By Deborah Wroe
‘Coming soon to a screen near you’…people tend to love the trailers before the main feature at the cinema. They condense a full length film into a few minutes designed to capture your imagination and hook you in enough to make you want to buy a ticket when the film comes out.
‘New website coming soon’…not so exciting, unless of course it is Pottermore, the new site from JK Rowling launched at midday today, a heavily-guarded secret project, much reported in the press and eagerly anticipated by fans worldwide. It is now 12.08, the anticipation is over, so you need to come back to the site on 31st July and the site is open to all in October??
The film world and the world’s most famous author have bigger budgets than an SME but a well executed teaser campaign does not need the big bucks, it needs planning, timing and the all important getting your ducks in a row.
Say you are in retail and have a new shop opening soon, how soon? When does the ‘opening soon’ sign go from being a teaser to a stop gap to a ‘this ain’t never going happen I am going to your competitors'. Getting a website redesign? ‘New website coming soon’ can be like watching paint dry, how do your customers get in touch with you or buy from you whilst the website is being done? Is it a genuine teaser or is just because your deadlines have slipped?
Deadlines do slip. Remember the building of the new Wembley Stadium and how long that took? Or locally the news from yesterday that the tram to Oldham and Rochdale has been delayed which is going to have a knock on effect on other people’s deadlines and campaigns.
‘Launch of’, ‘coming soon’, ‘watch this space’, ‘save the date’, ‘to be announced’, all are genuine tools to build up a sense of anticipation and excitement, to build a buzz, to get people talking. But executed badly they can have a damaging effect, a loss of business, bad PR and loss of credibility. Yes, do a teaser campaign but not at the risk of becoming 'a bit of a tease'.
‘Coming soon to a screen near you’…people tend to love the trailers before the main feature at the cinema. They condense a full length film into a few minutes designed to capture your imagination and hook you in enough to make you want to buy a ticket when the film comes out.
‘New website coming soon’…not so exciting, unless of course it is Pottermore, the new site from JK Rowling launched at midday today, a heavily-guarded secret project, much reported in the press and eagerly anticipated by fans worldwide. It is now 12.08, the anticipation is over, so you need to come back to the site on 31st July and the site is open to all in October??
The film world and the world’s most famous author have bigger budgets than an SME but a well executed teaser campaign does not need the big bucks, it needs planning, timing and the all important getting your ducks in a row.
Say you are in retail and have a new shop opening soon, how soon? When does the ‘opening soon’ sign go from being a teaser to a stop gap to a ‘this ain’t never going happen I am going to your competitors'. Getting a website redesign? ‘New website coming soon’ can be like watching paint dry, how do your customers get in touch with you or buy from you whilst the website is being done? Is it a genuine teaser or is just because your deadlines have slipped?
Deadlines do slip. Remember the building of the new Wembley Stadium and how long that took? Or locally the news from yesterday that the tram to Oldham and Rochdale has been delayed which is going to have a knock on effect on other people’s deadlines and campaigns.
‘Launch of’, ‘coming soon’, ‘watch this space’, ‘save the date’, ‘to be announced’, all are genuine tools to build up a sense of anticipation and excitement, to build a buzz, to get people talking. But executed badly they can have a damaging effect, a loss of business, bad PR and loss of credibility. Yes, do a teaser campaign but not at the risk of becoming 'a bit of a tease'.
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