Some Outside-the-Box Marketing

After eight years, Dr. Bob Wagstaff’s halitosis-curing invention seemed destined for the scrap heap. Nothing had worked to sell the Orabrush — a $50,000 infomercial brought only 100 orders — so Wagstaff took his idea to a Brigham Young University market research class.
One student, Jeff Harmon, built a team that included a coworker prone to ranting, a scriptwriter and a film major, and created content for a YouTube channel — Cure Bad Breath — that has more than 160,000 subscribers and generated more than 44 million views.

After some Utah Walmarts began carrying the product, Orabrush purchased magazine advertising and targeted key Walmart executives with a marketing campaign. But it took yet another outlandish idea to seal the deal.

Orabrush purchased Facebook ads targeting users in Northwest Arkansas, home of the retail giant. The ad read: “Walmart employees have bad breath ... Walmart needs to carry Orabrush! It will sell better than anything in your store.”

Within 48 hours, Walmart e-mailed; after a few more e-mails, Orabrush geared up production to meet the 735,000-unit order.

In two short years, Orabrush went from a failed idea to one that’s taking on bad breath one tongue at a time in nine countries — all because of a minor investment in a crazy marketing idea.
Sourde: stores.org