(Photo via: @chrismartintv)
What do you get when you combine Twitter and a frenzy-style promotional model? OKCsocialrave of course.
On February 24, four Oklahoma City brands came together to put the promotional power of their Twitter networks to the test.
I’ve put together a case study detailing the highlights:
—–
Objectives: Get the city excited enough to attend a flash event at 4:30 on a Tuesday evening afternoon, promoted solely through the social through Twitter. (Put the driving social/promotional force of Twitter to the test.)
Sponsoring Brands: JD Merryweather (@jdmerryweather) from COOP Ale Works (@COOPAleWorks) and Ryan Parrott (@chefrp) from Iguana Mexican Grill put the idea together as a way to promote their brands together. They defined the parameters and then invited others to add to the event.
OKCBiz (@OKCBiz) was invited to participate after JD and Ryan found out that an OKCBiz article on Twitter, in which they were interviewed for, would be hitting the news stands the day before the event.
JD found DJ JoJo Bolds (@djJ2O) on Twitter and asked him to join in. After all, how can you have a party without the proper tunes?
Audience: Twitter users from Oklahoma City and surrounding areas.
Approach: During the week before the event, the sponsors coined the name and tag, #OKCsocialrave, and started dropping hints about who was hosting and how there would be offering free local gourmet food from Iguana and local beer from COOP Ale Works.
To build anticipation and keep everyone interested the location wasn’t announced until 30 minutes prior to the event. This led to many users creating their own rumors and guesses on where the event would happen, further spreading word and building anticipation. When the location was finally announced an surge in Retweets circulated letting everyone know the actual location.
Results:
- 130+ people attended OKCsocialrave
- Contact information was collected at the door from everyone in attendance, including: Name, Email, Twitter ID, Company.
- #OKCsocialrave became the 9th most popular trending topic on Twitter for the day (beating out a number of conference hashtags I might add)
Analysis: This is a great example of one way to tap into the network effect of Twitter. It opens up an array of opportunities for promoting causes both online and off.
—–
For a other Twitter-based promotions see: Twestival, Pledge to End Hunger.
—–
Pictures from OKCsocialrave:
Good job, Chris. One thing you forgot to mention, though…
IT WAS FUN!!!
Everyone who attended had a big smile on his/her face. It felt good to be “in the know”.
The attendees may have been “early adopters” to social media, but I suspect that these types of events (and a bajillion other uses of the technology) are going to be mainstream before we know it.
Thanks for writing the summary. I was wondering how many people were there.
Fantastic case study and summary of the event, Chris. Is this the first successful flash-mob/event pulled off in OKC?
Also, sweet job making your tweet about this post EXACTLY 140 characters when retweeted.
B2design,
You bring up a good point. The underlying perception of being a VIP trendsetter also helped the spread of the event. People love to feel like they are privy to exclusive information.
And it was fun.
Jon,
Flash mobs were one of the first things I thought of as the details of OKCsocialrave unfolded. I wasn’t sure that everyone would make that same connection though since it didn’t quite fit the same mold of flash mobs to date. Flash
It’s the first flash mob event in OKC that I know of.
Great update, love to hear all the ways businesses are using Twitter! Just saw a projection this morning expecting 50 million Twitter users by end of ’09.
Chris,
Very interesting. I would imagine the very fact that it was a flash mob brought with it more raw energy and a greater tolerance for any minor annoyances (if there were any). I liken it to camping out on Black Friday for a deal. Very cool idea.
Interesting use of Twitter to promote an event! I especially liked how they kept the location discrete until 30 minutes before the event started. That’s a great way to keep the buzz going.
Interesting use of Twitter as a promotional too. I especially liked how they kept the location discrete to keep the buzz going.
This comment was originally posted on Reddit