I am fighting every urge to tell you the cliche of thinking outside of the box when it comes to telling your brand’s story. But we couldn’t help ourselves when we came up with this simple idea for Goodwill of Central Arizona.
Send an empty box to homeowners with directions to their nearest Goodwill donation center, and watch the word of mouth buzz fly. Renown WOM guru, Andy Sernovitz, recently featured this story on his, “Damn! I wish I’d Thought of That!” blog about unusually useful ideas for smart marketers.
Denver's "Your Keys to the City" Piano & Art Public Exhibit
I was chomping down a buffalo burger at an eatery in downtown Denver on Tuesday when a hand-painted, upright piano sitting on the curb caught my eye.
My heart jumped, because I thought Denver may be one of the American stops for Luke Jerram’s word-of-mouth marketing campaign, “Play me, I’m Yours,” and I wanted to be part of it. The European version of street pianos is about inviting the public to engage with, activate and take ownership of their urban environment.
Denver’s piano WOM campaign, “Your Keys to the City,” is a similar tune, but in a different key. The Denver Downtown Partnership describes their 10-piano public art exhibit this way:
“The concept is designed to encourage residents, employees and tourists in Downtown Denver to interact with their public spaces in new and spontaneous ways—while contributing to the vibrancy within our urban core. We want the public to be able to sit down and crank out a tune!”
This morning, coming out of Niketown on 16th street, I was tickled when I tripped across this young Brazilian tickling the ivories with Bach. So I whipped out my iPhone to capture his performance on video, and I made a request for something from my favorite composer. “How about a little Mozart?” With a smile as wide as the keyboard, he happily sat back down and began to play away.
I was struck by the power of this street piano WOM campaign as tourists, street folk, locals and international visitors (check out the Nigerians walking in the background on their way to Forever Living Product’s International Super Rally; the reason we were in town) all experienced this wonderful music at a most surprising time and place.
Parker plays a little "Linus & Lucy" for the locals
Perhaps I should consider bringing this musical concept back to Phoenix. I’d embellish it, though, with an online social media campaign more in line with it’s overseas cousin, that would include:
Get an indie pianist like Ben Folds to launch the campaign as he cranks out tunes from a vaudevillian upright outside a downtown pub and stream it live on the web
Tap Google maps to pinpoint the piano locations around the Valley of the Sun
Invite the community to post photos of their friends and family with their favorite pianos
Host a YouTube video contest with the best one-minute performances posted by anyone who wants to play
Take bids (donations) from local companies to have an art piano temporarily grace the outside of their establishments
Sell the pianos at the end of the exhibit to raise money for Ear Candy, one of Phoenix’ finest music charities for kids
What other ideas can you offer to make the Phoenix street pianos campaign a big hit?
I think most people interact online in one dimension. I type. You read. Someone posts a video. Someone else watches it. If you’re lucky, somebody comments in your comment section. Sometimes they might even reach out through your contact form. It sort of belies the term, “Interactive.”
What’s interactive, however, is some good old fashion, IN-PERSON, word-of-mouth marketing. We recently demonstrated the power of actually rubbing elbows with consumers during a guerrilla fashion show Park&Co produced in downtown Tempe, AZ.
MADCAP Theaters was hosting a fashion show and needed some buzz. So the night before the event, we turned an empty Mill Avenue storefront into a catwalk. Hundreds of people paraded down our pseudo runway and got excited about MADCAP Theaters that night. Why? Because MADCAP made them feel like stars instead of consumers. Shouldn’t all brands do that?
You can check out the fashion show on Flickr, too. Because the most interactive social media happens both online and off.
I didn’t exactly want to take off my shoes and hurl them at his head, but I did have to bring up something that always fires me up – SOCIAL MEDIA ISN’T ALL ONLINE.
A big part of my job is word of mouth marketing. That means I get people talking about a product, service, person, etc. I’ve noticed recently that social media conversations have almost exclusively migrated to the online domain, and Park’s post was no different.
Now I’m not saying online social media isn’t important and necessary when it comes to rallying the troops and getting people excited about your product. In fact, it’s vital. It’s just not the end all be all. Nothing will ever replace a trusted friend telling you face to face that you have to try something, go somewhere, or see something. Nothing ever. And that is something we can’t lose sight of.
Online social media should be looked at as just piece of the social media and word of mouth marketing pie. So in that spirit, I’ve outlined a few more things Tom’s and Maine could do to create more excitement in their brand that doesn’t rely solely on the hottest new online tactics.
Identify your evangelists
There are people all across the nation already talking about Tom’s and Maine. Finding them is easy. A quick blog search reveals countless blog posts. They are ready-made evangelists. Reach out to them, tell them how much you appreciate their support and ask them to be evangelists on your behalf. Trust me, it really can be that simple. Recognition goes a long way.
Create conversations in a niche group
It’s easy to ask someone to sign up for your newsletter and while that might work, the chances that someone is regularly engaging with it are pretty slim. Increase those chances by providing an incentive that creates ambassadors along the way. Tell travelers that by signing up for the newsletter they’ll receive free travel size products for their trip. That’s an easy, unexpected and shareable conversation starter.
Since we’re not billing Tom’s and Maine for their time I’ll stop there. But you get the idea. Word of mouth marketing and social media is about people. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the hot new technologies. They’re hot for a reason – they’re effective. But campaigns should start with people in mind and when we start with what’s hot we often lose sight of what’s best. Consumer to consumer communication will almost always be at its most effective face to face, something even the savviest of online social marketers need reminding of on occasion.
I am fighting every urge to tell you the cliche of thinking outside of the box when it comes to telling your brand’s story. But we couldn’t help ourselves when we came up with this simple idea for Goodwill of Central Arizona.
