This is basically useless advice. If you're too different people will think it's weird, or just being different for different's sake, and they'll still pass you up.
The real key is to be original. Except that's also useless advice, because it's only ever obvious in hindsight.
Seriously. We can do case studies until the cows come home and attempt to market products in ingenious ways and still never get noticed. While a different company that does something as a mere joke will get heaps more exposure without even trying. I don't work in marketing, but this must be frustrating.
I think the real key here is have a product people want. After that you have a lot more room to take chances in marketing without it blowing up. They even conclude that they don't believe people even cared when purchasing from amazon that day.
The real key is to be original. Except that's also useless advice, because it's only ever obvious in hindsight.