Rob Allin Marketing Communications

Rob Allin Marketing Communications Case Study:

A Samurai Workout

Fitness DVD

June 2006 through June 2007

THE PROBLEM: Laurence Berkley approached me in June 2006 to create a marketing-based approach to selling his fitness DVD.  Copies of the DVD were for sale on Amazon.com, but the DVD had no online presence.  Sales were not only dismal; they were nonexistent.  Berkley was even having trouble selling the DVD to friends and students, as they were unable to find it on Amazon after he told them of its availability.

Common solutions to this problem include online advertising, paid speaking engagements, or creating an infomercial.  Unfortunately, the production of the DVD itself had sapped the majority of Berkley’s budget.  All he could offer me was payment in the form of a percentage of gross sales.  Awareness would have to be built in a no-cost fashion.

THE SOLUTION:  The first step was giving A Samurai Workout a distinctive home office from which to conduct its e-business.  Working with Monster Commerce, I set up an easy-to-use way for Laurence to process payments and ship his DVDs.  Next, I recruited a web developer to create a quality web site for a fraction of the cost he would find at the average web design shop.  I wrote all of the copy for the site and meticulously reviewed its user-friendliness.

With the online presence established, it was time to build traffic without the benefit of an online advertising budget.  Since the DVD had a straight-forward premise, it was marketable to young professionals who stock up on fitness videos.  Also, the DVD included original, not-available-anywhere-else music by John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which opened up a wide-ranging but intensely loyal group of fans. We identified two key audiences: active professionals ages 30-45, and fans of the Red Hot Chili Peppers fans of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  I cut trailers and sample workouts from the video and posted them on YouTube, gaining interest from Frusciante fans.  I established a Myspace page and turned daily thoughts from Laurence into a blog. I enlisted Laurence in a number of Myspace and Facebook groups and forums.  The Samurai URL was firmly entrenched in every photo, video, or comment from Laurence.  I wrote to the moderators of online fitness groups and offered them free copies of the DVD.  I secured television appearances and newspaper feature articles about Laurence and made sure the web site was mentioned prominently.

RESULT:  Six months after receiving shipments of his completed DVD in June 2006, Laurence Berkley had sold a total of 10 DVDs.  After solidifying an e-business presence and developing a marketing strategy based on media relations and utilizing social networking sites as a marketing tool, Laurence sold more than 300 DVDs within a year.  After initially fearing he had suffered a total loss in time and money producing the DVD, Laurence and his business partners saw a return on their investment.