Just the other day I was reading about a very unique company tie in that Dr. Pepper was doing in relation to a CD by Guns N’ Roses. For those who do not know anything about it, the band has been trying to make a new CD called Chinese Democracy for quite literally fifteen years or so. Numerous problems caused the CD to be delayed over and over again throughout the period. In fact, several release dates were set and then postponed over the years.

So what was the promotion? In March this year Dr. Pepper said that if the band actually releases their CD by the end of the year they’ll give a free Dr. Pepper to everyone in the United States. Sure enough, the band set their release date for November and finally managed to meet their deadline.

In response Dr. Pepper made good on their offer, and everyone could go to their website and get a coupon for a free 20 oz. bottle (unfortunately by the time anyone reads this the offer will be over with).

Now, what can you do with this information? The nice part about the tie in was how odd it was, and how much attention it garnered. What exactly does a soda company have to do with a rock band, after all, and it did not really require the company to contact the band or set anything up for them to pull the event off.

Tie ins like this are a great way of getting people to talk about your company, and generating interest. This is the best kind of marketing you can hope for, and once you start the ball rolling you want to keep it rolling.

Consider for your color business cards mentioning some odd or interesting tie in on them. This will not take much room and you can make sure that many more people know about what you are doing. The bigger the tie in the more interesting it will typically be and the more attention you can get from doing it. Use this to your best advantage.

If you do have a very interesting tie in and you have it on your color business cards than you also have an instant conversation starter. When people see it they will have to ask you what prompted it.

Marketing has always been about catching a person’s interest and using that time to deliver your message. The tie in is not the primary message you are sending but merely the way you get attention to deliver your complete marketing message.

I am sure if you step back and think about it you can come up with a number of unique tie ins to use with your company, and get people talking about your company. Nothing gives a company more personality than doing something unique.