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Cause a Riot
I have always had a dark fantasy of launching a marketing program so great, so big, so amazing,
so sought after, that people would go insane because of it. You hear all those stories
about products flying off the shelf or movies with huge opening weekends, that as a marketer
you want to experience that. Just once. An example of a campaign I was part of that
created such a frenzy was done by TiVo in the mid 2000s. All Comcast customers that
brought their Comcast bill to the TiVo headquarters—thereby proving that they were a Comcast customer—would
be given a free TiVo box, no strings attached. Not "$50 off" or "20% off," but free. It was
part of the ongoing battle between TiVo and the cable companies such as Comcast.
It was a one-day only promotion, and it was a huge hit. What I remember most was how long
the line of Comcast customers was—literally wrapping itself around a couple TiVo buildings—and
how excited these people were to get a free TiVo DVR. There were even news trucks on site
and helicopters flying overhead because of all the attention this promotion had received.
The reason there was such euphoria—with near-riotous levels of enthusiasm—was the
fact that this was such a spectacular offer. It was a "free no strings attached" TiVo box.
Moreover, because there were many people interested in this offer during the run up to the promotion,
many more people, who may otherwise not have cared so much about waiting in line for 5
hours to get a $200 TiVo box, became interested as well. This promotion took on a life of
its own. Thankfully, you don't need to give away $200
pieces of hardware to get users excited about your promotion. You just need to do something
that provides great perceived value to the end user.
I did a bike race once called the Mt. Diablo Challenge, which is a 10-mile hill climb up
the steep slopes of Mt. Diablo, a famous mountain just east of San Francisco. After the race
ended, and as the participants were standing around talking to one another, one of the
race sponsors began throwing out free water bottles. Cyclists literally started diving
over themselves to get a water bottle. They were letting go of their $6000 carbon fiber
bicycles to snag a bottle. They wanted to get that free $5 water bottle because, well,
it was free, and also because everyone else wanted one as well.
The bottom line: Make your marketing ideas big. Cause a riot.