Pepper’s Autobody Shop came to Sideways Marketing with a simple request—we need more attention. Sideways Marketing Founder Louis Sideways loved requests like this because of the solutions he could develop. Usually, clients didn’t like the solutions he developed.
Louis Sideways presented the idea to Pepper. If Pepper’s Autobody Shop wanted attention on the road, it was quite simple. Go to the place where teenagers take their driver’s test and approach them with a proposition. If they’ll let you put a Pepper’s Autobody Shop sponsorship on the car, you’ll give them a car. Then they can drive around as a sponsor.
“Why teenagers?” Pepper asked.
“Because they’re bad drivers,” Louis Sideways said, smiling. “They’re notoriously bad drivers.”
“What does that give us?” Pepper asked.
“It gives you attention,” Sideways said. “Teenagers make people mad. They’ll make bad decisions.”
“Which gives us?” Pepper asked.
“Attention,” Sideways repeated. “That is what you asked for. People will think, ‘What’s going on with Pepper’s Autobody Shop? Why are they such bad drivers? Why are they hiring teenagers?’ ”
“So then they’re going to call us…” Pepper began.
“And you’ll say, ‘Now that we have your attention, would you like us to fix your car?’”
“What if the teenagers get into accidents?” Pepper asked.
“That would be great news since you’re an autobody shop,” Sideways said. “You can fix the cars.”
“But that will cost us money.”
Sideways smiled, “I thought what you wanted was attention.”