There was this coffee shop downtown which started a trend called "a random act of kindness." People started lining up and buying from the coffee shop to give a cup or two to a total stranger. Ridiculous? No. It is actually brilliant! This is a marketing strategy that got everyone talking.
When you are launching a new product or service, what you want is for people to start talking about it. The more buzz you generate, the better it becomes because it stirs up interest. The way to a buzz campaign is to leap out of your box and get uniquely crazy with your campaign.
There are firms you can tap to develop crazy marketing campaigns for you. From jazzed up brochure printing to assembling a ‘donut band' - an all-tuba band with large donut cutouts covering the horn openings - that played during morning rush hour at a train platform while staff gave out samples and brochure printing.
If you do not have the budget to hire a PR firm to think for you, you can try and do it yourself. Here are a few tips you can follow to create one good buzz campaign:
To be noticed does not mean it has to be expensive
Buzz campaigns does not have to be expensive; but it does need to stand out. This is the basic rule. The most important thing is to connect with your customers. Find out what would click for your particular segment and zero in on that. I know of a toy store which used Optimus Prime and other Transformer characters to hand out toy brochure samples. The kids were just too amazed and attracted by the characters not to go inside the toy store.
In the right place and at the right time
It is also important to find them in the right place, at the right moment, when they are most receptive to your messages. You want to do your buzz campaign where you can attract a crowd. A crowd is good because once you get them to congregate around something, people will start peering over their shoulders to look at what is going on.
Let experience speak
Find ways to place your product in the hands of consumers or let them experience it somehow. You may not have noticed it but the random act of kindness campaign is actually aimed at making people experience the coffee and pass that experience to a random stranger. Creative? Yes, and also a way to put some value campaign as well.
Make it visual and larger-than-life
To attract attention, your campaign must be visual and larger-than-life. Think about two colorfully clad clowns in tall hats on stilts handing out brochure samples to kids. The more attractive and the more noticeable, the better.
Create Internet Buzz
On the internet, find a group who can help build buzz about your product. For instance, you can go to a group of young people who are into anime to blog about your new hair salon which specializes in Japanese inspired haircuts. This group would carry the story that would influence other kids who are into this latest fashion trend.
Get active online. Start by simply participating in any of the social media available. Create a microblog in Twitter; or create a Facebook page. Begin a conversation with influencers or post a video on YouTube. These are just some of the ways to generate interest in the World Wide Web.
