Stephen Colbert inadvertently creates profits for my magalog client

Congratulations to a magalog client of mine, Solutions From Science!

Stephen Colbert poked a little fun at their Survival Seed Bank product on his program recently.

Isn’t that great? Wouldn’t you love to have people making fun of you and your product on national TV?

If that makes you wince, I understand. But fourteen years in media taught me that people talking about you, even if it’s controversial or humor at your expense, can be a great thing.

You see, being the target of Colbert actually boosted sales for the Survival Seed Bank. The reason is simple… tons of people watch Colbert, so tons of people were exposed to the product.

That’s every business’s dream!

While the studio audience (and probably lots of people at home) were laughing as Colbert made fun of the product, there were also a lot of people thinking, “Maybe that’s a product I should seriously consider.” From there, something clicked with them and they bought the product.

As for anyone laughing at Solutions From Science… who cares? Let ‘em laugh. It’s unlikely they were serious prospects anyway. The next night, Colbert was on to something new, but now Solutions From Science has a group of new customers because of that “free advertising” on the show.

Let’s be clear: What you personally may think about the product isn’t important here. We’re looking at this strictly from a marketing point of view, and from that perspective this was a thing of beauty.

You see, controversy or laughs at your expense can create big time buzz for your marketing efforts. So don’t be afraid if it happens. Welcome it and send a thank you gift to those folks with  large audiences who are driving new customers to your site and adding new revenue to your bottom line.

Finally, don’t think this experience is an isolated one. Something like this happens every day and businesses have to decide how to deal with it. Maybe it’s some bad reviews of your product or service that are unfair. Maybe it’s one single customer who is on a mission to complain about you all over the Internet. In his book, Linchpin, Seth Godin talks about how a restaurant dealt with some bad reviews. (Google “Pizzeria Delfina Yelp T-shirt” if you’re not familiar with that story.) They definitely didn’t hide. They took advantage of the controversy and got tons of great press.

If you want to see the three minutes and thirty seconds that immediately led to increased sales for Solutions From Science, here’s the Colbert Nation – Survival Seed Bank video.

And isn’t that a great bonus? As if talking about the product on the show and boosting sales wasn’t enough of a favor, they put the segment on their site so that it’s easy to link to.

By the way, here’s the Survival Seed Bank Magalog.