Community Brainstorming! - $1500 Ad Budget - What should CODOH do?

[CODOH Video]

Dear CODOH Forums community -

CODOH has a $1500 advertising budget and back to school time is coming up.

We're thinking it might be time to try something different than the previous University newspaper ad campaigns.

What should CODOH do with a $1500 budget for an ad campaign? What could gain the most attention? What could reach the most potential supporters? How did you find out about CODOH? CODOH doesn't necessarily have to reach out to University students, but the public at large or specific groups. Let's brainstorm!

Share your ideas.

[borjastick]

Speaking as an ad man - I did thirty years client and agency side in London and around the UK including running my own agency for eleven years - $1500 won't buy you a campaign as such.

First rule of advertising is GET NOTICED!

You get noticed one of two ways. Either a brilliant idea that gets people talking or an average idea but backed with a mega media spend.

You don't have the second option available so my suggestion is to get a strong, upsetting, very provocative message once in a media that will run it.

The resulting PR or shit storm will rock the boat and may get you massive amounts of free media coverage.

[Hieldner]

A twitter campaign is comparatively cheap and would definitely cause some uproar. Samsung hijacked all the iPhone search terms on twitter when the iPhone 5 came out http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/s ... ter-143642 and we could do the same to the upcoming Denial movie.

[Hektor]

I'm also leaning towards using the internet as advertising medium. The Codoh twitter account could do with some new REAL followers. There is software, partially online and for free, that can throw out tweets automatically - more something for a secondary account that would be. You still would have to design the tweet text, but we can do that here. 140 digits. And there are other rules, stated and unstated to be followed to make this an access.

Adwords may be another alternative. Holocaust search terms triggering display could be a good thing and you can target your geographical region as well. Again choose your keywords wisely. They should however come far more cheaply then "structured cash settlement" or "Mesothelioma lawyer: and the like. I'd take a pick at "Holocaust homework assignment" and similar terms, but one needs to research that first. Your target group would also decide on that. For starters one can use google and let it autocomplete the text. the higher ups should yield more searches.

Alternatively it can be spent on direct SEO services for the site.

[Callahan]

Some ice-breaker ideas:

"Dogma exists outside of religion. Question the Holocaust."

or

"Tyrants tell big lies. Question the Holocaust."

or

"Be fearless. Challenge the Holocaust dogma."

or

"The truth is easy to find. Begin your search. #CODOH"


Anyway, I'll consult with a marketing friend of mine this weekend and follow-up about what she thinks might be the best use of those funds in the digital age.

[Leibniz]

Whatever the medium, shouldn't it direct people towards something a bit more specific than the CODOH website? Perhaps direct them to the "Why We Believed" video, for example? That is, once the ad has grabbed their attention, shouldn't it direct them to something that will hold their attention and deliver the essential information in an entertaining way? I wouldn't know, but I would guess that if people have to poke around for themselves, they'll just leave without having received the full message.

[borjastick]

The point is chaps $1500 isn't enough to get many hits. It will disappear in a very short time with few actual readers if you use it digitally. Better to find a soft regional or national title that will accept an ad. How about one of the science or engineering journals?

Twitter etc is a red herring because your money will not get you to enough people. Try Facebook campaigns - identify holocaust interested parties and then do an ad that reaches them (I doubt it's possible) but you won't reach enough people to make a ripple on the pond.

[Hieldner]

Twitter etc is a red herring because your money will not get you to enough people.

Twitter is pay per engagement (click, like, retweet, etc.) as far as I know.

I think asking intriguing questions like the ones on questioningtheholocaust.com is most effective.

[borjastick]

Twitter etc is a red herring because your money will not get you to enough people.

Twitter is pay per engagement (click, like, retweet, etc.) as far as I know.

I think asking intriguing questions like the ones on questioningtheholocaust.com is most effective.

Most digital advertising is pay per click or pay per page view etc and you can set a budget. My point is that 1500 won't get you in front of a big audience. You'll get seen by 10k - 25k people max. Digital ads are a great way of reinforcing a brand message or making a quick foray to an existing audience but they don't build mass awareness or build brands etc.

The mod needs to be clear on the brief. What is the intention of the ad campaign? Drive audiences to Codoh, drop doubt into a young audience, be a bit disruptive etc etc??

[Jurgen]

I think that it needs to be kept simple. Simple enough for the lowest common denominator can understand the message. Simple, clear, logical and BLINDINGLY Obvious.

I wouldn’t send them here in the first instance. A lot of the data here is quite intimidating to try and get through. Remember, we are in a meme/7 second vine generation. I would send them somewhere clean, simple. Somewhere that would expand on the Obvious with more detail on the obvious. Get them interested, then send them to the more complicated sites.

I like the idea of hitting schools children. In New Zealand we all learn about WWII, Hitler and Nazi atrocities in "Social Studies". How can we get school kids to research holocaust revisionism? We would need a custom site designed for kids (I'm talking 13+ here). Try to make sure that when they are googling their research they hit our page etc.

[Hektor]

I think that it needs to be kept simple. Simple enough for the lowest common denominator can understand the message. Simple, clear, logical and BLINDINGLY Obvious.

I wouldn’t send them here in the first instance. A lot of the data here is quite intimidating to try and get through. Remember, we are in a meme/7 second vine generation. I would send them somewhere clean, simple. Somewhere that would expand on the Obvious with more detail on the obvious. Get them interested, then send them to the more complicated sites.

I like the idea of hitting schools children. In New Zealand we all learn about WWII, Hitler and Nazi atrocities in "Social Studies". How can we get school kids to research holocaust revisionism? We would need a custom site designed for kids (I'm talking 13+ here). Try to make sure that when they are googling their research they hit our page etc.

I think we first need to get our hands on the study materials they dish out in schools. That would be textbooks, literature, perhaps the movies they're shown. Then we can point out what's wrong with the picture.

[Leibniz]

The point is chaps $1500 isn't enough to get many hits. It will disappear in a very short time with few actual readers if you use it digitally. Better to find a soft regional or national title that will accept an ad. How about one of the science or engineering journals?

I agree that an internet campaign wouldn't cause any stir.

I wonder what borjastick thinks of a simple billboard campaign, perhaps posted in a sympathetic area. I think I would go with the concept, "Think this is a gas chamber...think again." and then have the digital scan code(mobile tag) for "Why We Believed" or a short excerpt of a CODOH video explaining the fraud. In other words, the ad is the "teaser" that refers to the actual content.
Lot's of thing's to choose from:

• (Forbidding pic of fake gas chamber) "Think this is a gas chamber..think again" Mobile tag to video explaining the fraud in Majdanek gas chambers.
• (Hannover's avatar picture)"Think something is burning here..think again" Mobile tag to video explaining the fraud.
• (Pic of fake chimney at auschwitz) "Think this is a chimney..think again" Mobile tag to video explaining the fraud .

etc.
Maybe you get lucky and offend enough people to get some press coverage.

[borjastick]

Maybe you get lucky and offend enough people to get some press coverage.

Good point but I repeat that the first step is for the Codoh chaps to understand what exactly they would like to achieve and who is their audience. By that I mean age and location.

I'll give an example or two. If you take the squeeze put on UK cigarette makers in the eighties and nineties which eventually led to a total ban on tobacco ads, they had to be clever to get around the controls and laws, yet still put their brand forward. Humour and creative intrigue were often their best weapons.

I cannot find a picture of this ad but I remember the furore it caused which led to it being banned, but only after the massive free publicity that went with it. The ad was for Winston cigarettes in the UK. The headline was 'We're not allowed to tell you about our products, so here's a picture of a tart leaning against a bar'. The humour was in the image which showed a crow bar on its side and a jam tart propped against it.

The above show B&H who often ran very clever imagery to promote their ciggies and KitKat using a creative message for their chocolate wafer.

My thought is perhaps to focus on a positive and not any kind of negative which will be pronounced as anti-semitic a nano second after it is seen. Perhaps an image of an old shower head under which the headline reads 'Good news, six million jews didn't die in the holocaust'. Then the codoh logo and web address bottom right.

Of course this will require the co-operation of the media owner who has the right to not carry any ad he likes.

[Hannover]

Most of the problem is the small budget that CODOH has.
So how about we contribute a few bucks to CODOH. Come on, you can do it.

A bit more money will allow CODOH to diversify it's outreach campaign.

- Hannover

"Truth is hate to those who hate the truth."

[borjastick]

There you go.