No, it isn’t a Black Friday sale.
There’s a haunted house in Canada
called The Nightmares Fear Factory.
They’ve employed one of THE best
marketing strategies I’ve ever seen.
Photographs on their site.
Of their customers.
But these weren’t cheesy “selfies.”
I mean, the first time I saw these
photos, I thought it was hilarious and
immediately busted out laughing.
Although the poor people I saw
in the image weren’t laughing.
They were screaming.
Why?
Well, that’s the $64,000 question,
isn’t it?
You see, the marketing geniuses at
this haunted house decided to
take a photograph of their unsuspecting
customers…
…as they were slowly inching
their way through the factory in
pitch-black darkness.
(From what I’ve heard, you can’t even
see your hand in front of your face.
It’s that dark.)
Then suddenly, something happens
that scares the snot outta them and
BOOM! That’s when a photograph is
taken!
Now the marketing genius is this:
The Nightmare Fears Factory has
never revealed WHAT exactly happened
to scare the bejeezus out of their customers.
In fact, those who go through the factory
have to sign an agreement that they won’t
let the dead cat out of the bag.
You know what they say about
curiosity, right?
So of course those who love
haunted houses have GOT to
know what scared those poor people
and doggonit, they’re going to have
to find out for themselves.
Hear that cash register ringing?
Joe Sugarman, the marketing magician
behind the popular BluBlocker Sunglasses
used the same tactic.
The commercials would talk about how
great the sunglasses blocked the sun’s
light but never once did the camera
show you the view as if you were looking
through the sunglasses.
In other words, you were left with the image
of happy people who were thrilled to finally
have sunglasses that made everything look
so much better…
But you never saw that image for yourself.
And you wouldn’t… unless you bought a pair.
Just something to think about as you
create your own marketing buzz.
