In 1964, the “thinking person’s game show,” “Jeopardy,” aired for the first time. And it is now one of the longest-running TV game shows of all time.
Jeopardy is defined as “hazard or risk of or exposure to loss, harm, death, or injury.” In the game show Jeopardy, the real jeopardy the players experience is not knowing the answers and leaving the show after only one episode. Which, by the way 2/3 of all jeopardy players do each and every day the show airs!
What does all this have to do with marketing? If you play your game right you could create your own form of jeopardy and up the odds of participants “success,” create some goodwill in the community and stand head and shoulders ahead of the “competition.” Just by playing a silly little mind game. Well, not really silly. Millionaires have been produced on the popular television show. Here are a few ideas to use Jeopardy Day in your marketing strategies:
Host a Jeopardy Street Party
Partner with the Chamber of Commerce to have a Jeopardy Game with fabulous prizes from local merchants (yours being one of them)
Have customers participate in a month-long jeopardy challenge.
Post daily answers to questions online and have your audience either fill out an online form with the questions or have a drop box in your establishment that they can stop by and leave the questions.
Create a top ten ways the client/customer can be in jeopardy if they don’t do XYZ (something pertaining to your business). For instance if you are in a green business such as solar power you could create bookmark or postcard with the header: “Don’t be in jeopardy of overspending on energy. Here are the top ten ways to save energy (create your list). Check out this eHow article: How to ~ Top 10 ways to Make Your Home Green for some inspiration. Tie the postcard or bookmark into your new Jeopardy game by adding a call-to-action phrase about participating in your Jeopardy GAME.
Some Jeopardy trivia:
Ken Jennings currently holds the title for most wins on the show. He has won 74 times in a row.
The dollar values of the categories were doubled in 2001. The lowest value was $200 in round one, the highest $1000, and the lowest in round two $400 and the highest $2000.
On March 16, 2007, for the first time ever, the final question resulted in a three-way tie among the contestants (Jamey Kirby, Anders Martinson and Scott Weiss). They each won $16,000 after correctly identifying Bonnie Parker, of the infamous Bonnie and Clyde, to a question regarding women of the ’30s.
On the 19 January 1993 program, then Air Force Lt. Col. Daryl Scott won a game with only $1.
For more Jeopardy trivia visit The Internet Movie Database
Also on this day in history
In 1987 auction at Christie’s in London, Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” sold for $39.7 million ($76.6 million in 2010 dollars).
Today is also:
Passover (began at sundown Mar 29)
Doctors’ Day
Be sure to check out Quirky Marketing Calendar ~ How to Use Zany and Non-traditional Holidays to Promote Your Business 365 Days a Year for More great marketing ideas.
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