In any marketing campaign, you have to be really clear about who is in your target demographic. What do they like? What do they dislike, or distrust? What’s their sense of humor? What are their values?

Because the truth is, even if your zany promotional scheme opens a lot of doors, it could very well shut some, too. Some people will find it extremely endearing and funny. Others might find it stupid.

Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing! Making an extremely effective, hyper-specific appeal to your most profitable potential customers is almost certainly going to be better than trying to appeal to everyone at once (and being boring and unmemorable in the process).

Just be really clear-eyed about who you’re going after. It should never be your goal to turn people off from your brand, but at the same time your product or service probably isn’t for everyone either. Target your promotional efforts on the people most likely to need what you’re offering.

Just because “The Texas Law Hawk” works for Bryan Wilson doesn’t mean you should start calling yourself “The Michigan Landscaping Hawk” and run ads where you use dynamite to level a retaining wall. At least not necessarily!

No matter how “creative” your promotional message may be, it needs to feel (and be!) authentic to you, your company, your brand. It should “fit” with your values and how you want others to see you.

Using humor can go a long way, but if a high level of professionalism or seriousness is a core part of your brand message, you might not want to run an ad of your CEO popping wheelies on the interstate.

To customers who already know you, it’ll come off as fake and forced. And even new customers you do bring in may end up disappointed when their actual experience doesn’t gel with the expectations you created.

That’s not to say that an ad for a more “serious” brand has to be boring or can’t use humor. But again, you have to ask yourself “Is this me? Is it who I’d like to be?” If the answer to both of those questions is no, you might want to think more carefully.

As great as you think your promotional idea may be—as much as it made the whole board room crack up during the pitch session—really take the time to think through the implications.

History is full of “creative” promotions that ended up costing their companies a lot of money, a good chunk of their reputations, or both.

Just ask American Airlines, who sold “unlimited for life” airfare in the 80s and 90s for $250,000 per person and ended up losing millions per year on many who took them up on the offer. Or any number of ad campaigns that were meant to be “funny” but read as insensitive or tone deaf to the general public.

And remember, too, that while social media can be an extremely loud and powerful bullhorn for your successes, it can also bring swift and merciless “justice” to those who make an error in judgement.

We say this not to scare you away from a legitimately great idea. Just to make sure you carefully consider how your promotion might be perceived by other communities. You’d think this would be a given, but even today major companies keep shooting themselves in the foot on this one.

Use your judgment. Talk to a few other people (including people both inside and outside your target audiences) and see what they have to say. You want your promotion to be memorable for the right reasons, not the wrong ones.

The truth is, sometimes you have to be willing to really put yourself out there if you want to get noticed. If your idea fits with your branding and target demographics and you’re confident it’s good-natured, then go for it!

As long as you haven’t done anything horribly offensive (and you won’t, because you’ve exercised your judgement!), the worst thing that can happen is that it doesn’t work. At which point, you can go back to the drawing board, evaluate what aspects of your promotion didn’t connect, and then try something better next time.