How can I sell a company my idea for advertising their product?

One way is to put it on Youtube.

@AlfredaPrufrock: Well, it’s really just a sentence. I don’t have the means to make a youtube video. And uh, how exactly would that work anyway? It wouldn’t be copyrighted, right?

A lot of market research should go into the creative for the ads, but usually they skimp on that, because creatives feel like they know their market segment without research.

You need to find out who does advertising for them? Chances are they do not do it themselves. You then prop the idea to them through a meeting.

You could find out who the VP of marketing or brand manager is, and write them. VP of marketing would be on their website. Depending on the size of the company, they should have a brand manager who dictates creative direction to the ad agency. Someone has to approve the campaign.

Most companies monitor the internet for mention of their company name or products.

What’s the product?

@judochop: Thanks for the advice. I’m not sure how far your marketing knowledge extends, but, basically, how do I get them to take me seriously enough to agree to a meeting with me?

@AlfredaPrufrock: I PMed the product name to you.

Also, everyone, if I am able to do this, how much is reasonable to sell a simple jingle idea for?

Okay, now we know who, but need to find out specifically who. It only has value if their current campaign doesn’t meet their sales projections. Is the brand struggling? New competition?

@AlfredaPrufrock: I honestly have no idea nor any idea how to find that out. I’m pretty sure their main competitor has been that name that begins with an M that everyone associates with this type of problem.

I sent you the yahoo link for the page. I do think the brand management would take notice, but you would have to have proof that your jingle would have sales impact. That would require designing some sort of market testing of what you’ve come up with to but metrics around it.

Cool!

Do not post that on Youtube. They will want control of their jingle, and if it’s been viewed on Youtube, they may not accept it.

If you build a presentation around the jingle and display the same confidence and passion you showed on this thread, then I’m sure you’ll be able to convince them that your jingle is worth their money. You also seem knowledgeable about the products, so use that to your advantage. I honestly don’t know how much money a jingle is worth.

Remember JackAdams? He sold movie plots. Maybe his advice is useful in selling an idea for a commercial.

I agree with you about the M thing.

One thing you could do is call Andrea and ask her how you should go about pitching the idea to the company. They only have 489 total employees. Voice of the customer is important. Will they pay you for it depends on brand performance.

You do have the GirlofScience thing working in your favor…

@AlfredaPrufrock: Thank you so much for these ideas and the information! You seem knowledgeable about marketing. Do you have any idea what the going rate for a jingle idea is? (If they really wanted me to, I could write the music to the jingle as well. I am a great piano player and can write music, but I have no composing experience and nothing to show for it, nor anything to show for my marketing/business skills, at all.)

I just feel so naive, and I don’t have any clue if I should be expecting $1,000 or $100,000, haha.

Usually the creative is the least expensive portion of a campaign. Most of the money goes to media placement.

The funny thing with marketing is that a lot of it is meeting sales projections.