One of the best marketing strategies available is PR. Exposure that may
go viral online, get reported in the media. Most of which would not be
affordable if you were to pay for it. The following is an account by Jon Riley
of Horsham Salsa of a Flashmob that ‘punched above its weight’ for publicity.
Looking around the Forum, a large open public space in
Horsham, I could see a lot of familiar faces. We all acknowledged each other
with slight smiles, nods and small hand gestures. We were on the inside. We knew
what was coming next. We’d been planning this flashmob for several weeks. As I
looked around, I thought that if I was a passer-by, all the people I knew would
just be ‘another face in the crowd’. It was the first time I had run a
flashmob. I’d seen quite a few on the internet and knew that done well, we
could get a lot of viral impact on the internet.
I couldn’t believe our luck. We had extremely good weather
for late May in England. I checked my watch. Two minutes to four. Best get
ready. I unwrapped the Arcam rCube (upmarket ghetto blaster), plugged it into
my Blackberry. Fired up Neutron for the best possible sound. Selected the right
track and hit play. Turned the volume up to ‘11’ (check Spinal Tap if that
doesn’t make sense).
My dance partner was nearby. We started off the basic
forward and back of salsa. We were quickly joined by another 4 or 5 couples. I
started the calls of Cuban Salsa – Rueda de Casino style. A format that
involves a leader who calls out the name of the next move to all the dancers.
The result is a circle of dancers all dancing the same move at the same time. Some
of the moves are intricate, some are comical. The result is a group, all
dancing the same choreography, yet it is ad lib. Partners are exchanged. More
couples join the Rueda until eventually there are around 26 dancers all
whirling around to the beat of up-tempo Cuban Salsa.
Outside the Rueda groups of people stop and watch. Cameras
and phones appear. The people in the nearby café stop their conversations as
they look over to see what’s going on. This was the on-the-day impact we had
hoped for. Hopefully, these people are posting their films and pictures online.
As the last beats of the tune come to a close, the dancers
all turn in random directions and walk off. We’ve done our best with the dancing,
now the real work begins to capitalise on the event.
Time to maximise the upside to the Salsa Club business. I
pull in the videos from as many sources as I can. Speed is important in cases
like this. Over the next couple of days, I write press releases and send them
to the relevant editors. Upload the video onto You Tube. Post links all over
Facebook, our website, Twitter. Within a week, the first video we have posted
on You Tube has gone over 1,000 views. Our Facebook Page receives an extra 30
to 40 likes. I gain another 20 or so Twitter followers.
Most of all, the dancers at our club had a great time doing
it.
Not bad for a little dance club in a small town like
Horsham.
However, to pull something like this off, takes work and
planning.
To get this to work, I had to contact the local authority
for permission. I had to persuade enough of the dancers at the club to come
along, voluntarily on a Saturday, just for one dance. I had to submit a risk
assessment to the council. I had a lot of trouble ensuring that the flashmob
would be filmed. In the end, because of time restraints I release a single
angle view. A great flashmob film cuts to the audience watching, has titles and
end credits. However, sometimes in business, good enough will have to do.
I contacted both the local papers in advance. One was keen,
the other couldn’t care less – thank you West Sussex County Times you were
stars. I checked my public liability insurance. With the risk of a damp surface
to dance on and the unpredictable nature of the public, I needed to be sure
that I was covered if anyone got injured and blamed me. In the end, I had to
purchase specific flashmob insurance cover – ouch. I had to find a boogie box
with enough oomph to be able to be heard not just by the dancers, but further
away yet didn’t require a power source. There was a crises when the person
bringing the boogie box got the dates muddled. In the end, the dancing was the
easy bit. In future, I’ll be better prepared to get the videos transferred to
me much sooner. I will be ready to have them edited and made into a
‘mini-film’. I couldn’t afford professional filming, though if you have the
budget, I would definitely go that route.
I actually got the
press release about right. I wrote the story, gave them some background and
pointed them at the pictures. They were able to edit my story into something
that worked for them. The club got a nice online entry and a smaller entry in
the local paper. The salsa club got the publicity and they had a story, which I
keep posting links to.
Although Salsa has the advantage that the end product is the
dancing. It’s visual and entertaining, this doesn’t mean that your business
can’t create a stir. Giveaway ‘stuff’ in silly costumes and film it. Do
something for charity that involves appearing and disappearing.
Keep the film short. If the film ends up at more than 3
minutes, you will do well to have everyone watch the whole thing. Speed is of
the essence. The film flashmob 1 has significantly more views despite the fact
that Flashmob 2 is the better film. It was just two days later being posted.
All in all, flashmobs and staged events make great publicity
and will gain you the sort of coverage and exposure you are unlikely be able to
pay for.
Here are the links
Information about Horsham Salsa can be found here - www.horshamsalsa.co.uk
Flashmob 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KucvyTFrkEw
Flashmob 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbpQgQgD2eY
Coverage of our Flashmob in the West Sussex
County Times http://ow.ly/vvN0Z
