We all know that brands and companies don’t quite play with their cards open. And while we can only suspect what happens behind their tightly shut doors, TikToker Selena Wright, @selenawrightcreative, has a lot to say on the matter. In fact, she has made a whole series of videos listing the craziest marketing facts that have amassed hundreds of thousands of views.
The social media manager from New Zealand covers anything marketing-related, from failures our fave brands can’t afford to make but they did to smart design strategies, smart trickeries, and clever product inventions.
Selena’s selection of facts reveals a whole new world of marketing we didn’t know, where every tiny detail has its purpose, and where brands fight in an ongoing Mortal Kombat to get our attention. Let’s read Bored Panda’s interview with the author of these videos right below!
@selenawrightcreativeWho knew this?! #socialmediamanager #instagrammarketing #marketinghack
Original Sears catalogues were purposefully smaller than Montgomery Ward catalogues so housewives would naturally stack them on top.
We reached out to Selena Wright, a freelance photographer and social media manager from New Zealand who loves all things creative. “I work with brands to create custom content and get their socials looking perfectly unique to their brand,” she said and added: “I am a self-taught photographer that began shooting on my Mum’s DSLR years ago and went from there.”
In 2012 Dunkin Donuts released a marketing campaign in Seoul, Korea where scent spray devices on buses would release the aroma of warm coffee when triggered by the sound of Dunkin Donuts radio jingle. The marketing campaign reached more than 350,000 people and sales by bus stops increased by 29%.
In 2008 Shreddies launched a marketing campaign launching their new “Diamond Shreddies”. The company was pretty open about the fact that this was basically a joke since they had just just rotated the image of the square Shreddies and it that it was more about getting people talking about Shreddies again. It seems pretty successful as they got an 18% rise in sales.
The T-shirt was invented in 1904 and marketed to bachelors that couldn’t sew or replace buttons.
When asked how she got an idea for her ‘Crazy Marketing Facts’ series, Selena said it was inspired by “a similar series she saw many other creators doing about different things you can do on Canva. I liked the idea of teaching in my own niche while adding a little entertainment value as well.”
And it’s specifically the creative side of things that got the TikToker interested in the marketing industry. “Paid advertising has its place but I really enjoy creating and engaging with high-quality content that tells a story and has a lot of character for brands,” she said.
Joanne Rowling, better known as J.K. Rowling, doesn’t have a middle name according to her birth certificate. The decision to use initials on her book covers was designed so it was more acceptable for the boys to read, who were less likely to read a book written by a women.
Philadelphia cream cheese was invented in New York, and was never produced in Philadelphia. In the 1880s it was known as a marketing trick, because Philadelphia was known for high quality dairy products.
In 2009 Tropicana invested $35 million to change the packaging of their Orange Juice. Within 2 months their sales dropped by 20% and they lost significant market share. So they switched back to the old packaging. The failed marketing campaign cost them over $50 million!
From the marketing facts Selena has posted so far, the fact that she finds the most fascinating is that “Blackberry paid actresses to flirt with men in bars to promote their phones by ladies getting men’s phone numbers and showing off their Blackberries when they saved them.”
In 2011 Jell-O monitored the amount of smiley faces and frowny faces posted on Twitter. When the national average for smiley faces was below 51% Jell-O would release discount coupons for those who had recently tweeted frowny faces.
There’s a rumour that BlackBerry hired actresses to flirt with men in bars in order to push Blackberries on the public. Referred to as stealth marketing, so they would go to bars to get phone numbers and them to put their numbers in their Blackberries, trying to show off how cool they were.
And as for Selena’s plans for the future, the social media manager said that she has “a big passion project announcement coming soon that will be documented all over my social media and TikTok,” so keep your eyes out! Also, be sure to check out her awesome photography work right here.
Before mass marketing of tobacco, doctors considered lung cancer a rare disease. The amount that large tobacco companies spend per HOUR has reached $940,000.
By Justinas Keturka
Author, BoredPanda staff
