The Rise of Side Project Marketing: Part 1

Let us get one thing straight first: there is a significant difference between having a side project and side project marketing! Say, for instance, you have a start-up company. Your side project may be building a race car from scratch in your garage at home – this is a passion project pretty much completely unrelated to your business.

On the other hand, side project marketing is where you create additional alternative marketing plans (as well as the main plans you already have) to provide something which adds additional value to consumers. You are basically giving away free, valuable content to consumers in the hope that they will come back as potential customers. Although it may seem silly to divert your time and attention away from your main business, side project marketing can, in fact, lead to some amazing results and can be far more effective than blog posts or infographics.

It has become common for people to start ignoring adverts, or simply blocking them out. The truth is that people don’t like being interrupted in what they are doing, so although you are able to get your brand in front of many faces by planting your ad in the middle of a Facebook video, you won’t make yourself incredibly popular with the person who was enjoying that ‘Funny Cats Compilation’! Therefore, side project marketing can be effective in contacting your users over time by earing it with your side project.

The Rise of Side Project Marketing: Part 1

 

Unsplash, a free picture database, is an excellent example of side project marketing. Many companies, from start-ups to larger businesses, are in need of high-quality images for their blogs and social media, however, using a stock image isn’t really ‘cool’ anymore. Unsplash explained that it “started as a simple tool for creators. The concept was born from the pain we had in finding great usable imagery. Today, Unsplash is a platform fuelled by a community that has generously gifted hundreds of thousands of their own photos”.

The site contains over 200,000 free, incredible qualities, high-resolution images brought to consumers by a community of photographers. For many marketers, this database is a dream come true – no more posed, awkward stock photos! Unsplash has completely taken off and gets an incredible 11 million unique visitors every month. Did you know, however, that this very successful site was a side marketing project for another company?

Check out the article later his week to find out more about this side project marketing success! 

Written by

Total Merchandise | Editoral Team

Our editorial team is drawn from a pool of experienced promotional merchandise product team members, account managers, marketers and other contributors. With such a wide range of skills and experience, they write about many aspects of promotional merchandise, wider marketing and business matters, as well as company news updates.

Connect with Total Merchandise on LinkedIn Connect with Total Merchandise on LinkedIn

Total Merchandise
A New Take on the January Blues with Promotional Merchandise

A New Take on the January Blues with Promotional Merchandise

The January blues: the phrase that we've become accustomed to using to describe January. The month of cold weather, dark mornings, the post-Christmas come down, and the poss

Get Ahead of The Competition with Best-Selling Sports Merchandise

Get Ahead of The Competition with Best-Selling Sports Merchandise

With 84% of Brits having watched some sort of sport on the BBC alone last summer, it's fair to say that we're a nation of sports fans. Whether it was the FA Cup final, W

Cheers! Our Top Picks Of Promotional Drinkware This Spring

Cheers! Our Top Picks Of Promotional Drinkware This Spring

With temperatures reaching a welcomed 20+ degrees Celsius across parts of the UK this week, it's only fitting that we take a look at our spring and summer-friendly branded d

This Just In! Total Merchandise Voted Distributor of the Year 2024

This Just In! Total Merchandise Voted Distributor of the Year 2024

We're delighted to tell you that we've been voted Promotional Merchandise Distributor of the Year in the 2024 edition of the Sourcing City Awards. Incredibly, th

The TM Edit: Best Christmas Gifts For Customers In 2024

The TM Edit: Best Christmas Gifts For Customers In 2024

With autumn officially here, it's safe to say that Christmas is fast approaching. And whether you're ready to deck the halls with boughs of holly or are more reluctant t

The Best Promotional Christmas Decorations For 2024

The Best Promotional Christmas Decorations For 2024

Halloween has been, which can only mean one thing: Christmas is firmly on the horizon! It's almost time to deck the halls and get the tree up - but first, get insp