June 21, 2009

gapingvoid is proud to present: THE WORST MARKETING IDEA EVER!!!!!

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[My pal, Jef­fro sin­ging at Harry’s Tinaja, Alpine, Texas.]
I’m taking to the road. Here are some notes:
1. Now that IGNORE EVERYBODY is done and in the book sto­res, it’s time to do something else. In the last cou­ple of days, I’ve got­ten seve­ral emails from peo­ple that they saw the book selling in air­port bookshops. Wow. It doesn’t get any more “mains­tream” that that, I’m happy to report. At least I can’t accuse it of being “undis­co­ve­red”. And for me, as a blog­ger, it’s nice to be able to break out of the Web 2.0 echo cham­ber. Exactly.
2. So I was having a drink with a friend the other day, and he asked me what my next plan was. I told him, in no uncer­tain terms, that “I’m going to go on the road, and stay on the road, until Stormhoek is the best selling South Afri­can wine in Texas.”
3. I’m brin­ging my com­pu­ter along. I’ll be blog­ging my adven­tu­res en route. Hoping to be pos­ting travel-diary videos on You­Tube as well.
4. I’ll be limi­ting my tra­vels to the State of Texas. Luc­kily it’s a big State and there’s plenty to dis­co­ver.
5. I’m brin­ging my com­pu­ter along. I’ll be wor­king on my second book while I’m tra­ve­ling. I have a vague idea what it’s about…
6. I’m brin­ging my com­pu­ter along. I hoping to meet other Texan blog­gers and Twit­ters on my tra­vels.
7. Hoping to draw a lot of new car­toons en route as well. Hoping that some new prints will come out of it.
8. I don’t really have a plan. But I am lea­ving as soon as I can get orga­ni­zed. You’ll be able to follow my adven­ture on Twit­ter easily enough.
9. This idea will pro­bably fail. “Futile Mar­ke­ting” etc. Rock on.
10. [Update:] Just Twit­te­red this blog post: “@gaping­void is proud to pre­sent: THE WORST MARKETING IDEA EVER!!!!!” Yep. That’s about right…
[etc: About Hugh. Inter­view. News­let­ter. Book. Limi­ted Edi­tion Prints. Pri­vate Com­mis­sions. Cube Gre­na­des. Hugh­train.]

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16 Responses to “gapingvoid is proud to present: THE WORST MARKETING IDEA EVER!!!!!”

  1. Hugh,
    I need a case of Stormhoek for a big blog­ger mee­tup in Vir­gi­nia Beach this wee­kend. Where the heck do I buy this stuff?

  2. Luke says:

    Wel­come to Texas! If only all our guests came bea­ring wine.

  3. Mark Daniel Miller says:

    Hi Hugh -
    As a native Aus­ti­nite & avid Texas evan­ge­list, I’d love to help ya along your way in any man­ner that I can — espe­cially with notes & ideas con­cer­ning Aus­tin (where to go, stay, etc, etc…)
    Please let me know of anything I can do to assist in any way towards making your trip to the grea­test state in the Union as won­der­ful as pos­si­ble! :)
    Cheers!
     – mdm

  4. Seeing as how you’re in Alpine you have quiet the trip up I-10 to any civi­li­za­tion :) Make sure you check out the Sam Hous­ton sta­tue and the Texas Pri­son Museum in my home­town of Hunts­vi­lle, TX. Wish I were still in Texas so I could meet you. Loo­king for­ward to recei­ving your book in the mail.
    R

  5. AB says:

    Just as long as you don’t actually talk to anyone Hugh — that would spoil the semi­nal nature of the “mar­ke­ting” effort

  6. Miserere says:

    Hey Hugh, don’t for­get to send a post­card! Maybe that way you won’t clut­ter up my Twit­ter Box with 5,000 tweets a day :-p
    Oh, and don’t drink and drive! Or is that legal in Texas…?

  7. Richard French says:

    Here’s to not having a plan…[downs a shot of cheap tequila]. Wake me up when I can hook some ‘hoek in Mexico. My emplo­yer has seen fit to pluck me from Texas before I got a chance to taste it and I’m bound for el D.F.

  8. Have a great trip — I let the per­son next to me on the bus read parts of your book today — it was a 30 minute ride, so he didn’t get through the whole thing, but I think I saw him walk into Bor­ders right after…

  9. Leon Jacobs says:

    Hugh, are you filthy rich yet?

  10. Mike Duffy says:

    Hey, Hugh.
    Stop in and see my friends Gigi and Mor­gan Sulli­van at WineSty­les Mont­go­mery Plaza in Fort Worth (on 7th street). They are (a) great peo­ple, (b) Mor­gan is a musi­cian, and © Gigi has a great palate. Fort Worth needs Stormhoek wines.

  11. Steve Nathan says:

    Hey Hugh
    If it is good enough for you to get off your ars.. then you have ins­pi­red me to do the same in my neck of the wood. Star­ting this week I am hit­ting the road and all the small towns around the North Island of NZ to spread the word about by small winery Sal­vare. There is a limi­ted amount of wine you can sell sit­ting around wai­ting for the phone to ring i.e. NONE.
    Have a great trip.

  12. Ben Rowe says:

    Second book? Glo­bal Mic­ro­brands? Please?

  13. Chip says:

    Having just read “Ignore“
    How about chan­ging #2 to Best selling IMPORTED wine in Texas ???
    Alt would be to outsell Texan wine (G)
    Ciao
    Chip

  14. Sunday says:

    Epic idea. I trust you’re taking plenty of pro­duct for your per­so­nal sam­pling pleasure?

  15. Clarabela says:

    Say howdy when you roll through Dallas.

  16. colleen says:

    Just finished your book. Terri­fic. I plan to give it to a for­mer stu­dent of mine who just gra­dua­ted from Colum­bia Law School and doesn’t want to prac­tice law. He needs your “sex and cash theory.” After being in adver­ti­sing for 10 years, then an English teacher for 13 years, I took a sab­ba­ti­cal. Bought an rv and plan­ned to tra­vel the country and study Spa­nish — I met someone, reti­red and have been on the road ever since. Dreams do come true — I just didn’t know that I had this dream. Best of luck on your new book -
    Colleen F (one-half of the “Idols of Ame­ri­can Youth”)