Hitting Where They Ain’t
From tennis to baseball, “Hit Where They Ain’t” is a time-tested way to score more points or hits. It came from William “Wee Willie” Keeler, a right fielder in Major League Baseball, who played from 1892 to 1910. Keeler’s motto “keep your eye clear and hit ‘em where they ain’t” – guided him to 13 straight seasons in which his batting average was over .300 and his team won three straight pennants from 1894 to 1896.
The same principle can increase revenue, too!
Taking the time to research and go after opportunities and customers where other companies don’t think to go, can have the same powerful results as “Wee Willie” Keller or the tennis player hitting the killer shot in the opposite corner. Check out these examples:
The Olympics and Pampers Brands usually go after Olympic sponsorships or sponsorships of particular athletes. They can also spend advertising money (2024 advertising for the Olympics on NBC is $1.2Billion!)
Pampers went a different route. They opened the first ever nursery in the Paris Olympic Athlete Village Plaza for athletes who are parents to spend time with their babies.
It didn’t hurt that Track and Field star Allyson Felix — the most decorated athlete in the sport’s history with 20 World Championship medals and 11 Olympics medals —partnered with Pampers and the IOC Athletics Commission to get the nursery included at the Paris Games.
As a result, Pampers has gotten millions of dollars in very positive and free online, broadcast and print publicity that reached an Olympic audience that is 55% women and 45% men – and the age group with the highest rate of interest in the Olympics is women 18-29 years olds (a prime target audience for Pampers.)
Maybelline and Gaming There are not many cosmetic brands seeking attention in the world of gaming, a traditionally male-dominated past time. Maybelline, however found a place to play, however, where the audience was 64% female – Candy Crush Saga. With hundreds of millions of monthly female players, Candy Crush Saga was the perfect venue for Maybelline to drive awareness of the brand.
Maybelline’s idea was to give Candy Crush Saga gamers an innovative way to have an immersive experience with Maybelline’s Lifter Lip Gloss Candy Drop collection that included a special “booster candy” to enhance their playing experience as a reward.
As a result, daily Maybelline website visitors soared from an average of 15,000 per day to over 100,000 visitors per day – a 552% increase!
If you are getting tired of targeting the same audience – often in the same way with uninspiring sales results – with your company or brand message, it may be time for a change in your methodology for customer acquisition.
“Hitting where they ain’t” could be your solution to achieving Olympic-worthy marketing and sales gold!
