What My Crazy NYE Party Can Teach Us About Marketing in 2019

It was my wife’s idea. With my folks flying in for the turn of the year offering to watch their grandkids, she and I had the opportunity to go out for a night on the town. But let’s face it; New Year’s Eve is for amateurs. Getting Ubers is next to impossible. Venues are overcrowded and overpriced. That isn’t how NYE is marketed. This is the reality of NYE. So my wife said “Let’s stay home and throw a party for our friends.” I relented.

Marketing Rule #1: Until you’ve become cutting edge at the basics, it is fiscally irresponsible to invest in the unknown.
There are countless marketing initiatives you can spend money on. Bright, shiny opportunities for you to dedicate dollars. While going out and trying something new may sound appealing, if you haven’t taken the time to understand it by experimenting with the platform/tech/solution yourself, it could be wasting ad budget. Companies think this is the time of year to reinvent theirselves, but I submit to you it is better to stay in your line and make yourself better. Especially when you’ve done little research on these new strategies and don’t understand the best methods to deploy. If you have no way to measure the results yourself, there is no way to recognize what a realistic return on investment should be. Avoid an unmitigated high-dollar disaster by getting better at what you already offer with a do-it-yourself mindset. Sometimes the smartest, most profitable solution is staying close to home.

My wife created the event on FB and invited many of our friends. Since she and I share a similar brain, we both quickly arrived at the idea of making it a NYE pajama party at the same time, but before making that decision, we wanted to make sure others were behind it too. We polled the invited guests… pajama party or a night of dressing in style. Overwhelmingly they voted for the pajama party.

Marketing Rule #2: Understand what your audience wants by any and all means.
In 2019, you cannot rely on others to understand your customers. Whether it be social media polling, online questionnaires, email surveys or in-store Q&As, you need to be asking the audience you hope to connect with about what’s important to them, not you. Focus groups are not a thing of the past. We’ve moderated focus groups for some of our automotive dealership clients and the results (that we film and edit) have been invaluable to understanding what real consumers want and expect.

My wife is a workhorse when it comes to planning and preparing for events like this. Every detail is analyzed and perfected. The list of activities, food dishes, grocery items, party favors, decorations, and liquor selection is carefully crafted. I had my duties as well. Liquor/beer/wine, obviously being one. I did much of the ordering, picking up, and delivering, while she handled prep and set-up. Friends assisted my wife with the cooking of the prepared meals. We provide the entrees, booze, venue and entertainment, the friends provided the appetizers and champagne. We had a cornhole tournament, a bit of a dance party, enough toys for the kids to tucker themselves out, enough booze and champagne to drown an Irishman, and enough confetti balloons to please the most excited of children and adults alike.

Marketing Rule #3: Things look like they come together easy if you already sweat your butt off through the preparation.
Money may solve a lot of problems and make things look good, but the effort you put into the little things are what makes you memorable. Many marketers will try to sell ‘set it and forget it’-style services, telling you there is no need to worry about anything. But worrying about what you’re delivering is what proves you care about the outcome. Personal effort is a sorely overlooked requirement to putting on a show worthy of your customers’ time and money.

We have an amazing crew of friends. Seriously. They are caring, understanding, friendly, fun-loving, hilarious, helpful, genuinely decent people. Not a shithead in the bunch, and believe me… I try. They came early. Offered kitchens to cook the prime rib, ham, turkey and countless other dishes we had bought but didn’t have enough of our own ovens and crockpots to get ready in time.  They all bought or wore awesome pajamas. Made amazing dishes. Brought champagne, including a bottle of Dom 1996. One brought fireworks to entertain the kids. One brought a beautiful bouquet.

Marketing Rule #4: You’re only as good as your team because it’s the people you surround yourself with that determine your success.
If you’re going to focus your efforts on one aspect of growing your business, start with dedicating attention to your team. You can put a price on training, but not on the value of it. You should always be growing your team, as well. In new hires, instill the virtues of your company so they, in turn, can take care of your customers the right way. Surround yourself with likable people with a good heart and fun spirit and their enthusiasm will help develop a positive culture in your organization, rather than a me-first environment.

The lead up to the big event on the FB party page included pics, posts, animated gifs, texts, and memes. One of our friends is a very talented photographer. He brings his camera and set-up everywhere (including our big group’s recent cruise) to take great pictures documenting the fun, family, and friends together. Also during our party, there were videos shot (mostly of one excellently embarrassing event). I’m withholding all of the pics from this post to leave our guests thankfully anonymous, but they know who they are.

Marketing Rule #5: Make it visual.
Everyone knows content is king. Well, visual content is emperor. In 2019, the majority of consumer-facing content you create needs to be visual in nature. Pictures, videos, memes and gifs. These are what today’s public is consuming at a massive rate. More videos viewed than emails opened. The creation of this content cannot be undervalued. Any plans to dominate the attention of your ideal customer starts and ends with video content and dynamic, well-produced pictures. A funny meme will be better received than any well-written email. A well-scripted phone call with a client is great, but even better when preceded by an evergreen piece of visual content that catches their attention.

“10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1… HAPPY NEW YEARS!” we counted, shouted and screamed together. We clinked our champagne glasses and kissed our spouses. We high-fived and hugged. We celebrated breaking in the new year surrounded by the people we spend time with most… our family and friends. And then, “Alexa, play Auld Lang Syne”. (The English version…
“Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne.”

While auld lang syne literally translates to “old long since”, it means to most “days gone by”. The lyrics call us to take a drink to the memories of nostalgic days past, hold those memories of people in a positive light, not forget those that made the times great, and be thankful for those from the past.

Marketing Rule #6: Customers from your past should be paid just as much attention as those you hope to conquest in the future.
I’ve said it when speaking at countless conferences and in a bevy of blogs. Customer retention efforts should trump conquest client acquisition in your marketing initiatives. If you have overlooked (or never considered) loyalty programs that keep your current customers happy, you’re not planning for the future. If your organization’s advertising budget is aimed at finding new customers rather than keeping your loyal clients in a continuous sales/service/support lifecycle, you need to rededicate dollars to retention-based strategies. It’s easier to keep a friend happy than to make a stranger a true friend.

Our party was a success. Everyone had a blast. Nothing got too broken. Prizes for pajama outfits were awarded. A buddy jumped into my pool for no reason, and we all watched with gleeful hilarity. Yes, indeed, good times were had by all. Many have already asked us to host the group’s NYE party again and again into the future. Based on the fun we had, we’re certainly considering it. Between my wife, my kids, our friends, my Dad and stepmom, I can’t thank everyone enough for making this more than a night to remember, but one I’ll never forget. (Most specifically my beautiful wife). Ushering in a new year always seems a bit daunting. Like businesses, as people we often feel like we’re starting over. Instead, we must realize that we’ve been building something we need to carry over into the future, or it goes away.

Your reputation as a company is predicated upon how well you improve the lives of your customers and employees. A re-evaluation of your marketing in 2019 will help organize what is most important to you going forward. And then, regardless of what you desire, ask others what’s important to them. Take that insight and create a plan to make 2019 excellent. Don’t underestimate the need to work your butt off to make it so. Find a team worth taking on the journey with you, and don’t forget about all of those that got you to where you are. I can only hope your year has a moment within it as perfect as mine began. To that end, let’s all use this year as another chance to make lives better.