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Introducing The Superfluot: What is it?

Introducing the Superfluot (sm)! Never heard of it? Are you kidding!?! It has existed for at least several hours now! Let me tell you how this little baby came about, and what it means…

The Origin of the Species

Do you ever recognize an ad before you’ve finished reading it? Of course you do! If I say “you deserve a” you say “break today,” right?

I could run through hundreds and you’d know many of them. I noticed I was doing this with online ads as well, you know the ones at the top and on the right of the SERPs on Google.

So I thought, hey, I’ve seen as many of these ads as anyone else has, maybe I’ll make an award for the originators.

After that, I couldn’t keep myself from naming it. I’ll get to the ones that didn’t make the cut in a minute, but first the origin of the name.

Take a look at this quote:

“…the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.” - Peter Drucker

I couldn’t say it better. I’m not sure anybody could. Of course, the Superfluous part came from here.

The Jay Abraham Investment Guide

I also remembered a Jay Abraham quote, which I’ll paraphrase. He says that your money as a marketer is best invested in … you guessed it, marketing. Your return on investment or ROI can be so much higher than any conventional investment.

Hence honoring the originators of superior marketing ROI investments. Sorry, Jay, I couldn’t do something like Superfluriot, it just doesn’t roll as well. You’re still in the history (this page).

Seth Godin Speaks

I can’t remember everything he’s said, but Seth Godin says a lot about making your business better, and making it noteworthy, as in something people want to talk about. You just have to tell someone.

That’s where the FLU part came from – it’s got that viral idea stuff all over it. Actually, I noticed the flu after I found superfluot, and remembered Mr. Godin.

And if you think you’ll correct me by saying the most flu or influenza is bacterial – remember this: I created this award to recognize the great culture of marketing on the web. Appropriate, no?

Still, it has a ring to it. Super-flu-OT. Or Sup-ER-fluot. You decide.

The Statuette

I haven’t decided on the actual form of the thing, the shape or the style of the, well, doohickey you might put on your mantle. Or virtual mantle, since this is a virtual award.

I do have one possibility for how the award may look:

And the Superfluot goes to…

So, uh, who gets the awards? You might be asking. I’ll get to that later this week. For today, I wanted to get the idea out there into the ozone and the superfuousityness of the web.

I’ll be back naming names and camping campaigns, so to speak.

Now for something a bit different.

What Names Didn’t Make The Cut

You are probably wondering, if you picked Superfluot, what did you rule out?

I know, with a great name like that, I probably passed on some pretty great names, right? You bet I did. Here are a few of the ones that just weren’t quite good enough.

The Pluot

Okay, you probably saw this one coming. It’s shorter and has a similar feel. You might not guess, but there are surprisingly few references to pluots with respect to marketing. The tongue in cheek nature of the award, of course, did mesh well with a fruit, though.

If you aren’t yet familiar with the pluot, I’ll leave it to you to look on Wikipedia. Suffice it to say it has something to do with fruit. That right there took it out of the running. Let’s face it, marketing is fruity enough without picking one for an award.

The Obliviot

If you haven’t heard this word, perhaps you are one. No seriously, when I found out from Unwords.com that this isn’t a real word, I decided it couldn’t work. That, and the definition doesn’t convey the excellence in marketing that Superfluot obviously does. I mean, it has SUPER right in the name.

Next, I tried to think of a good first name, you know, to be like Tony, Emmy, Oscar, the Andy Awards, the Razzies and so on. I had a few ideas, like the Conan, or the Hugh.

After some thought, I couldn’t doom hundreds poor children with the same name to constantly be teased or confused with this great award. Nor could I allow Hugh Laurie to steal my thunder.

Superfluot – The Best of the Best

Superfluot, being nearly made up – I think it may mean something in French – bypassed all of these problems and conveyed the true meaning of marketing.

There you have it. Here are the first annual Superfluot awards for 2009 , the most recent year for which results have been compiled on the back of a napkin.

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