Only read this if you want to help sick children

What can the Mighty Pharoah TutanGromit teach you about marketing?

Pharaoh Gromit

I took this picture a couple of hours ago at Bristol University.

All over the city there are creatures like this as part of Gromit Unleashed – a drive to raise money for Children’s Hospitals and Hospices all over the country.

If you don’t know who Gromit is, go to http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/ and have a good laugh

This is all very dear to my heart as I know a little girl whose life has been saved – so far, and we hope for good – from cancer at Bristol Children’s Hospital.

But there are 80 Gromits scattered around the city, each with a theme. For instance there is one named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel outside the station he built over 170 years ago.

There is one called Jack outside Hargreaves Lansdown where I have a few friends. I am amazed when people don’t guess that he is decorated with the Union Jack

So why did the Pharoah catch my eye?

Not just because he was a surprise, but because there is an exhibition about the Pharaohs inside that very building. So this Gromit is a relevant surprise.

It is relevant surprise that works best in creative work – and goodness knows this whole scheme is creative.

If you employ relevant surprise, you will make much more money. And if you make more money, you can give a little extra to the charity – yes?

Somewhere I have a video about relevant surprise. I shall be including it in my AskDrayton series.

But whether you are a member or not, if you e-mail me – Drayton@Draytonbird.com simply saying “Gromit”,  you can have a look at it.

I cannot promise immediately – because my brilliant new P.A. Kelly is on holiday, and I can never find anything. But maybe Al knows where it is.

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

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