Last week saw KFC’s legendary bunless belly builder, the Double Down, reach New Zealand shores. Media commentators are describing it as a triumph of marketing, variously attributing it to an excellent public relations campign, social media campaign, or even suggesting there may have been some dodgy paid promotional shill type activity.
What I think they have failed to realise is that ultimately this is a marketing triumph because KFC had the balls to do something that was worth talking about.
People were always going to talk about a fatty, calorific, and possibly extremely delicious (depending who you talk to) burger. Not just a burger though, a burger unlike any you can get from any other fast food outlet. KFC New Zealand knew that by bringing it they would polarise portions of the New Zealand population. On one side you would have people crying foul at them pedaling a “heart attack in a box”, and on the other legions of adoring fans defending their right to eat anything they deem delicious.
Whether you think that the Double Down is a artery-clogging abomination or the pinnacle of protein provision, you have to admit that what KFC did well was to create a product that was worth talking about. On national news, on facebook, and around the water cooler. It truly is a remarkable piece of food.
This is what your marketing department should be thinking about. Not just your catchy new slogan, clever TV ad, or discount promotion, but how you can make your product or service something that is worth talking about. If they can do that you don’t need to worry so much about your advertising budget.
(For the record, I have yet to try one.)
A brief summary of the last couple of days amazing events (times are all approximate):
Wednesday 17 March, 2010, 3pm: Someone some how gains access to my apartment where my friends Sandra & Jef from Belgium are quietly planning the next stages of their adventure. They manage to steal a backpack & handbag from my friends (which contain, among other things, DVDs with photos, souvenirs and a recipe book from their 11 months of travel), along with a tin containing approximately $200 in coins from my flatmates room. 5 minutes later my friends realise what has happened and get in touch with me at work. I race home.
3.30pm: I get home, take stock of the situation, and file a report with the police. In the mean time my flatmate Matt gets home, and the 4 of us take a walk around the local area to see if we can see if the thief has dumped the non-cash items nearby. No luck.
4pm: Returning home and feeling quite resigned to the fact the stuff is gone forever I start to think about what else I can do to get this stuff back and go some way to restoring New Zealand’s reputation.
5pm: After putting up a note in my building I decide the next thing to do is to see if the online community can help out, spreading the word to as many of those who live in the Mt Eden area as possible. I quickly whip up this post, and share it with as many people as I can through my networks, asking others to do the same. I thought it was a long shot, but worth a try. (I also was mildly concerned people might think it was some kind of stupid viral marketing stunt). The post got shared more than I could have possibly hoped for, and got thousands of views.
Thursday March 18, 8.34am: David (who happens to live in my building) leaves a comment on the post saying that he had found a bag matching the description, and left me a phone number. Putting things together now, what I think happened was someone saw someone else’s retweet of my plea for help, then emailed the post on to David because they knew he lived in our street. I am still trying to verify this is the case.
8.52am: I call David’s flatmate who is home, and say I’ll be around straight after work.
6pm: Success! The bag is the right one, and better still has the photos, recipe book, camera and some other stuff in it. Of course the cash and handbag are gone, but at least the irreplaceable stuff is back.
The other great news is that we have since heard back from the police, who think they know who was responsible. I only hope they are dealt with in the appropriate manner.
Needless to say Sandra & Jef are totally stoked, having resigned themselves to the fact that they were gone forever, having left for Sydney on Thursday morning.
So I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped out by spreading the word any way that they could. I was overwhelmed with the response I got from people sharing our story on twitter and facebook. Thanks everyone. The Internet really is awesome.
This is a Wordle. In fact, this is my Wordle. At least, it is a Wordle of my most commonly used words on Twitter. The bigger the word, the more often I use it.
There isn’t really any point to it, but in making it I discovered something that I thought was interesting. The words I use commonly are by and large positive.
Because I spend some of my professional time on Twitter (as @Orcon) dealing with customer complaints I think it is easy to forget that there are a lot of people (like me wearing my @phixx hat) for whom Twitter is about sharing what is awesome (yeah, I say awesome a lot).
Isn’t that cool?
You can also make your own Wordle if you are so inclined.
