You know, it’s sooo fashionable to pick on poor old Canada. “America’s Hat.” “America Junior,” “Blame Canada,” …we could go on. But when we see these amazing ads for Toronto’s Dangerous Dan’s? We think: "Wait a minute – universal health care, imaginary girlfriend storage, Tim Horton’s, beer...we should be nicer to those guys, eh?"
Nice.
And the radio? Perhaps somewhat cryptic to the improperly medicated, but if you were – cough- part of the target audience so to speak? Spot-on.
Any country that has a city that has a diner that has "a 24oz burger served with a quarter pound of cheese, a quarter pound of bacon, and 2 fried eggs…comes with a large shake and a small poutine." for only $23.95 Canadian? That country is ok by us. And our cardiologists. (Who we could see for free if we lived in Canada.)
AWOOOOOOOO! Happy Halloween! Normally, we’d be in full Elitist Coastal Snob Mode this time of year, as we generally consider Halloween – along with its yokel buddies New Year’s Eve and St. Patrick’s Day – to be a charter member of the Unholy Trinity of Amateur-Hour Holidays. But you know what? The Giants have us in an incredibly good mood right now and not just because the wind’s blowing this way from McCovey Cove. So allow us to amaze you as we turn a random, hastily-penned scribblewide-ranging and articulate knowledge download into a focused, must-read marketing missive. You won’t believe your eyes.
Remember this?
Yikes. Here’s hoping Mr. Bateman doesn’t get too upset when he sees the new logo and business cards we just released for online ad exchange AdBrite.
“Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it…”
See how we did that? One minute, Halloween. The next minute, Random Movie Reference. Then…BAM! Work Stuff. Office magic, people. Annnnd scene.
Ok, now on to the Actual Scary Things:
WARNING: Watching This Video In Its Entirety May Cause Violent Diarrhea And/Or The Condition Known As “Death By Embarassment.”
We’re not kidding. We only made it through the first 0:48. Really. Seriously. We are so not kidding.
Oops. They pulled it. To be fair, it was supposed to be for an internal talent show. (They have that kind of budget for internal talent shows? That kind of profligacy is…scary! Awooooooo!)
Quick, Scoob! L-l-let’s get out of here!
Ahhhh. That’s better. You can always depend on the classics.
Speaking of which, it’s time for…Mortar Halloween Jukebox – iMeem Went Out Of Business Because The Economy Is So Scary-Edition!
No audio jukebox this year. And not as many songs. But you do get video, so there’s that.
DAVID/MARK/TODD: “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” – Bauhaus.
Remember this from The Hunger? We’re not sure which is scarier – the atmosphere of vampiric menace, or the 80’s hair. Either way….awesomely scary.
SOPHIE: “Two of Hearts” – Stacy Q
We know. We know. But stay with us. This hilarious-yet-creepy scene is from Party Monster, an underrated yet highly scary flick. We’ve got chills just thinking about it.
SERENE: “Ghostbusters” – Ray Parker, Jr.
Wait a minute. Something’s wrong. This is a song from the 80’s. And everyone knows Serene’s musical tastes are permanently stuck in the 90’s. Which means…that’s not the real Serene! And she’s calling from inside the house!
HUGH – is about to rip the rubber mask off of what is obviously Pirate-Ghost Serene. Will need to gather strength first. Fortunately, there is “The Crusher” – The Novas.
And finally, a little Halloween treat from our favorite non-sparkle-vampire, Count Floyd.
Writeup in SFThrillist about fun stuff to do in Reno where each picture is a little bit misaligned which makes it seem like you can rent fully-automatic weapons at local eateries?
Awesome.
Using The Power Of Mortar to reverse Reno’s 13-year decline in visitors, room rates and tax revenues?
Double! Awesome!
The Part Where We Use Numbers To Back Up All That Big Talk: In first 3 months of Mortar’s “Far From Expected” campaign,
The average daily rate paid for a room in Reno Tahoe jumped by 5%. (Awesome.)
Taxes from hotel rooms jumped by 25%. (Also awesome. You thought we were going to say “Double Awesome” there, but we’re talking about taxes, which carry a natural awesome-deficit, so, sorry, no.)
Visitors to the area increased by some 82,000 room nights – the first growth in a period of nearly 13 years of decline. (See, now that is Double Awesome.)
Double Awesome. It's what we do.
The Part About The Results: We could have bumped Reno’s numbers up by just giving stuff away. But that’s what’s been going on for 13 years. People throwing their chips in the air as if to say “Vegas! Sort of!” and then a too-low price on a room. Instead, we went after “a specific subset of SF Bay Area tourists (with) the greatest potential for increased Reno visits.” People who liked Reno–but had not visited, or had visited once, time long ago. People who are active on the Internet. People like you.
A recent EMC survey of over 1,000 adults in the San Francisco Bay Area showed the following:
"Awareness is higher, Intent-To-Visit is higher, and people are talking about Reno Tahoe USA more."
Facebook fans jumped over 1,000 within one week after the national Save RENO 911! campaign and over 600 within 3 weeks after the Bay To Breakers promotion. Flickr and YouTube hits are up 30%.
Some call it "a grown man in sheep suit." We call it: Strategy!
Attributes that were used to describe the Reno Tahoe brand are: "fun" "good value" "easy" and "unpretentious.” Which, when you consider they used to say “diesel fumes and heartburn," blows right past awesome and heads straight to Double Awesome-town.
Our point? Great creative is awesome. But when it drives great results? Make ours a double. Fact.
Illustrations courtesy of the amazingly stupendous Allie "Raptor Face" Brosh, whose blog, Hyperbole And A Half is required reading of the very finest kind. We should all give her money. Right after we get back from Reno.
Saw our Reno Tahoe billboard "Some call it apres ski, we just call it drinking" on the 101 today. It's still looking good after 6 months. Plus, If you don't already read Thrillist, you definitely should start. After we gave them the low-down on Reno's hidden wonders, they couldn't wait to get up there and live the dream, Thrillist-style. Ye be warned- this online 'zine is extremely addictive.
