Crashing a Plane for YouTube Views

What's the key to making your brand stand out in a crowded marketplace? Is it just about being creative, or is there more to the story? Join host Mark Drager in this episode of "How To Sell More," where we dive into the world of innovative brand campaigns. Mark sheds light on not just the creativity but also the ethics behind successful marketing.

Key Takeaways:

• Why balancing innovation with ethics is crucial in marketing.
• How user-generated content can transform your brand community.
• The secrets behind marketing strategies that stick in people's minds.

Perfect for business owners, sales and marketing professionals, this episode is more than just a discussion. It's a toolkit for anyone looking to up their marketing game with strategies that are as responsible as they are ground-breaking. Get ready to explore the challenges of creating impactful marketing that respects ethical boundaries, all while standing out from the competition.

‍

‍Links to This Episode

• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Audible

‍

Key Takeaways

• Innovative Campaigns for Brand Attention - The effectiveness of campaigns that are experienced by a few but seen by many, leveraging media coverage for broader reach.
• Risks of Extreme Marketing Tactics - The potential backlash and legal consequences that can arise from irresponsible marketing campaigns.
• Power of User-Generated Content and Community Engagement - The importance of aligning brand campaigns with customer interests and providing value beyond the product.

‍

Top 3 Reasons to Listen

Understanding the Attention Economy: The episode explores the concept of the attention economy and its significance in modern marketing, offering listeners a chance to understand current market dynamics.

Real-World Examples: Mark Drager analyses Domino's innovative campaigns and a controversial stunt by YouTuber Trevor Jacob, making the content relatable and practical.

Learning from Successes and Failures: By examining both successful and failed marketing strategies, listeners can learn what to emulate and what pitfalls to avoid in their own marketing efforts.

More About our Host, Mark Drager

AKA the Badass Brand Architect, 5th Generation Entrepreneur, Host of The How To Sell More Podcast

When he's not podcasting, Mark's the Co-Founder & CEO of SalesLoop. He's a dedicated husband to his high school sweetheart, Jacqueline, and a proud father of four.

Mark didn't follow the typical route to becoming a sales & marketing expert. A connected figure in the entrepreneur community, Mark provides listeners with a unique mix of wit, insight, and straightforward advice.

Some of Mark's unconventional adventures include commandeering a Boeing 737-800 for a day, facing harsh criticism from a billionaire, and shedding 70 lbs in his late 30s. Though he never attended college, Mark stands as proof of the might of maintaining a student mindset and being ever-ready to seek assistance.
‍

A Transcription of The Talk

Mark Drager: Welcome to "How to Sell More." Today, we're talking about brand campaigns. I've got two juicy stories to share with you. One is an absolute win, and I think we're going to see big things from this company. The second is an absolute failure, including crashing a plane on purpose and being surprised when you're sent to jail for six months for trying to pull something like this off for social media views. Anyway, I'm Mark Drager, let's get into it.

So, it seems like Gary Vee and other leaders have been preaching that we are in the attention economy for years and years. I'm sure you've heard that term, right? The attention economy. And that the number one asset we can leverage is other people's attention. How do we get their attention? How do we break through the noise? How do we separate ourselves from all of the rest?

Well, you know, I've done an episode on unhinged marketing, where these brands go on 'X' and all these other platforms and just act like total assholes to people in an attempt to get people's attention. But you know, for quite some time now, influencer marketing and big brand plays have been the norm, right? We have massive brands that do these influencer deals. And it's been happening for years.

You know, I'm a little bit older, I can think back to when Pepsi got Britney Spears or Michael Jackson to do their campaign. So it's not like people have not been hiring celebrities to represent their brand for decades. It's been going on. As long as there's been celebrities, advertising, and marketing, it's been happening. 

 But we've seen in the last few years, especially with viral videos and social media marketing and influencers, people doing crazier and crazier things to try and get people's attention. Today, I'm going to share two of them with you. A story that I think is a real win, pulled right from the headlines, that's happening right now—a campaign that's launching right now. And the second is something from 2021—a real failed attempt.

So let's talk about the good before we talk about the ugly. This is a headline from Marketing Dive, and the headline reads: "Why Domino's, the pizza company, is awarding half a million dollars for snow plow grants." Now, this follows up a ridiculously successful campaign for Domino's Pizza going back to 2019. And back then, the campaign was called "Paving for Pizza." And it's building upon this strategy called "Experienced by a Few, Seen by Many."

I've said for years now that it's not enough to be seen; you need to be seen being seen, right? Like, it's not enough to go to an event, but you need to be seen at the event. And then you need to talk about the fact that you went to the event. It's not enough to do charity work or social responsibility. You need to be seen doing charity work and social responsibility and then talk about charity work and social responsibility.

Well, this is something that Domino's has been doing really, really well recently. They create this semi-immersive or really cool kind of PR stunt that will be experienced by a few. It'll be so off the wall and bananas that the press, PR, and viral videos can't help but want to talk about it, so that way, they get all of this huge organic reach. And this is something that ad agencies do very, very well.

I remember a few years ago, up here in Canada, right before Christmas, Skittles launched a pop-up, a retail store pop-up, where if you brought in, I think it was toy donations or gifts, they would buy them off of you in exchange for Skittles. And they launched this whole campaign that was like, you know, "Cash for Gold." You know, all those like, "Give us your gold, we'll give you cash," like this big cheesy campaign, but it was basically like, "Bring in your toys and your gifts and your donations, and we'll barter with you and buy them off you with Skittles." It was this massive campaign. Now, did some people experience the Queen West, you know, storefront here in Toronto on Queen West, kind of our cool part of town? Yeah, some people did. But more people nationally heard about it because it was just so off the wall and bizarre. And I'm even talking about it now, years later.

So, Domino's did this campaign back in 2019, "Paving for Pizza," where they gave out grants for some of the worst roads. The idea was that if the roads were fixed, Domino's could deliver the pizza faster, and better. And their newest campaign, which they just launched on December 4, announces plans to award half a million dollars in grants for snow plowing. Again, the idea is that if the roads are plowed, the pizza can get to the homes faster, fresher, and hotter.

Now, why are we talking about this? Well, it's partly user-generated. The fans of Domino's can submit their zip codes to apply for the grants. Domino's is going to give out $25,000 grants to 20 different cities throughout the season. Which, frankly, isn't that much, but it's something. The "Plowing for Pizza" program has already started in places like Erie, PA, Michigan, Manhattan, and Montana. The cities, when they win, get winter hats, and scarves that are all branded, of course. They get really season-specific winter merchandise, $200 in Domino's gift cards, and the $25,000 grant for snow plowing.

Marketing Dive sat down with Kate Trumbull, Domino's Chief Brand Officer, for a quick interview. And here's a quote that I think we can all learn from. Here's a quote from Kate: "We always say people like you for what you say, but they'll love you for what you do." Now she goes on to say the reason why their work was grounded for this new campaign, "Clouds for Pizza," as the "Paving for Pizza" is really focused on the insight of convenience and ease for the customer. But this is something that's really amazing. This is a direct quote from Kate: "We wanted to find other ways to give them, being the customers, the ability to gain control in situations when they feel out of control."

So think about it. There's super heavy snowfall, or there's a snowstorm, or there's a Snow-Armageddon on TV that everyone's talking about. You get home, you've just been driving for an hour or two hours, or maybe you're stuck in the house because you don't want to go out because there's all this snow. And then you think, "Who should I call? Let's just order some pizza." But maybe the pizza places are closed, maybe they won't be able to deliver. I have a feeling Domino's will because they're in your town giving out grants to get the place snow plowed, so that way you can get that piping hot, fresh pizza delivered to your house. I don't know. I think it's a win. I think it's pretty cool. I will keep looking at this. I think you should check it out. It sounds like a really fun campaign.

Now let's move on to the failure. The total fail. The YouTuber Trevor Daniel Jacob is learning first-hand from prison what failing looks like as an influencer. So here's a quote: "This experience has been so humbling."

Trevor Jacob has just been sentenced to six months in prison for purposefully crashing his airplane for views on YouTube. So, what happened back in 2021? The YouTuber, Trevor Jacob, filmed himself with Go Pros everywhere. He filmed himself taking off in a plane, claiming he had some engine troubles, stalling the plane out, and then jumping out of it in a parachute, purposefully crashing the plane. Now, why did he do this? Well, this YouTuber had a brand deal. On November 21, he left Santa Barbara, California airport on a solo flight. He's got cameras mounted all over his plane. He takes a parachute with him. Pretty handy, right? He didn't know he was going to crash it, right?

Here's a direct quote from BBC: "He did not intend to reach his destination, but instead planned to eject from his aircraft during the flight and video himself parachuting to the ground as his plane descended and crashed." This is what the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Now, why did he do this? What was his brand deal? Well, he wanted to promote a wallet company.

I'm sure a few weeks ago you saw the whole buzz with Stanley, right? Stanley, the coolers, the cooler drinks where a woman's car caught on fire. It burned completely to the ground. But the Stanley cooler was still there. It survived, and there was still a nice cold drink in it with ice cubes. Stanley saw this blow up on TikTok, and they jumped on the moment by offering to buy the woman a replacement car. Now, I was telling this story at an event I was at the other day, and someone said, "Ah, it's probably a hoax. It's probably a scam. It's probably a setup." I was like, "I don't think so. I think it was real." But in this case, with the guy crashing the plane, it was 100% staged, 100% fake, and almost everyone knew it. 35 minutes after he took off, the plane crashed in Los Angeles National Forest. And then the guy who crashed the plane had to hike up to the site to recover all the footage. He took that footage and uploaded it to a video titled "I Crashed My Airplane" on December 23, and it contained a promotion for that wallet company.

Now, some viewers were super skeptical of the crash because they noted that Jacob was already wearing a parachute when he started the video and he made no attempt to try and land the plane safely, which is something we've all seen. We've seen footage of people with small planes where the engine stalls, or they try to land safely. The first thing to do is not to jump out of the plane. Now, he did report the crash to the National Transportation Safety Board, who said he was responsible for preserving the wreckage. But then he later changed his story and said he didn't know where the wreckage was located. But then the question is, how did he find the footage and recover it? Now, the video racked up almost 3 million views before it was removed by YouTube. And now, two years later, Trevor Daniel Jacob is in prison for six months. Was it worth it? Prosecutors during the investigation and this is a quote from The Verge, said that he "most likely committed this offense to generate social media and news coverage for himself and to obtain financial gain. This type of daredevil conduct cannot be tolerated." I agree.

Now, I could not find which brand was connected to this or sponsored this, but you have to ask yourself, if we are in the attention economy, how far are you willing to go? How far are you willing to go for your brand? Are you willing to put your reputation at stake? And even though this racked up a few million views, you know, some of these influencers are getting a little out of hand, if you ask me. Now, we're all inspired by what Mr. Beast does. We're all inspired by those videos that pop and go viral. But is it really worth putting everything at risk with your brand and your company? I don't think anyone would approve of this, right? I'm curious what the pitch was to the wallet company when he said, "Hey, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to take my plane. I'm going to take off—I must have been a pilot, right?—I take my plane, I'm going to take off, and I'm going to purposely crash a plane." Like, just how much does a plane cost? I mean, it looked like a pretty small single-seat Cessna or something. But let's imagine that it cost a few hundred thousand dollars. Was this brand deal worth that? Was his YouTube ad revenue, the money he made off of YouTube for a few million views, worth that? Was six months in prison worth it? Well, considering he was quoted as saying "This experience has been so humbling," I don't think it was.

And with that, we will wrap up this episode of "How to Sell More." If you want to connect with me, head over to LinkedIn. You can find my profile. My name is Mark Drager. Send me a DM, and let me know what you think of this story. Jump into the conversation, and we will call it a day. I will catch you in the next episode.