This past Saturday was Rock The Garden, a one-day music festival in Minneapolis that is put on by the Walker Art Center and 89.3 The Current. The concert sold out pretty quickly, with over 11,000 tickets gone. Luckily, I’d participated in a contest on the Mall of America Blog and ended up winning a pair of tickets to the show (thanks guys!).
After I found out that I’d be attending the show, my thoughts immediately switched from HELL-YA-OUTDOOR-CONCERT-PARTY mode to HOW-WILL-I-UTILIZE-THIS-GREAT-OPPORTUNITY? mode.
Being an entrepreneur means that you’re always “on.”
You’re constantly thinking of ways to get better, always looking for new opportunities, and everlastingly needing to make new connections.
Naturally, I’d been toying with how to get some attention for InboxCupid at the show but couldn’t really think of anything great that was within my budget or allocated time. Besides, I didn’t want to be schilling at the show. I wanted to have fun. I wanted to just enjoy life and have a great day with friends, so handing out business cards or flyers was tacky and out of the question.
A friend of mine told me to get some t-shirts printed (since turn around time is pretty quick and the cost is pretty low.). The problem with simple t-shirt advertising, though, is that there is rarely an impact. No one ever notices, or pays attention to shirts, especially at a concert where all other senses are being evoked and the amount of competition for attention is high.
How could I get around this? How could I stand out in a sea of colorful shirts?
The solution: a plain white hanes t-shirt with my message scrawled across it in permanent marker.
“After Rock The Garden is over, go to InboxCupid.com (take a picture of this shirt)”
Genius! I thought to myself. There is no way that people will walk by this shirt without reading it.
And sure enough, the shirt was a huge success.
Tons of people were reading the shirt as I/they walked by, many of them approached me and struck up conversations or took photos. I was actually surprised at how effective it was.
Measurement.
Total possible impressions: 11,000 concert-goers
Total estimated shirt glances: 200+ (people visibly reading my shirt)
Total high-fives because of shirt: 7 (“dude, sweet shirt!” *high five!*)
Total full-on conversations about shirt: 18 (“omg, I’ve heard about InboxCupid before! This is so funny.”)
Total quick remarks about shirt: 22 (“nice shirt,” great idea,” “love the creativity.” etc)
Total photos taken of shirt: 12 (with promises of uploading to Facebook and/or Twitter)
Web traffic: increase of 6% on Sunday.
Costs.
Concert tickets: $0.00
T-shirt: $0.00
Marker: $0.00
Special shout-out to the late Micheal Larsen (Eyedea), who was often seen around the Twin Cities wearing home-made shirts. About a year ago, I saw him at a really nice restaurant, wearing a home-made shirt that said, “Artist for sale.”
That image of him has really stuck with me. Thanks for the inspiration, Mike.
(Photo credit: theotherchristianlundberg)