I think these guys were picked for drama and television more than all the previous casts put together. They are immature with not much between the ears. Their emotional quotient (EQ) is so low, kindergarten teachers would be needed to help them grow. I read these resumes and I wonder how in the world they became as successful as they are, get to run their own companies, and make that much money. How can they be as successful as they are without having BASIC ideas about how to create buzz?
Let’s take this week and blow it apart.
This week, Gold Rush and Synergy were tasked with using text messaging to get as many people to find out about the new Gillette Fusion Razor. The winning team had something like 800 text messages. Now is it just me or is this just a woefully, poor, lousy number?
Basic knowledge of how to create buzz would have led me to to three things:
The Power of Email
I would have bought the cheapest and largest email list I possibly could and developed an email blast. The email would have invited the receipients to text message my secret word to a certain number for a reward--like a free razor or a discount coupon.
Sure, spam blocking software would have prevented some from getting through, but THOUSANDS of people would have received the email.
Viewers don't know if the candidates can contact friends and family while in jail at Trump Tower. If they can, I don't know why they didn't pool their email lists and send an email to their friends asking them to forward the message to others. Viral email campaigns are tremendously successful.
Whether using personal lists or bought lists, there has to be a way to track who invites whom. The power of getting a better prize for getting more people to text message would have exponentially grown the total.
Logistically, this could have been handled by:
1. Tacking ones cell phone or email address onto the special code.
2. Creating special codes for each person. Software could track which special codes were for each team.
3. There are nearly free services like MyEmma that could do all of this for you. An industrious candidate can surely leverage national advertising for MyEmma against their services.
Health Clubs
Guys shave. Where are guys in the morning? They are at the health club or subway stations. I would have gone to the health clubs and told the health club owners that they would get a free spot on national television if they would let me talk to the guys on bicycles and treadmills, lifting free weights, and taking classes. Take the cameras in, do a 45 second pitch for the razor, then leave a ton of samples in the locker rooms. Nothing like a satisfied customer to boost sales.
Simply signage in the locker rooms would direct them to take out their cell phones and text message for the prize.
This task would have taken just a few hours, 5 - 9 a.m. One team of 3 could have hit the health clubs while others are doing other tasks.
Radio
Part of this task was public buzz on the streets. Nothing like a radio station to help you create that. I would have worked on a radio station to do a local live broadcast from somewhere in New York City. Personally, I would have liked to find a radio host who wanted to shave his moustashe or beard. But nevertheless, you do something to get the listeners come out. They get prizes, CDs, books, you name it, and they shave there on the streets of New York. I would have set up basins, creme, and razors so that people who were walking up could have tried out the razor. They could have shaved on the streets of New York, right there, and then text messaged for their prize. The radio station would get a free ad on national television. They’d have a great live promotional event and we would have gotten tons of text messages.
Those three things would have been easy to arrange, relatively speaking, and would have garnered thousands of text messages instead of just hundreds.
In General
"The Apprentice" is the prime example of using long format ads, product placement, in a show to avoid TiVo. Every week, one or two advertisers get the spotlight and there is no way to avoid it. They even get bloggers like me to write about them and put pictures on their own websites about it. Pretty cool, huh? But in the bigger picture, Trump is really hiring these people. The grand prize is--a job! There’s not a million dollar check or nothing like that. These people get hired. If I were Trump I’d really want to know how these people operate.
Here's my dream "Apprentice" season. Trump is in real estate. Take one of his high rises with empty apartments. I would have 20 apartments, one for each player whom I’m drafting. Each apartment is gutted. There’s nothing in there except the structure and the door. The task is to fully build out, sell or lease the apartment in 13 weeks. Here’s your budget. You’ve got to fully furnish it with this money, and here’s your salary. You will be paid every Friday. Let’s see how you handle your own money. You’ve got to find an apartment and live in it while you’re here. Every week we will check on your progress, how you’re doing against your budget, how you’re spending your personal fund. Whoever isn't making significant progress gets fired. Their aparment is handed to one of the other players. As a matter of fact, I might bring in 50 people and fire 25 the first week. That way, the 25 remaining have 2 apartments. Fire 12 the 3rd week, something like that. And the money gets rolled in, the salary gets rolled in, etc. And see how these people really operate in a real estate world. See if they are worth it. That’s who I would want to hire.
