In the early 1960’s a Broadway show came out, followed by the movie with the same title “Stop the World – I Want to Get Off”. Haven’t we all felt this way at one time or another, just Stop The World and let us catch our breath on what is happening around us; but we cannot, the evolution of time keeps marching on in a circle of life “La Ronde” (the round), from birth to death the same cycle repeats itself since the beginning of time. Sure, we have improved the quality of life through science, medicine, and technology; which subsequently has impacted our working conditions, retirement packages, and vacation travel. But the basic circle of life continues.
We in the promotion industry are caught up in a similar cycle which I call the “promotional cycle of life”. If we look back to the early 1960’s, the cradle of civilization for the promotion industry, there were but a handful of promotional agencies, trying to discover new and effective ways to promote promotional concepts. We at Marden-Kane came up with an idea of placing a thin layer of latex ink on a piece of paper and an instant win game was created, was this a flash in the pan…..hardly… almost 40 years later every state lottery is using this concept to generate billions of dollars in revenue.
In the early days of television the networks were dying for programming. Quiz shows started popping up like; the $64,000 Question, Twenty One, Password and Let’s Make a Deal, then within 10 years they faded. Fast forward to today, Password is back bigger than ever, Deal or No Deal is a mainstay at NBC, and the Price is Right has been running for over 20 years, in fact currently a whole Game Show Network has been created and operating.
To gain greater viewership in television, Watch and Win Programs were developed. Today this Watch and Win technique has translated to Text Messaging and Public Voting utilizing the Internet.
So the need to Stop the World today is not necessary, just look into our bank of 50 years of promotional innovations…..Yes ….. Good ideas never grow old
Post via Marden-Kane guest blogger, Paul Goldman EVP & Partner. Paul can be reached at Paul@MardenKane.com.