Archive for October 21st, 2008

My Dad (God bless him) is still teaching music in his ninth decade on this Earth. When he teaches jazz improvisation, one of the important points he makes is that a good soloist sets up expectations, then challenges them, by doing something unexpected. In other words, you create a pattern, establish it in the listener’s mind, then unexpectedly change it. That’s what makes things interesting.

Good marketing is a lot like that.

I was watching TV this evening, when a spot came on, for an animated show, proclaiming a Halloween tradition. They used the familiar Vince Guaraldi theme, and showed a familiar fall scene with the side of a house, leaves swirling. You were all set to expect a teaser for the umpteenth showing of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, the classic animated Halloween special by Charles Shultz. Then you realized that the characters were all wrong – it was not Peanuts characters, but Simpsons we see on the screen. What unfolded was a spot for a very different Halloween tradition – a promo for the annual Simpsons Treehouse of Terror special. Read the rest of this entry »