It’s an overused phrase, but in this case it’s apt: Think Outside the Box. Get original, get creative. Use social media to your advantage, plan properly, and take your calculated risk. If you do, you never know; you might just be able to have your cake and eat it too.

2. Running a business is, at its core, a risk.
And
not
a
small
risk,
either:
a
big
one.
There’s
not
much
between
your
hard
work
and
failure.
However,
good
entrepreneurs
understand
how
to
take
a
risk.
Many
thrive
on
it.
One
of
the
best
places
for
you
to
take
a
risk?
Your marketing plan.
At
the
end
of
the
day,
effecCve
content
markeCng
relies
on
creaCvity
–
not
budget.
Content
markeCng
works
on
the
$200k
a
year
level
just
as
well
as
it
does
for
the
Fortune
500.
Let’s look at companies
who took a creative risk
with their marketing
initiatives – and succeeded.

3. Risk #1: University of Kentucky and Instagram
The
University
of
Kentucky
–
famous
for
its
basketball
program
–
has
found
a
way
to
bring
fans
into
their
markeCng
schema.
Anyone
who
uses
the
#weareuk
hashtag
will
have
their
Tweet
or
Instagram
linked
to
their
website,
and
many
of
these
Tweets
and
pictures
have
become
billboards.
The risk?
There’s
always
an
element
of
risk
when
inviCng
the
crowd
in
to
help
you
adverCse,
even
if
you
maintain
ediCng
capabiliCes.
There’s
also
a
risk
of
not
gePng
the
right
kind
of
media
to
really
build
a
campaign
from.
The Reward?
Well,
the
University
of
Kentucky
has
had
stunning
success
with
this
adverCsing
iniCaCve,
and
inviCng
the
crowd
in
is
a
great
way
to
make
everybody
feel
like
the
product
is
“theirs.”

4. Risk #2: Dominos Gets Negative
Generally
speaking,
you
don’t
want
your
markeCng
to
point
out
your
flaws.
However,
that’s
exactly
what
Dominos
Pizza
did,
aZer
a
Dominos
Pizza
employee
created
a
video
in
2009
that
portrayed
the
company
in
a
horrible
light.
The
video
went
viral.
Instead
of
turning
away
from
the
user
generated
content
–
Dominos
embraced
it
and
made
a
media
campaign
out
of
it.
The risk?
Obviously,
having
an
enCre
adverCsing
campaign
about
your
shortcomings
basically
goes
against
everything
any
marketer
has
ever
said,
ever.
The Reward?
AZer
releasing
an
adverCsing
campaign
that
pointed
out
Dominos’
flaws
with
a
promise
that
the
company
would
do
beer,
the
company’s
profits
soared
by
14.3%
in
the
next
fiscal
quarter.
AddiConally,
by
most
standards,
the
quality
of
the
pizza
has
improved
as
well.

5. Risk #3: Ford Uses YouTube and Puppets
When
you
think
“Ford,”
you
probably
think
of
a
more
conservaCve
company,
at
least
where
markeCng
is
concerned.
You
probably
do
not
think
of
puppets
and
comedians;
however,
that
is
exactly
what
Ford
has
been
doing
with
“Doug,”
a
puppet
that
travels
around
the
country
with
his
comedic
handler.
Even
more
wild?
The
enCre
adverCsing
campaign
only
exists
on
YouTube.
The risk?
Using
puppets
to
sell
cars
is
definitely
a
bit
outside
of
the
usual
MO
of
car
commercials.
Also,
spending
all
that
money
and
Cme
on
producCon
with
a
sole
release
goal
of
YouTube
is
most
certainly
outside
of
the
box.
The Reward?
It’s
true
that
puppets
and
comedians
probably
weren’t
the
riskiest
thing
Ford
could
have
chosen.
But
what
Ford
does
and
does
well
is
set
goals
and
metrics
so
they
can
see
results:
check
out
the
next
page.

6. Ford’s YouTube Campaign stats:
Goal:
10,000
total
Facebook
Fans
Actual:
35,650
Facebook
fans
in
four
weeks
Goal:
2.5
million
YouTube
views
Actual:
1.7
million
views,
with
several
months
leZ
to
aain
the
goal
Facebook
Post
Views:
725,000
Facebook
“likes”
and
comments:
7,019
Facebook
demographics:
70%
of
status
updates
go
to
the
18-­‐24
year
old
audience,
which
was
the
target
demographic
Twi>er
followers:
1,000
The Reward (again)?
Ford’s
campaign
is
doing
beer
than
even
they
hoped
for.
YouTube
is
a
proven
medium,
but
it
can
be
difficult
to
tell
whether
a
call
to
acCon
works
as
well
as
it
a
tradiConal
commercial.
Clearly,
it
does.

7. The Power of First
In
all
of
these
scenarios,
the
companies
were
the
first
in
their
class
to
try
these
new
markeCng
styles.
It’s
easy
to
copycat;
being
first
is
extremely
seminal
in
having
a
successfully
risky
markeCng
campaign.
All
of
these
contained
risk
–
calculated
risk.
Nobody
went
off
the
deep
end.
Everybody
took
a
lile
gamble
and
got
out
of
the
box.
Risk Matters.
With
a
creaCve
mind
and
the
necessary
tools,
you
too
can
create
content
markeCng
iniCaCves
that
are
just
a
lile
zany.
You
don’t
need
a
million-­‐dollar
budget
for
creaCvity.
Think
hard,
do
research,
and
make
your
calculated
markeCng
risk.
If you do, who knows – you
could have your cake and
eat it too.

8. Content Equals Money
Content
Equals
Money
is
a
content
wriCng
service
that
serves
a
wide
variety
of
clients
with
top-­‐shelf,
sharable
content.
Our
goal
is
to
work
with
small
companies
in
order
to
help
them
reap
the
same
results
from
content
markeCng
as
the
Fortune
500
companies.
Content
markeCng
is
truly
scalable
and
can
work
for
all
businesses
and
business
sizes!