On this day in 1926, the Great Houdini – the premiere magician and escape artist of his time – performed one of the most audacious and anticipated stunts of his career. At the Hotel Shelton in New York, he was placed in a coffin, which was submerged in the hotel swimming pool. Houdini had performed great escapes for public viewing many times before, but his coffin escape was extra sensational because he stayed underwater in the coffin for 90 long minutes! Reports of the stunt were circulated around the world.

Erik Weisz was drawn to the circus and vaudeville shows. As a nine year old, he performed as a trapeze artist. He later became enchanted with illusions performed by magicians. He learned to escape from handcuffs and found that he could draw a crowd to watch him do so. At 17 years old, he began going by a stage name: Harry Handcuff Houdini. His acts became more and more bold. In a tour of Europe, he dared local police departments to try to confine him. He escaped handcuffs, straightjackets and jails. He later would do more deadly stunts, like jumping into rivers while shackled, only to emerge minutes later completely free of the chains. He regularly performed the milk can escape, where he was handcuffed and placed in a sealed can filled with water. He became famous for his Chinese Water Torture Cell, where he was bound with chains, his feet in fetters, hung upside down and lowered into a glass water tank. He was handcuffed and put inside a nailed wooden box, which was pushed off a boat into the East River in New York. The more death defying the escape, the more people were attracted to the Great Houdini.

There are three marketing lessons to learn from the Great Houdini. He was a great magician, but he was more than that. He was a master at marketing his brand. He understood that people would only come to see him if he did something that captured their attention – something they could not help but want to see for themselves. He had to stand out from other magicians. Everyone did card tricks. Not everyone escaped from jail. Does your marketing emphasize what is unique about your products and services or does it just mimic what your competition is doing? What attracts your customers to buy from you? Are you giving them a reason to look at your brand?

Houdini also understood that each act had to have something new, so he created his own publicity by doing something a bit different each time he performed. When he escaped from a Washington D.C. jail, it was reported in the local newspaper that there had been a pin found on the floor of a cell. The authorities had figured out how he escaped and challenged him to do so again after he had been stripped of his clothes and searched before he was locked in the cell. However, the authorities didn’t publish that report in the newspaper, Harry Houdini did! Houdini set the whole thing up and escaped from the same jail the next week. He realized that once his audience saw a trick, they would not be as impressed if they saw the very same act over and over again. He had to add something new to keep them engaged. How long have you been using the same marketing message you are using today? What new twist have you added to your marketing? Are you promoting what is new or the same old thing?

Finally, Houdini understood how to use competition to his benefit. His audience liked to see him compete with the impossible – escape from the most secure prison, defy death by breaking out of sealed boxes dropped into icy waters, and spend 90 minutes submerged in a coffin in a swimming pool. Again and again, Harry Houdini set up the marketing around his stunts to make it sound as if he had accepted a challenge to do the impossible. Does your marketing present your brand as a solution to a problem that the consumer believes cannot be fixed? Are you positioning yourself to be the answer to the impossible task? People are attracted to those who compete with what they perceive to be impossible.

Learn a lesson from the Great Houdini. He knew how to market his brand to drive success. You should too.

_____________________

How Houdini Stayed in an Underwater Coffin for 90 Minutes, by Nick Keppler, Mental Floss, August 23, 2016

Houdini's Escape from Murderers Row, by John Cox, March 14, 2015, www.wildabouthoudini.com