At one point, 50% of the CDs produced worldwide had an AOL logo on them. The cost for the marketing campaign was in the billions – and it worked.
100 Mind-Blowing Marketing Facts
KFC is the meal of choice on Christmas Day in Japan. This happened following a successful marketing campaign over 40 years ago.
Netflix spent $0 on marketing its DVD rental business, but over 6 million people still used it. Remember how compact disks feel in your hand? The frustration of wiping it clean when it starts to skip? Nowadays, it’s all Netflix and chill. However, one of the coolest fun facts about Netflix is how it owned the marketing game in 2014. Despite spending nothing on marketing, sales for DVD rentals soared at an all-time high that year.
Elvis Presley’s manager sold hate merch for profit. One of the most iconic marketing fun facts: Elvis’ manager, Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk, sold “I Hate Elvis” badges to make money from people who weren’t buying his merchandise.
Bubble wrap was originally designed to be used as wallpaper. Bubble wrap was born in 1957 when engineer Al Fielding and Swiss inventor Marc Chavannes tried creating a textured wallpaper. However, their product was rejected. They also tried marketing it as a greenhouse insulator, but the material still fell short. However, when IBM released a new computer, Fielding and Chavannes pitched their concept as a protective covering for computer shipments. From then on, bubble wrap was adopted as the go-to protective wrap. The third time’s the charm, I guess.
Movie trailers were originally shown after the movie. Trailers were first introduced during the 1910s, hence the name. But now modern marketing finds that it is more efficient for trailers to play before a film rather than after.
Coca-Cola was originally green. However, the company itself said that this may be due to the green bottles they once used. New marketing techniques switched to plastic bottles instead of glass later on.
Blue is the most common favourite colour worldwide. According to data from global marketing firms, blue is the world’s most common favourite colour. It is closely followed by purple.
A company in Japan awards non-smokers an extra six days of paid leave each year. It was brought to the marketing firm’s attention that employees who went for smoke breaks had more than 15 minutes of extra time away from their desks each day. Instead of penalising smokers, they came up with a creative incentive to quit smoking while keeping their non-smoking employees happy in the process!
The original name of Microsoft Windows was “Interface Manager”. In 1981, Microsoft began the development of a program called “Interface Manager”. Most people won’t recognise that name because Interface Manager became Windows in 1983. Microsoft released Windows 1.0 in 1985, and it’s now the most common operating system in the world. It’s hard to believe the OS would be successful with its original name. Interface Manager perfectly describes what Windows would become. In the marketing department, making that name sound interesting or useful would have been impossible. Everyone recognises Windows, and millions of computers run on Windows 10 today. Interface Manager should be considered a work-in-progress name and something best left in the past.
The Video Streaming Market is Exploding. To stream or not to stream? Even Shakespeare couldn’t have envisioned the scope of this phenomenon. Streaming was projected to become a 70.05-billion-dollar industry by 2021, but that number was likely surpassed when COVID-19 quarantines restricted entertainment options. Anticipated CAGR of 18.3% is likely under-reported and product variety isn’t the only reason streaming is so popular. Businesses using streaming technology as marketing and advertising tools — led by high-profile platforms like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu — offer viewers a smorgasbord of options that are especially appreciated by smartphone and tablet users.
According to a Finances Online article, 72% of U.S. consumers credit AR with better collaboration at work, 69% report increased efficiency at work and 61% credit AR with better marketing.