Promotions That Make People Smile

I went to Summerfest in Milwaukee yesterday - a great summer music festival here in the Midwest. Checked into my hotel, and hit the corner to catch the $3 shuttle to the park, concert tickets in hand. Then the fun began!

First, I get on the bus and I'm greeted by a bubbly woman that says "Hi! I'm Jane from Jane and Kidd In The Morning on 99.1 FM, and we're buying your bus ride to Summerfest!" Nice surprise!

Then Kidd hands me a package of Twizzlers (seriously, has candy ever NOT made you smile?), and proceeds to ask where we're from, chit chat a bit. He was super friendly and engaged the whole bus full of people during the 10-15 minute ride through downtown.

Then, as we're getting closer to the park, Kidd speaks up and says "Hey folks, now's the time during the ride where we say hi, and hope you'll tune in to our broadcast on weekday mornings on 99.1. If you're not from the area, we've got streaming audio online! And as a special thanks for hanging out with us today, we're buying your admission to Summerfest!" Then he hands out free festival tickets ($15 a piece at the door) to everyone on the full bus.

So, I don't live in Milwaukee anymore, but the promotion certainly got my attention. Why? The folks doing it were fun and personable, they made it perfectly relevant to me (by being on the bus on my way to Summerfest and starting my day at the fest out on a happy note), and gave me something to talk about like I'm doing now.

The moral of this story is that you can successfully launch a great promotion for your company by making it fun and engaging for the people you're talking to, and giving something away that they're sure to talk about. Kudos to the 99.1 team for making their promo fun and memorable.

What promotions have turned you on instead of off? Which do you remember fondly and why? Do you remember the brands/companies they were associated with, or was it just gimmicky? Share with us in the comments!