Something very common happened recently on U.S. Airways Flight #544 from Vancouver to Phoenix. But what happened afterwards is something truly noteworthy. I left my very beloved iPad at seat 15A. Besides the iPad being a gadget many people would love to get their hands on, mine also contained sensitive information. That is when I went from a customer to a customer that needed service.
In a state of panic and with a tinge of hope, I sent this tweet:
Reaching out to US Airways on Twitter might, just might, get me my iPad back. Afterall, as a loyal Southwest Airlines customer and follower, I’ve seen customer service in action via Twitter. In fact, @SouthwestAir was actively assisting their customers throughout the day on that Sunday, while @USAirways had not sent a tweet in four days and hadn’t responded to a customer-service oriented tweet in five days.
What happened next was less expected. Hundreds of people started responding to my virtual distress signal. People were sending me phone numbers to US Airways and to airports customer service departments and giving me advice on how to get it back. Kind friends from Dallas (where the plane was headed next) volunteered to drive to the airport to retrieve my iPad. While dozens of others reached out to the @USAirways account on my behalf.
In the middle of this outpouring of generosity, came one tweet-in-shining armor under the handle: @This_JustIn_. And this Justin saved the day. A couple phone calls on my behalf and the news came in: my iPad would be riding with the captain back home to PHX where we would be happily (and gratefully) reunited.
There are many lessons to take from this story. For one, don’t leave your unlocked iPad on a plane. (It’s now password protected, by the way.) But one of the most valuable is the power of humans helping humans. There are huge opportunities (thanks to powerful communication tools such as Twitter and Facebook) for ‘titans of industry’ such as US Airways to humanize their brand. Imagine if @USAirways was listening-around-the-clock (since they do fly-around-the-clock) instead of only “listening during regular business hours” (as their bio line says). They not only had the opportunity to give amazing customer service but to do it in front of hundreds of people who were actively listening. People were literally rooting for them to succeed!
And the kicker? It was such an easy win for @USAirways. Why? For one, they had a Captain flying the plane who cared enough about his passengers to temporarily take custody of my iPad and return it to me personally at the Phoenix airport.
So where did they go wrong? They weren’t listening. It is no longer up to the brand where or how they want their customers to communicate. Imagine if US Airways decided they didn’t want to use the phone as a communication device and stopped answering the phone for five days.
So what’s this ‘Hide and Tweet’ thing we’re always talking about? Hide and tweet is more than just three words, but a concept we developed awhile back in effort to bridge the virtual world with the physical world. That’s when the magic happens. Watch the video as we show you how it plays out. Sometimes 20 people show up in less than five minutes. Other times, 2,000 people show up within an hour. Either way, we tell the story virtually so everyone can experience the act and see how attainable prizes are … that is, only if they follow carefully. Whether we’re trying to drive foot traffic to a marketing partner’s store, increase awareness about an event or promote a new product, the Hide and Tweet concept always resonates with fans and pushes them up the loyalty ladder.
The video above shares one day full of Hide and Tweet stunts from start to finish. This is a glimpse into the Summer social media campaign we’ve developed for the UFC called “Hunt4UFC.” The campaign was a result of us listening to fans. They’re constantly asking us to bring our Twitter games to their city, so we did. We’re hitting up 13 markets in the United States and Canada this Summer.
It may only be my sixth week at Digital Royalty, but I’ve been deployed on a three-day road trip from Chicago to D.C. riding side-by-side in a small confined area with a giant green-dino looking thing. Yeah, you read that correctly. Yesterday the MLB Chicago White Sox along with Southpaw the mascot, kicked-off the D.C. or Bust Road Trip. Southpaw and the crew (me included) are traveling from Chicago to D.C. for Friday’s series against the Washington Nationals. The Road Trip includes several fun, and slightly awkward stops along the way. Given that the Chicago White Sox are President Obama’s favorite baseball team, we may just have to pay him a visit when in D.C.
What do you pack when heading out on a three-day adventure with Southpaw? Here’s what I brought:
Laptop
Flip Camera
Digital Camera
Video editing software
iPhone battery pack
Chargers
3G Wireless Card
Red Bull and a loads of Pop Chips
I am riding along with Southpaw capturing all of the crazy moments throughout the trip, through the use of Flip video, Twitvid, YouTube, Twitter, and other social media touch points. Digital Royalty developed the road trip concept and the idea to leverage the presence of social media throughout the trip, as a way to engage with fans and give them the ability to be apart of the road trip experience, by following along on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter (@Southpaw, @InsidetheSox, @DigitalRoyalty and @AlanaGolob), and the MLB Chicago White Sox Road Trip website. Fans can also follow our path via Twitter Search with #SoxRoadTrip in the field. Fans have already helped contribute to the Road Trip Cooler and we have a feeling they will be picking our playlist along the way too.
Without giving out all of our secrets, here is a sneak peak at the agenda for the next few days and expect some surprises along the way:
The Digital Royalty team developed and implemented a cross-platform social media campaign to deliver worldwide happiness leading up to the launch of Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh’s first book, Delivering Happiness. The book, ranked #1 on The New York Times Bestseller List just a week after its launch, demonstrates the power of focusing on company culture and customer service, which has led Zappos to $1 billion in gross merchandise sales annually, and make Fortune magazine’s annual “Best Companies to Work For” list.
The goal behind the cross-platform campaign, was to make use of the organic nature and reach of social media, to not only generate exposure for the book, but to also create a dialogue and a happiness movement that everyone can be a part of, no matter where in the world they are located. The movement is less about encouraging people to purchase the book, and more about the quest to deliver happiness through the path of profits, passion and purpose.
Below we’ve outlined the campaign’s concepts and results:
Livestream Events:
For eight weeks, we hosted a series of Delivering Happiness Virtual Happy Hours from a different city each week. The Happy Hour was broadcasted live on the Delivering Happiness Ustream and Justin.tv channels and was focused on one central theme–happiness….oh and not to mention, featured a baby kangaroo as a guest, drinking dice, karaoke… just to name a few.
Delivering Happiness Virtual Happy Hours were viewed by more than 300,000 people from around the world, and those viewers consumed 340,000 minutes of Delivering Happiness.
Blogger Program:
No matter what their platform or page traffic, bloggers were encouraged to apply on the Delivering Happiness website to become apart of the Delivering Happiness Blogger Program. If selected, each blogger received two advanced copies of the book – one for themselves, and another to give away . In return, they would write a blog post/review of the book the week of the launch and anytime prior.
By the launch of Delivering Happiness, there were 800 total bloggers in the Blogger Program who helped promote and review the book.
Facebook:
Facebook was leveraged to encourage interaction among fans, as well as encourage those who had advanced copies of Delivering Happiness to post photos of their ‘Happy Place’ on the Facebook wall, whether that happy place is on the beach or from their own backyard. Two winners were selected for their photo submissions and announced on the day of launch. One winner’s photo was from the sandy beaches of San Sebastian, Spain, while the others Happy Place was with his college-ruled spiral notebook. Both won a free autographed copy of Delivering Happiness and a Delivering Happiness t-shirt.
Delivering Happiness received photo submissions from all over the World in the three weeks prior to the official launch of the book. The contest built a strong momentum, and despite the fact the contest has concluded, Delivering Happiness continues to receive photos from fans and followers. Twitter:
Delivering Happiness partnered with the LIVESTRONG crew and set a goal to raise $33,333 by the launch of Delivering Happiness on June 7. Leveraging Twitter, we encouraged followers to join the Delivering Happiness and LIVESTRONG movement by making three promotional pushes leading up to the launch party.
Combined, Delivering Happiness and LIVESTRONG raised $50,000 to help support the organization. A base of more than 5 million Twitter followers was created by pulling together influential tweeters such as @LanceArmstrong, @Zappos, @LIVESTRONGCEO and @DigitalRoyalty, among others.
Meetup Everywhere and Sponsored Meetup Book Clubs:
Meetup.com recently launched a new platform, called Meetup Everywhere, which allows likeminded people from around the world to organize groups and events in their own community. To celebrate the launch of the Delivering Happiness book on June 7, people were encouraged to organize a Delivering Happiness Meetup group and join the Delivering Happiness team on June 7 to watch the livestream coverage of the launch party in New York. Each group was sent complimentary copies of the book, so that their groups could chat about the book and everything happy. We even had a Delivering Happiness group all the way in Ireland, Malaysia and Peru.
A total of 133 Delivering Happiness Meetup groups joined the movement and hosted events from locations around the World. Each group watched live coverage of the launch party in New York via livestream. In addition, Delivering Happiness has sponsored 100 Book Clubs across the country on Meetup.com with access to more than 43,000 people.
DailyBooth:
DailyBooth was a great platform to encourage people to submit their Happy Place photos with the book, including people like Ashton Kutcher. More essentially, DailyBooth allowed author and Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh and the Delivering Happiness team to put a face and personality behind their names, by uploading photos of themselves.
Delivering Happiness currently has more than 6,600 followers on DailyBooth.
Delivering Happiness officially hit stands on Monday, June 7 and in it’s first day it was ranked #1 on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Not bad, considering none of us have ever launched a book before. What’s next on the agenda for Delivering Happiness? We’re hitting the road on a cross-country bus tour to promote the book and more importantly spread happiness throughout the country.
Digital Royalty came up with the idea to have readers tell us, via social media, where the happy bus should stop along the tour. Readers are encouraged to submit a short video, photos or 100-words or less telling us why, the bus should stop in their city.
And fear not, you won’t miss a beat, because we will be live streaming along the way. The fun has just begun, so stay tuned for more details about the Delivering Happiness bus tour–BIG things to come.
Delivering Happiness is a game changer and Digital Royalty is honored to be a part of the book team. Author, Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos has become a good friend and mentor. In the video above, I share my thoughts on his new book and the movement.
