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The adverts that sold a million drumskins
Attention marketing students! If you want success in the cut-throat industry of selling stuff forget everything you’ve been taught and read on…
What I’m going to show you here is the advertising strategy that sold (give or take) a million drum heads, and put CUSTOM SKINS firmly on the map as one of the most highly respected organisations out there, across all industries and every market in the world.
It’s called the FOUR SEASONS method, and consists of four advertisements covering every season and all four of the primary human emotions.
WINTER
This advert is all about fear. The slogan ‘CUSTOMSKINS.CO.UK CAUSES DRUMSKINS’ is blunt and sinister, and ‘CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN’ hammers the fear factor home with nails of terror. Of course, if you did fly to America to consult your physician (physicians don’t exist here in the UK) the cost of private medical treatment would make a custom drum head an attractive proposition cost-wise. That’s what makes this advert so effective in converting sales.
SPRING
Everyone wants something for nothing, and spring is the time to get out there Kayaking. That’s what makes this advert so effective. Of course, there is no Kayak (let alone a SEA kayak), but that doesn’t matter. The reader is associating the kayak with a custom skin, and associating the word ‘WIN’ with the word ‘BUY’. Marketing gold.
SUMMER
The summer is when everyone is spending all their money on beer and failed military coups. It’s a terrible time to try and sell custom drum heads. Try it! That’s why you have to target an older, wealthier market, who are determined to spend every last penny of your inheritance on worthless garbage. The words ‘luxury’, ‘comfort’ and ‘golf’ are guaranteed to get the older guys drooling, and the subliminal drum head in the background does the rest. BAM!
CHRISTMAS
As any marketing professional knows, you can literally sell anything to anyone at Christmas. Jay-Z famously sold ice in the winter, and water to a well. That’s why you don’t have to put much effort in – in fact, the lower the effort, the higher your ROI. This advert is particularly effective thanks to it’s nonsensical tagline, and the illegible web address with hints of Christmas, resulting in one of the highest grossing magazine ads in advertising history.
So there you go. The FOUR SEASONS METHOD. Use it carefully, for it is powerful.
All the above advertisements appeared in DRUMMER magazine.
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How we made the new Customskins website
Hi guys,
Welcome to the new Customskins website!
I know what you're thinking right – are there not laws about this sort of desecration? There ARE, but contrary to what you may have believed the old customskins website was not a world heritage site, grade 1 listed building, or area of outstanding natural beauty (HAHAHA). So we made a new one, and demolished the old one using the 'drag into the recycle bin' technique. Here's one last look:
Say goodbye – the next occassion you'll see that badboy will be in hell.
Here's how we made the brand new CustomSkins 2013 website in 6 easy steps:
1. We started with a dream
Remember when your parents tell you that you can do anything that you want in life, right, and you're all like MUM I WANT TO DO A SLIGHTLY BETTER VERSION OF THE CUSTOM SKINS WEBSITE and she's like son, don't take it too literally and I'm not even your real mum ok? Well, we bothered anyway.
As Wayne Gretsky once said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don't take”. This was our shot, and we took it.
2. A dream isn't enough so we used money
Naturally there's pretty severe limitations as to what you can do with a dream, some Holz reinforcers and that plunger we once used to demonstrate the size of the Stageworks matt on the custom skins blog, so I called some guys who tap on computers for a living. They needed money to buy more androids or weblogs or something so they agreed to arrange some 1s and 0s in such a way as we would have a new website, in exchange for money. Seemed like a great idea so we bit their hands off! Then we had to pay to have them reattached. More money wasted!
3. We got some celebs to help
Without celebrities nothing has any worth at all and the world is just a load of people wandering around trying not to punch each other. In order to add weight to our offering we got some genuine professionals on board who have used customskins, and are willing to concede that success in the music industry is 20% talent and 80% having the right customskin.
4. We designed cool bits so you feel special
Like the gallery, which we've updated a bit, and the user area where you can, err, use the site within a specific area? I guess.
You can do all the ordering online and you can see the status of your order and you can probably do other stuff? Let us know in the comments!
5. We assuaged your guilt
I know, you're feeling bad about all the work we've done on this, and you haven't done anything. Right?
Well to make you feel better we've put the price of delivery up to something approaching what it actually costs to deliver a drum head. Don't mention it, guys!
6. We didn't *quite* finish it
You know you want to design drum heads on our website, and I know I want you to design drum heads on our website. All my contacts on match.com know you want to design drum heads on our website. We can almost do it. It's just, y'know… give us a bit of time.
So there you go. Using this formula you can start your own successful ecommerce website. Thank you for visiting our new site!
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The 2nd Best Christmas present in the world ever!
As everyone knows, the best Christmas present in the whole world is a custom skin from Custom Skins. We know this because The Duke of Cambridge is buying one for The Dutchess of Cambridge, and vice-versa. We already had our 'by appointment to the Queen' warrant from when we printed big drumskins for some kind of royal marching band, and when we did the drum heads for Queen.
BUT what if you need a stocking filler and have run out of coal, satsumas and broken glass? Don't worry guys, I've sorted it.
Presenting…
GOODNIGHT KEITH MOON. A book!
Yep, it is a book I'm afraid guys, but don't worry, it's mostly pictures. Based on the classic children's book 'Goodnight Moon', this beautiful piece of literature is in quite poor taste but pretty damn amusing as a result. Here's what THE NEWYORKER had to say:
“Morbidly funny … this book has something for all ages. For the grandparent, a nostalgic game of find the Who reference; the parent, a sad reminder of how cool things used to be; and for the kid, tucked into bed listening to the the most inappropriate bed time story ever, a lesson: old people are weird [and] alcohol kills.”
This book makes a great gift for anyone interested in drumming, Keith Moon, or drug overdoses. And the great news is that here at Customskins we have non-exclusive rights to sell it direct to you!
Here's the deal..
You supply us with £6.99 using the PayPal link below. We will then pack the book in a special padded envelope and dispatch it to your door. If you would like me to sign it or write a special festive inscription to your loved one simply email me upon payment. Did I mention I'm paying for the shipping out of my own pocket? I am!*
*Technically I'm not.
Shipping to those of you lucky enough not to reside in the United Kingdom will incur an additional premium of my choosing.
Seriously guys, this is a terrific and only slightly upsetting gift. Why not buy a highly recommended product from a company you trust? Because there's no time! Here's the payment link:
Quantity 1 Copy FREE SHIPPING £6.99 GBP
2 Copies FREE SHIPPING £12.00 GBP
Thanks!!!
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The Great Customskins Giveaway Part 4 – Win 2 AMAZING drumming items!!!
Hello compers.
It’s been a while since the last blog post. How are you? In case you haven’t noticed it’s now 2011. I thought I’d better post a little somethin’ somethin’ up or the blog post following directly on from the Customskins Review of 2010 will be the Customskins Review of 2011, and we’ll all be a little closer to our graves without any blog bants.
Fortunately, we’ve teamed up with hot new drum accesorisers STAGEWORKS to give away not one but two amazing new drumming products!!!
First up, we have the amazing new Stageworks matt. Hold up though! You wouldn’t want to scrape the dead hedgehogs off the soles of your shows on THIS badboy. Oh no. It’s a special musical instrumenty matt which stops your whole bass drum pedal falling in the lake or onto the tracks. Oh yes. Here’s what it the box looks like:
Look at that! It has triple triple layer technology, like a club sandwich! And you get two of them. Here’s some photographic evidence of what it does:
To give you an idea of size, here it is next to a sledgehammer:
Pretty sweet huh? Go and clear a space in your livingroom for it.
NEXT PLEASE
The next item we are giving away is a StageWorks Rimma. I know what you’re thinking! Yes, it is manufactured by the same company as the matts.
This is a device for holding your sticks/jazz cigarettes whilst you’re playing the drums. Without one your sticks are going to be in the canal and you’re going to be airdrumming. EMBARRASING! Here’s what the product looks like:
Pretty sweet huh? And the inside of the box is all gold and satiny like a gift from God:
Here they are! Once again, you get two:
Once again, so you can clear some space, here’s one next to a sledgehammer:
So there we have it. Stageworks assure us that these are crucial accessories for any tubthumper, but to make absolutely sure we tested them on famous drum player Neil Peart. Here’s the results:
WITHOUT STAGEWORKS MATT AND RIMMA:
Neil doesn’t look very happy, does he? Let’s try it…
WITH STAGEWORKS MATT AND RIMMA:
Result! They work. Neil is now a very happy chap indeed.
Here’s the competition bit!
To win BOTH items simply answer the following multiple choice question in the comments. As ever, one of the entries will win. Here’s the question:
What other product has a suggestive name?
I will personally pick a winner on the 30th September, and they can start clearing some space in their lounge. Good luck!
Oh, and if you don’t win I STRONGLY recommend you buy these products anyway. They’re very good and not very expensive and will make your life better:
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The Great Customskins Giveaway Part 3 – Win an even more awesome thing
Unless you’ve been trapped down a mine, you’ll know that last month we gave away a truly awesome Kickport as part of the Great Customskins Giveaway. The competition was so popular that we briefly considered giving away all our products rather than selling them. Our accountant, however, suggested this was likely to cause issues with our revenue stream, and ultimately cause homelessness, drug addiction, and death. He recommended we instead give away things occasionally, rather than relying on it as our core business. So that’s what we’re going to do.
Let me introduce you to this handsome candidate:
It’s a DW 2000 bass drum pedal. The origin of the name remains unclear, but I suspect that DW stands for David Wright, who played a defensive role for Ipswich Town from 2006 to 2009. The 2000 presumably correlates to the amount of goals that were conceded during this period.
Disclosure time: Whilst we’re extremely generous people here at customskins HQ, our generosity wouldn’t be possible without the generosity of others. In this case the generosity is on the part of Drumshack. Drumshack is an amazing drum shop in Battersea, South London, who specialise in new and used drum gear. I particularly like their range of vintage drum kits and shiny Bosphorus cymbals, but that’s just me. You might prefer their charming staff and winning prices.When I first moved down to London from David Wright country I visited Drumshack, which back then was literally just a shack on the muddy bank of the Thames with a couple of congas in. They treated me like a real person, even though I wasn’t, and we’ve been comrades ever since.
But anyway, you’re probably more interested in the DavidWright2000, and how you can get your neanderthal mitts on it:
- The DW2000 is for drummers.
- It fits onto the drum kit somewhere.
- It’s engineered in the USA, which probably means it’s actually manufactured somewhere with nice food.
- It’s suitable for a range of musical applications. I just played it like a cello.
- It’s got single post casting. I don’t know what this means, but it’s probably not as good as double or triple post casting.
So, in an antiques roadshow stylee, you probably wanna know how much this behemoth of bass bashing is worth. CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT.
Not bad huh?!
The Competition
In order to win this amazing piece of hardware engineered in the good ‘ol USA and made out of solid METAL just answer the following trivia question in the comments. We will pick a winner on Wednesday 17th November, and send them the DW2000.
If the name DW2000 is nothing to do with football, what do you think it might stand for?
Best of luck! If you don’t win it why not swap some money for one instead?
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Brilliantly clear drum heads for a Brilliant Comrade
This is a blog post about something specific. The specific topic of this post is custom printed clear bass drum heads. Before you click onto something more interesting like Careygate or Eastwoodgate STOP! You owe it to your children's childen to read on.
Not a lot of people know this, but at customskins HQ we have loads of amazing electronic and analogue equipment which allows us to produce custom printed drum heads in a range of finishes that not even Professor Stephen Hawking could comprehend. Fortunately, we don't burden you with these baffling choices, and keep the exciting stuff for our own gratification.
One finish which frankly doesn't get enough recognition, though, is CLEAR. Yep, much like water, air, ice, and air, customskins are also available in clear. But there's more to it than meets the eye, and that's exactly what this informative blog post focuses on.
So, Tim @ customskins, how did you get the idea of the bumper clear drum skin blog edition? Well, Reader @ desk, we recently received a rather nice drum head order from a happening band called The First. Here it is:
Not much to see here, I hear you exclaim, other than massive shark! WRONG. Check this:
You see, it's like Transformers, except this was a drumskin all along! Similarly to Transformers, this drum head is also like the Sistine Chapel. Light flows through the translucent colours like a stained glass window. If you had a light in your bass drum you'd probably be visited by Jesus!
But here's the rub. You don't have to have translucent colour on a clear head. They can be solid as well! Like on this one:
You can even have a combination of translucent and solid colours! Wow!
I know this is quite difficult to comprehend, much like the West Midlands, so I've put together a more concise overview for your consumption:
Concise Overview
As you may have heard, it has been revealed that Kim Jong-un will be the next leader of the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea when current leader Kim Jong-il explodes or melts or something. Jong-un is a keen drummer, and uses Custom Skins from Customskins on his kit. Here's some drum heads for his new band pictured against the Diamond Mountains in North Korea, in order to demonstrate the different finishes. This was a dangerous and expensive photoshoot – I'm sure you'll agree it was worth it:
So that should all be clear right? RIGHT!
If you'd like to buy a clear custom bass drum head for your band or communist regime please email sales [at] customskins [dot] co [dot] uk
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The Great Customskins Giveaway 2 – win an awesome thing!
This blog post is a sequel to The Great Customskins Giveaway. Unlike most sequels though, this one is almost as good!
By the way, sorry for the lack of posts in, like, forever. We've been extremely busy here and I didn't want to alienate our loyal readership with substandard blog posts. But fear not, this post oozes quality from the first word to the very last.
As you can imagine, my finger is very much on the pulse when it comes to advancements in the drum mic hole reinforcement sector. I even attended HoleSafe2009, the annual industry trade fair. So it was with some excitement that I came across KickPort, a whole new way of strengthening your hole. Quivering, I called my dealer and explained to them my predicament:
Me: I have a predicament!
My dealer: What's your predicament?
Me: I don't have enough low-end! I don't have enough tone! I need more punch! I require a better feel!
My dealer: I may have just the thing to solve your low-end tonal punchy feeling problem!
Me: I know! The KickPort! Manufactured by KickPort International LLC in Petaluma, CA!
My dealer: Precisely! I've heard that Doane Perry of Jethro Tull has one, and his low-end has gone through the floor!
Me: Get me one immediately!
Several days later I received my brand new KickPort, the 5″ model with the white rim. It was like Christmas, but with less kittens to drown.
But there was a problem. I hadn't bargained on the epic proportions of the item; clearly a result of the American design and construction. Damn, I thought, this will never fly. Here's why:
Clearly this will never fly, let alone travel in a courier van without total decimation.
So it is with great sadness that we've decided to give away our KickPort. Here's a photo of it:
Isn't it beautiful? Here's a photo of the KickPort next to a plunger to give you an idea of size:
In case that doesn't give you an idea of the size, here's a photo of the KickPort next to a yellow plastic cow:
Now you have an idea of size, let me remind you of the facts:
– The KickPort stops your mic hole from tearing
– The KickPort makes you sound amazing
– The KickPort retails at £36.99
– This KickPort is 5″ and whiteTo win this amazing KickPort, reinforce your hole and become a real man simply answer the following trivia question. Please post your answer in the blog comments, and we'll pick the winner, contact you, and send you the KickPort!
If you had to kick a celebrity into a port, which port would it be?
Best of luck! The competition ends on Friday 13th August
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Hoodlum alert!
Sorry, no posts for ages – it’s all been very busy at the HQ. This isn’t a real blog post either, I just thought I’d share with you a rather amusing spam email we received today:
“This had to come in a hurry and it has left me in a devastating state.I’m in some terrible situation and I’m really going to need your urgent help. Some days ago,unannounced,I came to visit a resort center in South Glamorgan England, UK..Unfortunately I got mugged by some limey hoodlums on my way to the hotel where i lodged.All my money and all other vital documents including my credit cards and my cell phone have been stolen by the muggers, I’m financially stranded right now and my return flight leaves in few hours time but I need some money to clear some bills, I didn’t bring my cell phone along since I didn’t get to roam them before coming over. So all I can do now is pay cash and get out of here quickly this is embarrassing enough.I was wondering if you can loan me some cash, I’ll refund it to you as soon as I arrive home just need to clear my Hotel bills and get the next plane home, As soon as I get home I’ll refund it immediately. Write me so I can let you know how to send it.
Awaiting your response asap.
Thanks..”The good news is that thanks to the Great Customskins Price Rise we’re now in a position to help!
Proper blog soon.
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Customskins price rise – Great News for Everyone!
You may have noticed that Custom Skins Blog posts have been a little on the sparse side since Christmas. There’s a reason for this though; we’ve been working hard behind the scenes putting together perhaps the most explosive and exciting event in the history of customskins.co.uk…the Great Customskins 2010 Price Rise!
Stop rejoicing for one moment though, so I can give you some background. A story without background is like a picture without a background – photoshopped. Trust me though, this story ain’t photoshopped – there’s LITERALLY no way you can Photoshop a story. Try it!
Anyway, we haven’t raised our prices in about 4 years. In that time EVERYTHING has got more expensive – printers, blank drum heads, postage, inks, beer, accomodation, petrol, linguine. Literally everything. Except customskins from customskins. A couple of years ago we VAT registered, but instead of adding VAT to our prices we absorbed it, like a big happy generous sponge. Thank you customskins! Said everyone, whilst we ate baked beans and slept in the clothes recycling bin.
But enough is enough, and after careful analysis we’ve modified our pricing structure, to MORE. For those of you who prefer numbers to words, here’s the equation:
OLD PRICES < NEW PRICES
What will the customskins price rise mean for you?
The good news is that the increase in prices will have no detrimental affect on our service – this will remain identical. You will simply pay us more money.
If you have any questions regarding the information above please don’t hesitate to contact me.
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Customskins iz now tweeting itz face off!
Last night I had a dream that Eminem mentioned Customskins in his new single. I woke up and thought “Customskins needs a twitter, so I can relate this story”. So here it is.You'll notice that the Eminem story is syndicated on the Customskins Twitter. But remember, this was the whole point.
I know some of you are on twitter so please please add us so we look popular. We're http://www.twitter.com/customskinshq . In the spirit of common decency we'll add you too. But not U2 cos…well, y'know.
Oh, by the way, hope y'all had a nice xmas and new year!
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