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.

This year, they’ve chosen (in at least one of the segments) to parody the Peanuts gang. My favorite bit showed Lisa on the living room couch. You hear that sound associated with all adults in the Peanuts world (a sound made with a trombone and a plunger mute). She turns to her mom off-camera and say, “What did you say, Mom?” The camera pulls back to reveal Marge, with a trombone and a plunger mute (natch) saying, “I was just practicing my trombone.”

Genius.

I, for one can’t wait to see this year’s Simpson’s salute to Halloween, but I just had to mention the marketing for it. Hit me where I live, as a fan of both Peanuts and the Simpsons. It was a brilliant promo, and I expect no less from the show. The promo whetted my appetite for more, and has motivated me to set the DVR so I won’t miss it.

Now that’s marketing.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 10:57 pm and is filed under advertising, marketing, media.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.