Inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes and on this occasion it came in the shape of a small London taxi! You see a few years ago Hamptons branded a number of London taxi’s and as part of this exercise received a ‘Hamptons’ branded model taxi. It just so happened that this model taxi was sitting on the desk of their Managing Director when I walked passed and the idea of using it to feature in the upcoming Roadshow sprang to mind!
The trick however was to try to get the model to look like the real deal and create the illusion that it would actually travel to all of the branches taking part in the roadshow and transport us from location to location. When it comes to the world of social media size matters you see!
Upon further thought I decided however that the taxi just wouldn’t be large enough to fit us all in, (apart from the obvious reason) so keeping to the same theme I decided to turn to an alternative vehicle and borrowed my little nieces range rover. Well I mean she wasn’t using it and it was just parked outside her dolls house and the doll family didn’t seem to be in need of it at that time either!
So, first thing was first, naturally a road test of the vehicle had to be conducted to see how it would fare on the day. London’s Sanderson Hotel was the chosen location for the day and we asked if we may have permission to park our range rover outside the front of the hotel and take some pictures of it. The front of house team were most accommodating and agreed to our request then a little surprised when I produced the vehicle from inside my bag to show them – though their concierge said he’s never amazed by the requests they get!
The car sat proudly outside of the hotel while our photographer chose different angles to shoot the car and see how it would look. You can see the video we shot on the day to give you an idea of what we were up to!
I can’t tell you the number of people who stopped to look and smile and comment on what we were doing. Had it been a PR stunt in itself it would have been great as a number of people asked to take pictures! There was one moment however when disaster nearly struck, as I turned my back to walk towards the hotel leaving the car parked in the kerb side Caroline, to her horror from the other side of the road, witnessed a real London taxi swoop into the kerbside to drop off a customer almost crushing our mini-range!! Luckily he’s spied it parked there and avoided it. Much to our relief! He actually thought it was hysterical and so did his passenger!
Car still intact (phew) we were done for the day and knew what we had to do for our roadshow.
The next stage obviously was branding, now I’d always advise asking permission before branding any vehicle but as I was sure my little niece wouldn’t object we set about adding some mini vinyl’s to its bonnet, doors and rear. Now it really looked the part!
Using a ‘prop’ in any type of social campaign is really useful as it helps to create interest and engagement. It gives you something to focus on and build your campaign around, this doesn’t need to be a vehicle it could be character, an item of clothing a bag, umbrella you name it but it means it can feature throughout your images on any social channel and becomes an item of interest that consistently appears. Depending on the prop you choose you’d be amazed at the creative ideas that can be inspired from it and that’s what makes the difference. Now naturally our vehicle had to appear life size if it was going to work at all but you can play about with images until you have created the effect you want. Whatever you do use however make sure it’s branded appropriately because if it is to be the focal point of your particular campaign you must make sure you logo or elements of it appear in every shot in which you prop is features.
The reaction to our mini-range from the branch staff on our road show was just great, everyone loved it and each branch we visited in turn couldn’t wait to see the image we’d use of it being ‘parked’ outside of their particular office. You’ll also find if you do use a prop literally EVERYONE wants one! -so if you are using bags, umbrellas etc make sure you have a number of them to give away! One or two children and a couple of the staff too would have been more than happy to give our mini-range a new home but we only had one so had to keep an eye on it! (what would I have told my little niece?!)
I think my favourite image is the range rover parked outside of the Hamptons Clapham branch but you can also see the cool shot of the Hamptons ‘H’ featuring on the back of the car and the front of the Hamptons Kensington High Street branch. (it’s all in the detail!) Equally parked outside of the Hamptons Islington branch against the Roadshow window vinyl’s.
The best bit of all was the amount of people we convinced the vehicle was actually real! In fact I’ve possibly done myself an injustice by writing this article but I’m just so glad it worked. The Instagram stats and likes themselves show the great engagement that any such stunt can cause especially when combined with a campaign.
You can see the whole story of the roadshow by searching #HamptonsCountryRoadshow or by looking at the @HamptonsInt account on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
In fact if you like what you see please do ‘like’ and share the pictures too!
If this activity has inspired you with an idea for your upcoming event just let us know by sharing your story with @FlatLivingLoves and @JamesBiley using #BeMoreSocial
Finally special thanks to @SandersonSocial for allowing us to film in front of their hotel and to all the teams @HamptonsInt Clapham, Kensington & Islington because we couldn’t have done it without you on the day! Finally special thanks to the Hamptons marketing team and Caroline the amazing photographer.
Now what will I use for the next event?!
James is Marketing and PR Manager for Countrywide’s Estate and Asset Management and Property Auction divisions.
The #BeMoreSocial column was created for Flat Living and its goal is to drive more effective communication within the property management industry.
If you have a customer service experience using any form of marketing or social media that you’d like to share then tweet @JamesBiley and @FlatLivingLoves using the #BeMoreSocial.
We’d love to feature your examples in a future edition.
