.
And what happened?
There were queues like we had never seen with people wanting to see the model - the front page story had captured their imagination beyond belief and even Tyne Tees TV ran the story over the weekend.
The development sold out that same weekend.
And the moral of the story?
Good marketing can make you believe anything. But a good story is best.
And good stories spread.
I kept the Account. The Model Maker still makes models.
The Housebuilder still builds houses.
A happy ending.
John Nick