I was busy last night so I didn’t get to see what has easily become my favorite show on television, The Celebrity Apprentice.
It’s become one of my favorite shows because of last week’s episode in which Meatloaf shouted many profanities at Gary Busey. It was absolute fantastic television.
This week, however, peeved me from a substance standpoint.
The task was to create a “buzz” marketing event with a glass box in New York City for a sun tan lotion company named Australian Gold. I’ve never heard of Australian Gold and after watching this episode I think I know why.
The guys had a very creative idea. Create a pirate experience with a pirate chant about the lotion, while having beautiful women walk around and draw attention. Pirate experiences are certainly a popular thing now (thank you Pirates of the Caribbean), so I thought the idea was great. While it wasn’t directly tied into the current marketing of the company, it tied into the theme of gold and living a “treasureful life.”
The girls decided to do…well, I’m not really sure. Their exhibit was essentially people on a bunch of sand, sitting around, playing volleyball, being boring.
They were judged on creativity, the experience they created, and the brand integration.
I’ll admit, the guys didn’t have the best brand integration, but they created the best experience and the best buzz, and that’s what this task was really about. If the groups didn’t create an experience, who really cares? So you tried some Australian Gold sun tan lotion in New York by a glass cube. It’s a much better, and more memorable experience (and product), if pirates showed you that lotion with a whole back story of a ship wreck to go along with it. Otherwise they could have just grabbed some card tables and given out free samples.
Why did the execs at Australian Gold pick the women? They used the brands Koala bear. Really? That’s it. Okay, so they used the koala bear and created a boring and unmemorable experience. Good for them, too bad all the people that went up to their cube will forget about Australian Gold tomorrow, heck probably by dinnertime.
The men created an experience, a memorable experience. People will remember the brand Australian Gold because they integrated the product into their theme and story, and to me that was more important in this task than integrating the unknown surfing koala bear.
Not to mention the girls didn’t use Hope Dworaczyk. Hope has literally done nothing this entire season and is getting by. The one thing she is good at, the one thing! Is looking attractive. Yet Latoya Jackson decided to have her in a jacket playing volleyball because Hope needed to keep track of the finances the previous day.
You’ve got the Playmate of the Year on your team and you put as much clothes on her as possible and let her do the math!? Big mistake, put her out there in a swimsuit and then you would have had something at least somewhat memorable.
So, I have a feeling I’ll continue not hearing about Australian Gold because their marketing team seems to be more focused on promoting a dumb koala bear than creating a memorable and fun marketing experience for potential customers.
–jb