You can pull all the stops out
Til they call the cops out
Grind your behind til you’re banned
But you gotta get a gimmick
If you wanna get a hand
–Stephen Sondheim, Gypsy, 1959

Whether you’re a burlesque performer like Gypsy Rose Lee, or a multi-national Fortune 500 corporation, you simply gotta have a gimmick to get any real notice. But when is this gimmickry an effective investment that provides measurable ROI, and when is it just a marketing investment gone awry?

Unfortunately, attention-grabbers are often perceived as the sole purview of ad agencies. I say “unfortunately” because gimmicks, though generally expensive, can be quite newsworthy (much more so than a “Intel launches ad campaign featuring Blue Man Group” headline).

I recently spoke with a small company with a heckuva cute gimmick: Theirs is a service-based business, see, and all their folks drive Mini Coopers adorned with their company logo. Sure it’s a model that’s been used before (I was reminded of a national donut chain with painted a PT Cruisers running around my neighborhood), but is it newsworthy? Nah. Not really.

Which is not to say that gimmicks are useless when it comes to PR—quite the opposite.

My favorite gimmick is Carly Fiorina. Her style, and HP’s effective placement and promotion of her (most recently at a press conference introducing a bunch of new HP products), generates on-message media coverage at each and every turn. It’s a great example using an attention-grabber effectively, and with coverage galore.

For healthcare companies, the most pervasive gimmick is the Awareness Month (or Day). Here’s how it works: A healthcare firm gets in touch with a Congressman who is tied, however tenuously, to a condition their product treats. Said congressman then introduces legislation that has November (for example) declared (for example) National Diabetes Awareness Month. The healthcare company uses this as a platform to produce branded materials (ads, patient education information, PSAs, DMA foldouts). Does it work? Sometimes, but only when it is shepherded by an effective PR program (did you know that November was National Diabetes Awareness Month? No? Why not? Because someone was asleep at the PR wheel!).

Here’s an exercise: Send the following e-mail to your company’s sales force (yes, all of them):

What is [company name here]’s big effective gimmick? Does it generate sales for you? Do you use gimmicks of your own that are effective? Please answer by 5 pm.

The responses that “pour in” will be telling. If you get a lot of team members saying things like, “Acme’s widgets provide next-generation solutions for our customers,” then it’s time to pull out the marketing budget spreadsheet and figure out where you’re wasting money (and send them to www.buzzkiller.net right now!). If, on the other hand, the bulk of responses sound like, “Acme’s gimmick is sending a bunch of pink balloons to each new customer, and the story about the balloon delivery in the Daily Times Register generated 40 calls from new prospects,” then you (and your PR agency) are hitting a home run gimmick-wise. Amen to you both.

Whatever the responses, share them with your PR-type people (internal and external). They might be surprised that you’ve crossed over that silly line separating sales and marketing, but they’ll get over it (and if they don’t, send me a note and I’ll set ‘em straight).

All right. The next time your ad agency, branding consultancy or marketing department comes to you with a great outside-the-bun idea, run it by your PR agency. Involving them from the onset of Ideaville will increase the chances of on-message media coverage enhanced by your gimmick investment. Say that twice and click your heels…