American Idol Marketing Lessons: Bikini Girl

I needed to interrupt my series on advertising to share with you some lessons from Tuesday's American Idol.

Now in their 8th season, the question that remains is what do you have to do to...

no, not win.

what do you have to do to get on TV and create a name for yourself.

There are hundreds who will audition for the show, and some are just plain awful, and if you get on TV because you suck, then you have done the 2009 version of crapping your pants in front of the world.

Those that know you will make fun of you, and eventually you will forgotten except as one of the losers on the Idol Blooper reel. You can't make any money that way.

So, take the opposite approach like Katrina Darrell did and create a positive impression. She created a niche as the Bikini Girl and she did a fair job of singing. She was rewarded with a ticket to Hollywood to compete in the first round.

And here's what has happened overnight.
As I was driving to work, I scanned three radio stations, including the news/talk station and all three made mention of her and even played an audio clip of her.
She is all over the web on both blogs and traditional media websites.
She needs an agent and she needs to get signed up for some endorsement deals this week as the American Idol Bikini Girl.

She will not win the crown, she's not that good of a singer, but she has her niche and she needs to focus on that as long as possible.

Quite frankly if Billy Mays can create a niche by yelling at people and make millions, Katrina should be able to rake in a few dollars while she is riding her 15 minutes of fame.