A flash mob (or flashmob) is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression.
which, obviously, I agree to… 😉
I got a decent idea about it when I saw the flash mob video held at CST station. I was impressed!
I had absolutely no doubt that it is THE newest next big thing in marketing after Facebook and social media marketing.
Probably the CST flash mob was one of the successful flash mobs in India. By successful I mean it went viral. Going viral is the main objective of a flash mob. With the support of some PR and the ever-growing Internet users (and the increasing time spent on the Internet especially social networking sites) any flash mob can go viral*.
Hmmm… the ‘*’ stands for in marketing terms…. conditions apply… 😀
For any content (picture, article, video, application, etc.) to go viral, two elements are required…
Good idea/concept – unique content that I find interesting
Reason to share – I like the content so much, that I want to share it with my friends
Hence,
flash mob x (a good idea + a good reason to share) + PR
=
viral content
=
exponential awareness + exponential reach
AND
All of the above at a very reasonable budget!
The above formula works well… but where does marketing come into the picture?
Lemme be honest, as soon as the viewer learns that the content belongs to a particular brand/company, it's going to be a big turn-off for him. Therefore, I would strongly suggest that we opt for subliminal promotion in the content. Let the ‘idea’ be the main focus because the ‘idea’ will give a good reason to share and the combination of both will make the content viral. The brand message will reach users subconsciously. Well, I don’t find anything wrong with that, as far as I am reaching the maximum target audience at a reasonable rate.
Another way could be, make the content on the lines of the brand message/philosophy and keep the branding minimum and towards the end. BUT, make sure that idea is interesting.
A good example of a flash mob:
Well, the concept of a flash mob is actually at the initial yet nascent stage at the moment. therefore I would like to make it clear… try it out at your own risk 😉