Matthew Lee, a current SMU undergraduate Advertising and Computer Science double major, recently created a device called the Zombie Tube, a tennis ball pressurizer. TAI caught up with Lee to learn more about his entrepreneurial efforts.
How did you come up with the idea for the Zombie Tube?
After a long day of practice with my doubles partner, we always had a ritual to see who can launch the dead tennis ball the farthest. After knocking several balls into the unknown with my partner, it dawned upon me how many tennis balls are wasted. Curious, I decided to walk into the small forest behind the tennis club and to my surprise, the forest floor was completely covered in tennis balls that were mostly dead. Since tennis balls have a limited lifespan and cannot be used again after its life is over, I created Zombie Tube so it can revive dead tennis balls back to the quality of new tennis balls. This process is repeatable for infinite use, so the tennis ball’s overall life is extended until the ball itself is physically destroyed (which is really hard to do).
What are your plans to advertise the Zombie Tube?
Since advertising requires a large amount of financial capital, I need to make use of free forms of advertising to promote my product. I plan on doing personal selling or using YouTube and social media sites to help gain some attention. Hopefully if my product gains lots of popularity through my initial free forms of advertising, in the future I plan on doing paid magazine and websites ads that have a large tennis consumer base.
What are your long-term plans in the field of advertising?
Ever since I took Survey of Advertising at SMU, I have a strong understanding of what I need to do in order to help a product gain awareness and I learned the process of how advertising can win over consumers. With these general ideas, I applied my knowledge and made sure my product had the right color scheme, target audience, advertising plan, and flexibility for future marketing strategies. Overall, I plan on getting a BA in Advertising because I really want to further my understanding of this major and I see how this major can have strong an impact on businesses and consumers.
TAI congratulates Lee on his Zombie Tube invention and wishes him the best of luck! To learn more about or purchase the Zombie Tube, visit: http://savethetennisballs.com/.
