How to piggyback off corporate mistakes for your own benefit

True story:

Right before Cracker Barrel announced that they wouldn’t, in fact, be exorcising the soul out of their old logo in favor for a soulless, generic, millennial void-of-personality one that looks the same as any other recent corporate rebranded logo of the past 10 years or so, I crafted a brilliant email for a client.

In the email, I let our audience know that we were also changing our logo, and I swapped the “Cracker Barrel” of their new old - that’s the soulless one if yer keeping track - with my client’s business. 

I call it… mememarketing. 

(Yes, that means I broke my “no images” rule because all good rules are meant to be broken.) 

Then, I segued into the Labor Day sale we had. 

This hits on a couple of copywriting pro-tips as it were:

First, it enters the conversation people are already having in their minds. This Cracker Barrel story blew tf up, so it was an easy hook to go with. 

Second, it was funny or at least chuckle-worthy - and nothing makes sales come in like putting folks into a good-and-buying mood. 

And third, the promo offer we have is dialed in. 

But then the impossible happened!

After scheduling it for Wednesday morning, I scrolled across a Facebook post from Cracker Barrel itself stating that they are no longer changing the logo. 

“Damnit, there goes my mf email,” I screamed to Peanut. 

But come Wednesday morning, I changed my tune, and decided to keep the exact email intact. 

Now, it might lose a few chuckle points because the new old logo is CB’s logo no mo. And I do wish that I could’ve sent it Tuesday before they announced they won’t change their logo. 

But it still performed well. It turned about 17 leads (many of which have been on our list for eons) into customers, which translates into a few grand. 

Not too shabby for the first day of the promo. Especially because the email didn’t take a second longer than 5 minutes. 

Such is the power of adding entertainment value - of, infotaining with a nice hat tip to the great Ben Settle - to your advertising. 

Because I can tell you this: 

Even though it was sent a day late, it naturally attracted more eyeballs to it than a typical promo email. 

Anywho:

Hit reply if you’d like to piggyback off other business’s egregious mistakes to stuff your coffers. 

John