Braunschweig, a German town with 245,500 inhabitants put itself on the world map by arranging a flash mob raid on their local McDonald’s restaurant. A flash mob (or inexplicable mob) is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, do something unusual for a brief period of time and then quickly disperse. The mob ordered 2,211 burgers at once! Almost simultaneously a YouTube movie of the raid was posted, generating thousands of views and an impressive media attention.
Integrating viral action, horizontal influencing and stimulating word-of-mouth interaction are some of the mayor possibilities for businesses to use the powerful muscle of Web 2.0. It does take some guts to go viral and/or horizontal and let consumers and internet users’ play and run with your messages. Your messages go underground and all over, cutting the boundaries of traditional and controlled marketing. Excitement, humour, out-of-the-box creativity and a daring dose of carefully balanced provocation will get you in the charts. If you dare. 😉
