This weekend we followed through on one of our hair-brained guerilla marketing ideas. Hatched months ago, we could barely wait for this day to arrive.

If you are a Mariners fan, or just a baseball fan in general you probably hate the Yankees, unless of course you live in NY. And no one is more loathed than Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod) who left the Mariners and the fans that beloved him all in the name of cash. The $120 million or so the Mariners were offering was not nearly enough to buy Pay-Rod’s loyalty.

My personal run-in with his greatness, was outside of the Washington Athletic Club when as I was walking up the street towards him I witnessed him unwrap a piece of gum and just wad up the wrapper and throw it down in the street in front of him and me as he stared off into the distance. In his mind I wasn’t even there – I was nobody to be concerned with anyway. The thing that struck me, other than the incredibly bad manners, was the giant ego one must have to act so rudely right out in the open. I’ve rarely witnessed somebody litter – let alone a superstar. This is exactly the kind of attitude that has nicknamed him “The Cooler” because every team he joins gets better after he leaves.

This year A-Roid was caught taking steroids and finally admitted as much – very awkwardly, a couple of times. You can see the various confessions on YouTube. He also earned a new moniker this year: Stray-Rod when he was caught cheating on his wife who claims he emotionally abandoned both her and his children while philandering. It’s widely reported that he’s now dating Kate Hudson. Run Kate Run.

So with a fresh new batch of ammunition we decided to put a spin on a Mariner fan tradition of throwing out play money when he comes to bat. Our spin – we’d use real money. Of course, we also had to put a sticker on each dollar bill with a clever message (and our logo!). Here’s some of the messages that were used:

• Hit LEGITIMATE marketing home runs.
• Put your marketing on steroids.
• All the marketing power without the acne, needles, or shrinkage.
• Great marketing results, no asterisks needed.
• Cousin recommended email marketing.
• Legal in all 50 states, and the Dominican Republic.
• You can call us E-Broad.
• Marketing that actually hits when it counts.
• Even Scott Boras can’t get you a better deal on your email marketing.
• We’re willing to play for less than $33 million per year.
• Recession put a “Cooler” on your business? Call us.
• Email Marketing so good, your clients will feel “touched for the very first time.”
• Results so good, even YOU can afford the material girl.

We also put a more serious message on every note about Fighting Spam with a web URL. The lack of prosecution for spammers is pathetic – but I’ll leave that for another post.

So what could you do to get noticed that’s a bit outrageous? Think about it.

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