Are You Stopping Others From Telling Your Story?
March 7, 2011 
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This weekend I had some friends from out of town visit me in San Francisco. Naturally they wanted to go to Alcatraz to tour the island and prison, so off we went.
As is typical of tourist attractions, the tour organizers snapped a photo of our party at the start, printed a copy and at the end tried to sell it back to us for an obscene price (or throw away if we didn’t purchase). That’s what the above photo is. Except in a world where everyone has a digital camera, it makes little sense to purchase a staged photo when it’s just as easy to take your own. From looking around, most other people felt the same. It seems like this whole process is a relic of a previous generation.
The opportunity here for the company running the ships to and from the island isn’t to try to sell back photos at the end of our trip. What if instead of going through this wasteful process of throwing a majority of the photos away, they simply gave out the photo to trip-goers free, branded with their tour boat or company name and URL?
I can’t even remember the name of the boat that took me out there at this point. Why would I? It’s about the island, not the boat. But if they had given me a tangible takeaway, I might have remembered the boat and had an artifact from the trip I’d hang on to. Then next time someone asked me which boat to use, I’d have an answer (not just to Google it).
Instead of trying to overly-monetize everything you possibly can, what if you turned it into free marketing? Long term this approach would pay back far greater dividends on spreading your story, reputation and ultimately revenue. Or you can keep trying to mine people for immediate cash right now. I wonder which is more sustainable?
Steve Bartol replied | Mar 7, 2011 (5 comments)
I do a lot of free marketing for people, by I’m thinking also, balance. I think after a period of time in the marketing and consulting world there comes a time when you can feel through pattern recognition when its time to ask for the money, or schmooze a little free gratis there way. But I agree in that particular instance that the photographer didn’t use common sense at all, and that was obviously a chance forging to build a long-term funnel for the boat owner, as opposed to the desperate attempt at a dinosaur tactic. He should have been getting money from the boat owner creating a long term community of people that remembered the boat ride with a free picture. That’s the ling version.
So Adam what do you think about piggy backing very interesting dvds with relatable advertising for awesome thrill seeking adventures without saying too much?
andrew replied | Mar 7, 2011 (42 comments)
“Here, take this, it’s an ad you’ll actually keep.” This is a great post, Adam. You’ve highlighted the short-sited thinking that is holding a lot of companies back. You can sell these and make a few bucks every day, or you can get hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free advertising every year. It’d be interesting if they ran the numbers, but they’d probably view that as a frivolous expense.
Daniel M replied | Mar 7, 2011 (1 comment)
That is definitely a good way to revitalize an aspect of tourism that has essentially vanished. People so often look towards social media as the new way to improve customer relations, but by innovating and tweaking an old practice there is definitely opportunity for growth. Even if the company couldn’t justify spending money to print out every picture they could at least make an electronic copy that would be emailed to one of the tour goers.
Mars Dorian replied | Mar 7, 2011 (1 comment)
Wow, people still do that ? That’s SOOO 90ties.
They could have made a memorable experience, but they threw it away for a couple of bucks.
Waste of time, waste of existence. Too bad that many other companies still act like that. Instead of making an awesome connection with the customer, they charge and destroy their chance.
Short post, good idea Adam.
Judy White SPHR GPHR HCS replied | Mar 9, 2011 (1 comment)
Adam – an excellent post! A refreshing reminder that a short-term focus may bring immediate results but sustainable value over the long-term may be compromised in the process.
Grace Rizza replied | Mar 14, 2011 (4 comments)
I couldn’t agree more! Some things are worth more when they’re free of charge! GO VIRAL :)
Aurelius Tjin replied | Mar 14, 2011 (1 comment)
Brilliant Post Adam! Thanks for sharing this. Keep on posting. :)
Shanti_Janae replied | Mar 17, 2011 (1 comment)
I think that would be a great idea…just give them away. At least a sample size and puttting the website on the pic would give me the option to oder more online. I always take the picture but I never buy them. I usually just go online and save the image to my computer and upload it to FaceBook. But I do think if companies would think about getting their name out there and brand awareness it would help them in the long run. Great post and really good idea. It’s a know fact people love promotional items and freebies. So your idea would really help many business’ especially small ones that need to get their names out there.
A.S. Miller replied | Mar 22, 2011 (1 comment)
Great post! Such an obvious idea; did you pass it on to the boat company?
However, I was wondering…who took the picture up at the head of the article? The sign clearly says no photography, lol. Must have been a loose cannon cop.
Kelly Watkins replied | Mar 22, 2011 (2 comments)
That’s a great idea! If you can’t sell them, you might as well have your company name and website on the photo. Maybe they’ll see this blog and decide to take your advice.
Joseph Bona replied | Mar 25, 2011 (1 comment)
Easier said than done..I agree with you all the way but it’s closed minded small business owners like this that I see everyday who sit back and wonder what am I doing wrong? Yet are never open for consultation because they’re either too stubborn or to cheap.
It would be really interesting to see some data on how much more value the free advertising adds in comparison to the sales of the photos.
Ben replied | Apr 13, 2011 (2 comments)
I disagree with this particular example, as how many boat companies are there that go to alcatraz? A couple? They more or less have a captive market, if you want to go to alcatraz, choose one of the few companies at random. Who is going to bother about a recommendation about which boat company to use? After all it is the prison that is the attraction, not the ferry
I would think that the money gained from selling the photos would greatly outweigh the “marketing” benefits, after all, not all people who visit alcatraz are iphone carrying internet young whippersnappers, I would imagine that a fair few older tourists make the trip who still like the photos.