SoMeT Symposium: Passionate Communities and the Dallas Facebook Campaign

Rodney Payne, who many of us know as that pretty guy with the accent, is also the founder of Think! Social Media. His 140 character bio reads as follows:

I love innovation, kiteboarding, skiing, travel and challenging the norm. Born in the UK but I consider myself an Aussie. Now Vancouver-based, founder at @ThinkSM.

One of the stories Rodney told us (among many) was the story of their Super Bowl Social Media Campaign. It went a bit like this...

Realizing that people are ridiculously passionate about their football teams, they decided to send a Mystery Man to each city of the teams who made it to the Super Bowl. The first person in each city to find the Mystery Man and tell him the secret phrase, "Have you been to Dallas lately?" would win tickets, hotel reservations and cash.

They had bloggers from each city participating as "Exclusive Bloggers" and would share daily clues about the location of the mystery man. It was important to find bloggers who were big in the social media world and had engaged followers.

People could find the secret password by liking the Visit Dallas Facebook Fan Page. There was a Twitter account created to update people and answer questions and two hashtags were created to help the conversation (#SBHuntGP and #SBHuntPGH). They built contest awareness by joining in conversations on Twitter and spreading the word.

The contest began on a Friday and so many people were involved that the mystery man was found in both cities by Saturday. 

The Visit Dallas Fan Page on Facebook grew by almost 10,000 fans in three days. I would say the campaign was a success. 

I thought this story was hugely impressive, and think it is really applicable to any destination.

Rodney also left us with these points:

1. Communication has changed forever
2. We talk about what we’re interested in
3. The shape of the purchase funnel has changed - broadcast doesn’t work
4. You can’t be everything to everyone
5. Forget top-down, focus on bottom up
6. Always listen to consumers before you talk
7. Relationships with influencers are key.
8. Consumers draw each other through the funnel

Follow Rodney on Twitter: @rodneyp