Times are changing. Ad agencies are changing their business model. New media can not be measured with old metrics. How are we going to integrate our campaigns using both traditional and digital mediums?
A great example of a campaign that generates buzz and attraction online and in person is a flash mob. I just heard about these for the first time at the NACCE conference earlier this month from Diane Sabato who showed me the flash mob that was started at Oprah’s season premier. 21,000 individuals came together in Chicago and danced in harmony to the Black Eyed Peas. And Oprah had NO idea this was going to happen. Check it out:
So what is a flash mob? According to Wikipedia, it’s a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media or viral emails and not in relation to those planned by public relations or publicity stunts. The first flash mob was created in March 2003 by Bill Wasik, senior editor of Harper’s Magazine. It started as a social experiment and has evolved into much more than that.
T-Mobile organized a flash mob at Trafalgar Square in London, England, primarily using email that included detailed instructions of the choreographed dance and did a few meet ups as well. A total of 14,000 people showed up, three months after starting the campaign to build the buzz. What was the result? An enormous amount of people getting together to build the brand for T-Mobile.
Another company that looked to build a street campaign is Trident Unwrapped which had 100 women danced in Piccadility Circus to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”. Similar to these music orienated flash mobs, Ray-Ban organized its own viral street campaign by having “street teams” wearing Ray-Ban sun glasses, stand on the streets of Manhattan and gaze at a Ray-Ban building wrap.
These campaigns are definitely “outside the box” and on the street. If your company had the resources to pull off a flash mob to promote your brand, what would you do?