If you want to use timing in your communications to distinguish yourself, a non-traditional, innovative and thoughtful initiative might help you!

This is the perfect example that caught my attention with its boldness, its deployment and its results, despite the fact that it occurred 10 years ago.

Halfway is a very small town in Oregon, USA, with a population of 337 rural inhabitants. In the early 2000s, the city seemed disconnected from the tech bubble. Its people had no computers, no Internet, and saw no reason to get them.

At the same time, a new company named Half.com, like many others specialized in selling used items on the Internet (books, CDs, movies, etc.), was wondering how to get a maximum number of visitors with a minimum investment.

They offered $100,000, (to buy computers for half the population, pay half of the Internet bill and other financial considerations) to the town of Halfway, so it would change its name to Half.com. This unusual and innovative idea required the majority of their marketing budget. The city council accepted the proposal and Halfway changed its name to Half.com.

Supported by a campaign based on public relations, this marketing strategy caught the attention of ALL the American news media.

Results

CNN, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Good Morning America, NY Times, and dozens of others have published the story about Half.com, becoming the first city « .com » in the world.

The next day, « NBC’s Today Show » broadcast live from the small town of Oregon and the head office of Half.com in Pennsylvania during the launch of their website. Millions of users around the world visited and used the website in the first few days.

Following this « advertisement, » the website’s visits skyrocketed so much that less than a year later, E-Bay bought Half.com (the company) for 350 million dollars.

Times magazine ranked this strategy among the 10 best advertising stunts of all time.

A stunt that originally could have gone unnoticed instead caused unprecedented worldwide exposure and brought in more than 2000 times the initial investment!

This is a proof that when you rely on timing, you have to make sure that your ideas are integrated into a good strategy that has been thought through.

www.half.com

Good strategy … untraditional!