Smell My Feet, Give Me Something Good to Drink
For the last 15 years, my family and I have handed out something a little unusual to neighborhood trick-or-treaters on Halloween: cold bottles of water instead of candy.
It started out of simple practicality. If you’ve ever spent an October evening in Central Florida, you know that roaming the neighborhood in a heavy costume—putting forth your absolute best “trick-or-treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat”—takes a toll. The humidity and heat are brutal.
By the time the kids hit our driveway, they already have pillowcases overflowing with fun-sized diabetic coma inducing treats. So, one year, we decided to offer cold bottles of water.
The first year? You could hear the kids groan as they walked up. But right behind them, the parents would gasp, "Oh man, what a wonderful idea!"
By Year Two, something funny happened. The kids actually came up the driveway looking for the water. The parents started asking if they could have a bottle, too, as they shepherded their denizens of the night down the sidewalk.
Fifteen years later, it’s a full-fledged holiday tradition. In fact, several of our neighbors—in both our old neighborhood and our new one—have picked up the mantle and started handing out water, too.
What started as an alternative to keep the neighborhood bratkins hydrated turned into something far bigger. But the thing that stands out most to me is that in Year One, it wasn't well received. It was different, and different makes people hesitate.
Your company’s marketing should work the exact same way.
Most businesses spend Halloween—and the rest of the year—doing what everyone else is doing: dumping more candy into an already overflowing bucket. They copy their competitors, put out the same generic noise, and terrorize the market with messages nobody asked for.
Effective marketing requires you to step back and ask:
- Are you pushing the envelope to find a message that is genuinely unique?
- Are you solving an actual, immediate need for your client rather than just throwing more clutter at them?
- What are you doing to stand out so that, even if prospects are unsure at first, they eventually start actively seeking you out?
When you offer real value, initial skepticism turns into long-term demand.
Don't be afraid to hand out water in a sea of fun-sized candy bars. Effective marketing isn't scary—it just works.
Happy Halloween from all of us at The Small Marketing Agency!
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