The Story

Attention-grabbing, brilliant, tacky, non-trad, childish, irritating - a range of adjectives have been used to describe Tao Lin’s self-promotion strategy. Though people can’t come to a consensus about the author, they can firmly tell you whether they love or hate him.

Tao Lin has been putting stickers around New York that say “Britney Spears” to promote his new book, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. See the connection? The stickers have been showing up on subway seats, storefronts, and more recently, the door to Gawker’s offices (as payback for trashing the author’s promotional tactics last year). Cheeky!

Now I’m all for non-traditional and guerrilla marketing… when it’s brand-centric (be it a bank brand, retail brand, personal brand, whatever.) It’s when it turns gratuitous and random that the red flags start going up. So here’s something for you to ponder over the weekend: are Tao Lin’s non-traditional marketing tactics (the strange emails, the stickers, etc.) brand-centric? Do they help build his personal brand? Are they consistent? The population is divided.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 10:37 am and is filed under Other, Bank Branding, Kick Ass Ideas & Musings, Branding, Corporate branding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.