Bum sniffing to commence at 3
"You'll probably think I'm really weird..."
I'm chatting to a woman I'd met a minute previously on my dog walk, and she was responding to my question of how old her dog is.
"She's 2 next week, and ... I'm throwing her a birthday party." This woman, let's call her Sarah, looks at me almost apologetically. Until she sees my face.
"That's not weird, it's WONDERFUL!" I exclaim. I genuinely mean it, and it shows.
Next minute Sarah takes out a beautifully designed bright pink printed invitation to the birthday party, complete with an order of proceedings which starts with "bum sniffing to commence at 3pm".
Bloody brilliant!
I'm all for celebrating our four-legged friends in any way that brings us (and them) joy. I once even threw my friend a puppy shower!
A puppy party is EXACTLY my kind of "weird"!
Why am I telling you this? Because most businesses shy away from showing off their particular flavour of weird in their marketing.
Own your weird in your marketing
They play it safe and vanilla: the equivalent of dog walkers who stick to polite nods. I'll nod back but I won't remember you, and our dogs won't ever party together.
It takes courage to show up in this way. To worry about looking weird (or ridiculous, or stupid, or "too much"), and then do it anyway.
But, my friend, the reward is that the right people will love you not in spite of the weird, but because of it. And they'll remember you, and they'll come to your party.
Isn't that worth doing brave marketing for?