We follow up on a previous story where Sideways Marketing pitched the idea of using music teachers in Toyotathon ads.
The Toyotathon people looked disgruntled as Louis Sideways, founder of Sideways Marketing, entered the room.
“The plan didn’t work,” the leader of the Toyotathon group said bluntly.
“What plan?” Sideways asked.
“Your plan to put a music teacher into a Toyotathon commercial. It didn’t lead to an increase in car sales.”
“You didn’t follow the plan,” Sideways countered. “I saw the commercial. It’s a generic music teacher, a commercial actress I actually know named Susan, leaving choir practice and getting in her Toyota on the way to Toyotathon.”
“That was your idea.”
“No, I said that you need a specific music teacher, one who would make a community embrace the commercial,” Sideways said. “You made it generic.”
“What would that even look like? We’d have to do 100 ads.”
“Well, I’m glad you asked,” Sideways snapped his fingers, and the TV turned on, showing a commercial.
The ad starts with a caption: “Miss Saunders’ Music Class.” The camera fades into a choir room where Miss Saunders leads 50 kids in a rendition of “Angels We Have Heard on High.” The camera pans across the choir’s many faces, and then the bell rings. Miss Saunders states that she needs to attend Toyotathon, and then the ad shows her getting into a car at a dealership. The narrator notes that attending Toytotahon is how every choir teacher’s Winter Break should begin.
The ad ended.
“I have some connections,” Sideways said. “I ran this ad in Iowa, where Miss Saunders teaches. The dealership there met its quota for the entire Toyotathon event within three days of this ad airing. For them, it will truly be a December to remember.”
The Toyotathon team looked at each other for a moment, and then asked, “Do you have any easier ideas?”