Marketing Starts for The Lash

You would have thought that I started marketing as soon as the book was published in Oct 2008 but this wasn’t the case. I ran a launch party at Hacienda @ The Stone House (Photos of launch night Oct 2008) which was cool but I had no real plan other than saying “The Lash is here look!”. In any case, the book was selling well because all my friends and family were buying it and it was also the run up to Christmas/New Year. Jan, Feb and March came and went as I had started a new job and getting the work up running was full on.
Therefore Marketing proper started with a trip to London to see Daniel Priestly of Triumphant Events (Triumphant on Facebook) on 24th April 2009. It was at a private club off The Strand. I rocked up like Dick Wittington from the sticks. Convoyed by National Express and in ribbed jeans and pack down jacket I certainly stood out. My sandwiches had split in my bag and gone all over my sample book and business cards. I’d been told to get a drink at the bar whist we waited for the event kick off but at the prospect of a £3.30 coffee I had made a hasty retreat to sip orange squash in the toilet. The talk was on affiliate marketing and was awesome! Load of top advice about free ways to get your product noticed (one being a blog!)! Anyway after that meeting I was resolved to craic-on with emarketing and get the book noticed!
I came home from the marketing talk with ideas of world domination at the click of a button…a Maoist scene everyone holding a copy of The Lash. Unfortunately I returned to reality. No lights in my room, my computer f**t, and my notebook refusing to start after I’d stepped on it the night before whilst drunk and illuminated. (f**t computer) I did have flyers though from my Berlin freelancer, Manoj (I meet Manoj in Bristol when he had been the promoter for Hacienda). He had since fled to the continent but retained his media contacts here in Bristol. I was resolved to make an impact immediately and knew Saturday night I had a ticket for Friendly Fires at Bristol Uni. The event would be packed with potential customers! At the gig I wasn’t interested in what was happening musically I was 'on it' marketing. I got flyers on the top of all the bars and was starting to put them on the façade of the main bar where no one could miss them when I felt a laarge hand on my shoulder. It appear my marketing had one very big fan...the event security! Soon I was outside the event managers office at the behest of the good cop/bad cop of door security duo . I was on a massive climb down, apologizing lots but when bad cop was distracted, I pushed good cop (I still feel bad, but it was necessity) and ran for the exit! Guerrilla marketing had begun!
Next blog Nick gets off his face a Timbuktu, goes to the park and meets football lesbians, learns a new game and spends s**t loads on Facebook ads!