P.T. BARNUM: THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (AND PROMOTER)

Morning!

I’m in Barcelona. Just spent the day legging it around the city. Classic English tourist behaviour. My legs are butchered. My eyes are tired. It’s already 10:30. But I must say, I’m excited for this breakdown.

Today, you’re going to be learning from one of the the best promoters to ever live - P.T. Barnum.

P.s. You may remember him from “The Greatest Showman” 👀

Breaking Down The Strategy

Last Saturday night, I sat down to have a relaxing evening watching of one of my favourite films of all time - The Greatest Showman.

A feel good film - what a way to end my Saturday.

But as the film went on, I began to ask the question “Who in the world is this guy that made a bunch of misfits so famous that they performed in the front of the Queen?”.

The answer: P.T. Barnum.

And down the rabbit hole I went…

Turns out Barnum didn’t just have a great life story, he was also one of the best promoters to ever walk the earth.

He literally took a bunch of misfits that most people found disgusting and made them a global phenomenon.

So much so that they performed in front of:

• The British Royal Family

• The French Royal Family

• And all of New York’s elite.

But this wasn’t because of a stroke of luck like in the film. It was because Barnum was an absolute master at building hype around his acts.

I spent 8+ hours this week researching all the ways he marketed his show over the years.

Here are 5 lessons on marketing from “The Greatest Showman”, P.T. Barnum:

Lesson 1: You Need A Hook

On January 1st, 1842, P.T. Barnum opened up the now infamous ‘P.T. Barnum's American Museum’.

It was essentially a modern-day circus, but in the style of a museum.

A combination of zoo, museum, lecture hall, wax museum, theater and freak show.

Any & everything wild and wonderful, was between those 4 walls.

But when he first opened, people weren’t flocking to see it like Barnum had hoped. In fact, he was struggling to get any customers at all.

Then one day, Barnum realised that the museum was missing a “hook”.

Something that everyone across the U.S.A. would want to come and see. He knew that once they were in the museum they’d enjoy it - he just needed to get them there.

It was at this point, that “The Feeje Mermaid” was born.

The artifact was said to be a blue faced monkey’s upper body, sewn onto the tail of a salmon.

On it’s own it was a pretty gruesome sight… but on it’s own it wasn’t going to sell tickets.

The mermaid needed a story.

So, Barnum began sending newspaper outlets fake letters from people in distant states claiming to have met a Doctor from London who was carrying some amazing creatures, including a “Feejee Mermaid”.

At first, people were curious.

But as letters arrived claiming the mermaid had arrived in New York, it turned into outright chaos.

So many people were desperate to see it that they began calling it “Mermaid fever”.

The next minute people were travelling from far and wide to see Barnum’s museum.

And after they went, they went and told their friends how great it was too!

Lesson 2: Always Create Urgency

After the hype around the “mermaid” was built, Barnum didn’t just leave it at that. He wanted people to be chomping at the bit to get in his museum.

So he added some urgency.

He put adverts in the newspapers and all over town saying that “Dr. Griffin and the Feeje Mermaid” would be on display for just 1 week only.

The whole of New York were banging on Barnum’s door that week to make sure they didn’t miss their chance to see a real life mermaid.

But what did Barnum do once the week was over?

He announced that Dr. Griffin’s ship had been delayed and that he was staying an extra 3 days.

…then another week.

…then another one.

…and another one.

This went on for 2 whole months, until everyone finally realised that Barnum actually owned the mermaid this whole time.

But at that point it really didn’t matter, the museum was already thriving.

It’s crazy that these same tactics used by Barnum in 1842 are still used by modern-day brands on a regular basis.

Urgency. Such an underrated goal to set yourself as a marketer.

Lesson 3: Take Your “Hook” On Tour

Although, the Feejee Memaid was one of Barnum’s first and most successful “hooks”. It wasn’t his only one.

Every year Barnum would find some sort of hook that would draw people into his museum.

But as time went on and Barnum wanted to grow even bigger he began taking his “hook” on tour.

He realised that the best way to market his museum was to take his most exciting product and get it in front of as many people as possible.

So that’s exactly what he did.

The perfect example of this is the world tour he took with “General Tom Thumb” - a dwarf that had become hugely popular at his museum.

General Tom was such a hit amongst the U.S. crowd that word spread across Europe and he & Barnum were invited to perform in front of the British Royal Family.

After this, people would literally travel from around the globe to see what was inside of Barnum’s museum.

Nowaday’s these media tours are commonplace - especially among authors & podcasters.

But again, Barnum was one of the first to ever do it, and may have pulled off the best media tour of all time.

Lesson 4: Leverage “The Printer’s Ink”

Throughout his career Barnum knew that there was a huge amount of power behind “The Printer’s Ink” - PR in newspapers.

But rather than creating something great and hoping journalists would talk about him, he did everything with the end goal of a story in the papers.

One of my favourite examples of this in action is Barnum auctioning off the first ticket to his shows.

At the time, standard tickets to his shows cost as little as $0.25 per person. Yet, when Barnum began auctioning off the first-ticket to the show they were selling for as much as $600.

Why?

Well, at first it was because Barnum was telling his friends to bid up the price of the tickets to as high as possible.

Not so he could make more money, but so it would make a huge story for the newspapers.

It created so much publicity that business owners would buy the tickets and not even go to the show - they just wanted their names mentioned in the paper.

Just another example of how Barnum crafted a clever narrative around his show and got millions of eyes on his business because of it.

Lesson 5: Write The Headlines

Although Barnum was a master at crafting stories around his acts, that was only part of his act promotion genius.

The other half was the way he named them.

Barnum would gave his performers short names so that they would fit in newspaper headlines, as well as strategise the amount of publicity he might receive around acts he concocted.

For example, he earned a huge amount of PR coverage when he publicised the legal marriage of his performers John Battersby (a circus thin man) and Hannah Battersby (a professional “fat lady”) who weighed over ten times as much as her husband.

The man knew how to be front-page news.

And most of the time that’s because he virtually wrote the headlines himself.

P.T. Barnum is easily one of the most interesting marketers I have ever researched.

The guy literally invented half of the marketing tactics we all lean on today, yet very few people talk about him.

Probably because a lot of his tactics were shrouded with lies and hoaxes.

A con artist? Probably.
An unbelievable marketer? Most definitely.

Right, that’s all from me!

Until next Sunday.

— Niall

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This has been a breakdown of P.T. Barnum’s marketing strategy. I hope you have learned something and can implement a similar strategy in your business!

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