Anyone that has driven west across South Dakota knows about a little drug store called Wall Drug. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Drug  Located in the diminutive town of Wall, South Dakota, Wall Drug is resident Ted Husted’s tourist destination through nothing less 50-years of brilliant self-promotion.  The initial promotion started back in the 1930’s. As Wikipedia reports, “Business was very slow until his wife, Dorothy, got the idea to advertise free iced water to parched travelers along the road. From that time on business was brisk. Wall Drug grew into an enormous cowboy-themed shopping mall/department store.” By 1981 they reported serving over 20,000 cups of ice water per day, which is pretty impressive for a little town of 231 residents.

(If you haven’t heard of Wall Drug’s promotions, my friends further south tell me it is similar to the “See Rock City” campaigns for this icon in Chattanooga, TN).

I was reminded of Wall Drug recently while out driving in south-western Minnesota, some 500 miles from Wall, SD. They had a little road sign near the highway saying something like: “Been to Wall Drug lately?”  By erecting billboards across neighboring states, Wall Drug has created itself as a destination. The closer you get to Wall on highway 90 the more billboards you will see. Nearly every mile or two you’ll see a billboard ranging from 2’ x 3’ to 50’ x 80’ reminding you to visit Wall Drug.

But, they also use their billboard strategy across the world. One billboard in Amsterdam read: “5397 Miles to Wall Drug.” That concept got me thinking, is it really effective to post a billboard over 5,000 miles from a brick-n-mortar store?

For the most part, the folks at Wall Drug are direct marketers. They have “profiled” me by the fact that I’m in a car driving toward Wall, likely a hot/stuffy one, and I just may need a break. They’ve exploited the fact that I’m probably weary of the repetitive (albeit beautiful) scenery of middle South Dakota. And, they’ve taken this a step further by posting signs in nearby states, assuming at some point I’ll be that guy in the car and I’ll need a break when I’m driving to Mount Rushmore. Also, they’ve taken that a step further by branding themselves across the globe, presumably such that future international tourists will stop on their way to Mount Rushmore to see what all the fuss is about.

In the automobile days of the 50’s throughout the 90’s a billboard was a great way to make an impact on a new audience. As Americans begin to drive less due to fuel costs, what will replace the Great American Billboard? Can email be the answer?

Since over 95% of the population uses email, it has developed the reach and importance in our daily lives to allow marketers to create an online brand that scales much beyond what you might predict, much like Wall Drug has using older methods. Here’s the difference, the reach is actually bigger and isn’t limited to likely buyers based on proximity or chance. In fact, the timely nature and targeting capabilities of an email program integrated with other web technologies brings us opportunities for customer interactions the world has yet to see. Take concepts such as “out of stock” notifications, or “single use coupons” delivered via email, for an example. This is like Wall Drug beaming a coupon to approaching cars or catching them on the way back from Rushmore with a “now in stock” message. Try that with a billboard!

My pal Morgan Stewart recently presented some of these concepts at eTail East 2008 in Washington, D.C., and the folks at catalog success wrote about it. Great stuff!
See: http://www.catalogsuccess.com/story/story.bsp?sid=115096&var=story&3970