Invited to speak about the new pitch to the peeps at ByzHub, January 26th. My daughter begged me to be part of the invite video…she upped the cuteness factor and upstaged me.
On December 16, 2011,
in Demotainment,
by Jason Bax
Ask yourself this important question, what can cat videos do for your business?
Ad agency, John st. has opened the world’s first cat video marketing division in response to today’s new marketing landscape.
Catvertising…the new frontier of marketing?
OK…obviously this is a parody but it’s funny because it’s pretty much bang on the money.
Given the choice, people would rather watch a funny cat video over your lame ass, old-school marketing pitch.
Does that make the consumer wrong or stupid? Nope.
Does that mean you have to change your old-school marketing and advertising to break through the hideous noise to reach consumers? Yup!
Will it take more than a Facebook page, Twitter and whatever social media thingy Google is offering to clutter the landscape? Ahhh…yes.
It will take a change in mindset
Your mindset needs to change from selling people to compelling them to engage with you, your business or product.
Stop selling needs
For the most part, people’s needs have been satisfied.
You need to tap into people’s wants and desires…and those can only be satisfied by experiences.
What don’t you have to sell?
People don’t have to be sold on entertainment. Rarely do you have to pitch someone on having a good time.
People have an infinite attention span for entertainment. - Jerry Seinfeld
So be different! Make your pitch entertaining and they’ll come. Make it more entertaining than pitching and they’ll line up to watch it.
Demotainment
When you make truly entertaining demos that use fun, shock and awe people will line up to watch, engage with it, talk about it and share with their friends. That’s a great pitch.
Here’s a fun way to make new friends and support local businesses. It’s called Cash Mobs.
Inspired by the flash mob concept where strangers gather at a specific location at a set time to create a fun public spectacle like freezing in place, dancing, singing a specific song etc… A cash mob uses social media to inspire the gathering of a mob to support a local business.
When challenged by a friend who asked “What’s in it for the people in the mob?”
My answer…”Making new friends while supporting their community.”
Her answer…”Oh! Cool. I’m in!”
Cash Mob Rules
1) Cash Mob is announced 1-week in advance on Twitter.
eg. Vancouver Cash Mob hashtag = #cashmobvan
2) The location to meet will be announced but NOT the business to support.
3) Suggested spend $20 in local business
4) Business must be locally owned
5) Local business should offer something for men and women.
6) Business should be community focused
7) Business must be within walking distance to pub/bar/cafe Cash Mobbers must join the mob for celebratory drinks after the mobbing.
Pictures will be posted to the blog after the CashMob.
Organize a cash mob and support local business…because it’s good for your community.
On October 17, 2011,
in Demotainment,
by Jason Bax
It’s pretty hard to make pool cleaner fun. Just the thought of sitting through a pool cleaner sales pitch makes me want to drown myself.
So why do 600,000 people willing watch the Human Bellagio Fountain pool cleaner pitch? Oh right…it doesn’t ram product benefits down your throat, it focuses on fun.
In an age where getting people to sit still to listen to your pitch is the biggest challenge, you better focus on the fun, shock or aha. Would you engage with a pool cleaner pitch or the Human Bellagio Founain?
SCORE : Old-school sales pitch zero - Demotainment pitches 1
On October 12, 2011,
in Demotainment,
by Jason Bax
The best pitch is a shocking demo because it says more than you ever could in a less amount of time and burns your product into the prospect’s memory. Oh…and more importantly…they’re fun to watch.
The president of Texas Armory Corp takes the demo of his bullet proof glass to an entirely new, dangerous level to by standing behind his product…while being shot at by an AK-47.
In a crowded market or category it’s often more powerful to pitch people on what you’re NOT rather than what you are. How can you demonstrate what you aren’t in an entertaining way?
The guys at Newsday App, a media reader of iPad, does a great pitch demonstrating what they are not
Are you in a crowded market? What aren’t you? How can you demonstrate that? Most importantly, how can you make your demo so entertaining people will want to watch?
To be a leader you have to have tremendous courage to weather the slings and arrows the sheep of the world hurl at you. It couldn’t have been easy for Jobs. Here are his 5 Surprisingly Simple Keys to Radical Success:
1. You’re Running Out of Time – Use It Wisely
Don’t wait for tomorrow because tomorrow may never come. Case in point, Jobs didn’t have as much time as he imagined passing away at 56.
Jobs was a student of Zen Buddhism. The above statement is Zen in a nutshell…Be in the now.
2. Don’t Live Someone Else’s Life
You have a gift to share and the responsibility to share it with the world. Reread point #1.
3. Break Free From Dogma
Wikipedia: “Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, ideology or any kind of organization: it is authoritative and not to be disputed.”
Have the courage to be authentic even if it’s disruptive. Don’t be a sheep…you’ll just get slaughtered and nobody likes the sound of sheep….they’re annoying. If you’re going to be a sheep, just shut up and go about your business.
4. Ignore Other People’s Opinions
Abraham Maslow said that the happiest people are the ones that are, “Oblivious of the good opinions of others.”
Ignore sheep. Reread point #3
5. Follow Your Heart
So often we choose to ignore the “still small voice within.” I’ve ignored mine often but learn that it’s right almost all of the time.
Recently, I met a wise, old businessman. He told me to read just 2 books. One of them was The Alchemist. It’s all about point #5. I read it in one evening on my iPad…How ironic! This book rocked my world and inspired the confidence for my to follow you heart.
If you want another inspiring read, checkout Steve Jobs biography on Wikipedia. Jobs is qualified to talk about heart…He was the comeback kid.
If you don’t have a remarkable story…you don’t have a good pitch.
Don’t bend the truth of the story you use in your pitch…unless it’s obviously pure entertainment. And in that case, bend it as far as you can because in our social media crazed world entertainment is the best sales pitch, ever!
Regretfully, Steve Jobs lost his battle with cancer at the age of 56.
How I remember Steve Jobs...a master pitchman on steroids.
One of the most famous Steve Jobs quotes
“I want to make a dent in the universe”
He was many things to many people…
To geeks…an icon.
To an industry…a visionary.
To entrepreneurs…an inspirational comeback story.
To employees…a demanding tyrant.
To shareholders…a God send.
To consumers…an irresistible pitchman.
But to me he was a man who rallied against the status quo to create something totally unique and disrupt more than one industry. It couldn’t have been easy on him or the people surrounding him. He was a force and true inspiration.
For me, the most inspiring, kick in the butt Steve Jobs quote was…
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.
If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.”
You will be missed but not forgotten, Steve Jobs. Rest in peace.
On September 26, 2011,
in Misc, Pitch,
by Jason Bax
Why the jerky brothers giving me a shout-out?
Before appearing on the CBC’s Dragon’s Den, the BKH Jerky brothers, Scott & Ray Lim, were “crapping in their pants.”
I was invited by Chang Han founder of EIO to sit on the panel as a guest Dragon to critique the test run of their investor pitch prior to appearing on the show.
Scott and Ray realized they had a ways to go if they wanted to romance the Dragon’s into investing in their jerky business so they asked me to help them perfect their investor pitch.
Investment: Ray and Scott received an offer of $150,000 angel investment in BKH Jerky. Great success! (insert Borat accent here)
The Brothers Give Official Jason Bax Shout Out 0:58 and 2:04.
The 12 hours after airing Scott told me BKH had over $5000 in news sales and the orders continue to climb every day. It’s shaping up to be their best year yet.
I’m a proud papa! Way to go guys. Sorry I missed the party.
PS There Singaporean style jerky is amazing! Check it out
Good news! No matter how bad your sales pitch it probably couldn’t suck as much as Fred & Sharon’s “Who needs a movie?” pitch for the most amateur professional video service in Canada…complete with animated graphic of the Ogopogo (the Canadian Loc Nes moster)
Before representing Dell, Nissan, Fisher Price, Purina etc…on TV, Jason Bax was the multi-million dollar producing spokesman for Internet Marketing.com. He's author of Demotainment and founder of PitchMasters. Jason has been invited to speak to audiences in Canada, USA, UK & Australia and designed pitches that have won investment money on the CBC's Dragon's Den. Read bio...
" Cash In On Crows http://t.co/QN0M35QG #Pets " — jasonbax
Cash Mobbers must join the mob for celebratory drinks after the mobbing.
Before representing Dell, Nissan, Fisher Price, Purina etc…on TV, Jason Bax was the multi-million dollar producing spokesman for Internet Marketing.com. He's author of Demotainment and founder of PitchMasters. Jason has been invited to speak to audiences in Canada, USA, UK & Australia and designed pitches that have won investment money on the CBC's Dragon's Den. Read bio... 