I’ve been reading the comments around the Internet on the TV wedding proposal last night. Of course, not everyone is happy for Rand and Geraldine. Reasons vary from hating public displays of affection to feeling robbed that the SuperBowl didn’t run the proposal, (I think whoever made that decision not to run it made a foolish mistake), to bickering that this was just a marketing tactic.

Was this just a marketing tactic?

Heck no. But, Rand and the people who helped him pull this stunt off do know how to work the system. What they did is to create an online portfolio of what they can do as marketers.

Rand went to incredible trouble to create a wedding proposal. Only he knows for sure what drove him. Yes, he deeply loves his fiance. And yes, he has sales blood in him.

It’s something I don’t have and could use a lot more of. I’m content to work behind the scenes. This is not the way with someone like Rand and people like him. They create a world of excitement that surrounds them wherever they go.

I was thinking about how SEOMoz.org can convert all the publicity into sales leads. I’m not saying they want to. What I’m saying is that from the perspective of their website, which is about their services, the steady stream of incoming traffic is usually coming to their blog. Today, there is gigantic horde of people visiting because of the wedding proposal videos and TV commerical last night.

Some people are commenting that this whole thing was done for “linkbait” or to be Dugg or otherwise hit the social media airwaves. I doubt this was the incentive, but it is certainly a by-product of doing something like this. However, rather than throwing a sales lead form at everyone during this period of time, Rand and Geraldine are off somewhere celebrating their engagement.

Could they convert these visitors to potential customers? Do they have call to action links on the blog thread persuading visitors to inquire about services while they are posting or reading congratulations posts? Is there momentum built into the SEOmoz blog to keep the multitude of people on their website?

No.

People can certainly linger on the SEOMoz site if they wish to, but most will watch the video somewhere else and never visit SEOMoz. If this was linkbait, it was misdirected to the wrong target market. How many web site owners watch the Veronica Mars show? I’ve never heard of it. Had it aired during the SuperBowl, how many viewers would have recognized Rand? The commercial never mentions his company or what he does for a living. Nor, does her “reaction video”.

Was the incentive a marketing ploy? I seriously don’t believe that. What he did demonstrate, along with the help of some marketing friends, is how this can be done. It took six months, a ton of money, travel, secrets, and a clever pre-run marketing campaign. They educated us by making their steps public (and raising funds for the Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital in the process), and Rand demonstrated the skills his company can bring to the table if you wish to hire them.

This is no longer the man who wears his trademark yellow shoes to conferences to be remembered.

Did this highly public proposal bring forth links? Gosh yes. Traffic? Definitely. The kind that makes servers cry. Will everyone know them wherever they go? Yes, for about two weeks and then they melt back into the universe again as regular folks.

Did they ask any of us to place an order for search engine marketing services after we viewed the videos?

No.

Sometimes the thing that drives us the most is loving somebody very much.

Stumble it!