Kudos Where They're Due - PetSmart and That's Not Cool

I'd like to devote this post to two groups, one a company the other a public service group, who are getting their messages out there sooo well, sooo sweetly, that everybody else needs to pay attention to what they did and how they did it.What both these groups have done is understand their target audience and their extended or peripheral audiences amazingly well and designed material that will go in, go deep and stay with those audiences for a long, long time.

My hat's off to them. There are learnings here. Whether through thought or accident, these folks got it right.

The two groups are separated by universes regarding their goals, I'm bringing them to your attention because (simply) they both work. The first is PetSmart, the other is That's Not Cool.

I'll start with PetSmart because...well...because it's obvious.

Pet owners are an amazing group of people. Forget talking about babies, about little league, about school plays or oboe lessons. Give a pet owner the minutest excuse and you'll be regaled about Rex, conflummoxed with tales of Cochese chasing toy mice and it won't matter, you won't be able to excuse yourself, these people are fanatics.

Especially around each other. Except when they're around each other they like it.

So show one pet owner that you're a pet owner, that that pet is everything in your world just as their pet is to them and...well...anything they have is yours.

So the PetSmart management page shows the upper level management, yes, and each with their pets. People who are serous about their pets want to know they can trust the people they purchase pet supplies from. How do you demonstrate to pet owners that you can be trusted with their pets? Show them you loving your pet.

Brilliant and done. Park it at a red light and walk home, it doesn't get any better.

The next group that's doing it sooo incredibly right is That's Not Cool. Play the video above to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

This site is designed for teens and tweens, me thinks. And while I could devote whole blog posts to why children feel being victimized is acceptable, I won't do that here (they can only behave as you taught them to behave, folks. 'Nuff said?). What I will do is point out that the entirety of the site is so well targeted to a very tight demographic -- and not one easy to target due to its volatility -- that you have to just sit back and watch. The videos are painful in their accuracy, the voices are dead on in tone, atmosphere, animas, pathos, ... Even the use of puppetry -- something others might consider a negative -- is a real positive (to me); it allows the target audience to empathize without transferring. You want this audience to witness, emulate, accept and act upon success. You don't want them to accept a pitiable state as the status quo.

Two very different sites, both doing it sooo amazingly right that others need to pay attention. A nod to both of them.

Final note: neither I nor NextStage is affiliated with either group in any way, shape or form.

Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics. Upcoming Conferences:

• The 4th Annual SNCR Research Symposium & Awards Gala at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, 5-6 Nov 09

Come on by and say hello.

Sign up for The NextStage Irregular, our very irregular, definitely frequency-wise and probably topic-wise newsletter.