There is so much clutter in the adsphere these days, sometimes it takes some ingenuity to get heard. You not only want people opening and reading your email marketing campaigns, you even want them to look forward to it. One way to do this is to give your email some personality.

I’ve been watching some TV commercials lately and I’ve noticed that even some of the biggest, most seemingly boring companies are starting to have personality.

Intel – This microchip company has a couple of great commercials going on now. One of my favorites is one where the co-inventor of the USB is treated like a rock star by the Intel employees. He sashays into the uber cool lunchroom to cool rock star music, and Intel employees are fawning all over him. He signs a few autographs and gets his coffee. Then at the end they humanize the company even more by having employees sing the 5-note jingle. Impressive.

Travelers Insurance – This ho-hum insurance company has such a great commercial that I cannot turn the channel when it’s on. A cute dog is worried about his “prized possession” (his bone) and runs around trying to find the perfect hiding place for it. He hides it in the laundry basket, gets worried and retrieves it. He hides it behind a pillow, gets worried, then retrieves it. He buries it in the yard, worries about it all night and digs it up. He takes it to a bank and puts it in a safe deposit box, worries about it and retrieves it. The final answer, insure it with Travelers and the red umbrella appears over the bone next to the dog. Brilliant, memorable and cute!

What can you do to inject a bit of personality into your advertising and email marketing campaigns?

Restaurants – Write about funny stories of your owners and your patrons. Include some pictures. Have a ‘submit your favorite recipe’ contest and publish the winners.

Retailers – Make up a funny promotion. Declare your own holiday or celebrate another country’s.

Consultants – Send an email about something going on in your industry and poke fun at it.

Wineries – Take it from Travelers Insurance, dogs work and more often than not a winery has one. Why not do a story about a day in the life of the winery dog or a story from the dog’s point of view?

Ad Agencies – Why not point out the most ridiculous, best or worst ads of the week. You can always find something funny to talk about with an ad.

If you think about it, almost every day something interesting, funny or completely bizarre happens in your business. This can be content for your marketing messages. What are you doing to inject some personality into your next email marketing campaign?

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