Mail 5,000 Influencers Chocolate-Covered Grasshoppers

What's the play

Send your whole target list of influential people a weird, edible object tied to your brand name, shipped like it is urgent. Grasshopper mailed leaders and journalists five chocolate covered grasshoppers each with a hangtag pointing to a short video, and people could not resist filming themselves eating them.

What was the alternative?

A press release announcing your rebrand that every journalist deletes.

Results / what moved

Grasshopper FedExed 25,000 chocolate covered grasshoppers to 5,000 influential leaders, journalists, and bloggers, five each, with a hangtag linking to a 'movement' video. Recipients sent back hundreds of videos of themselves eating them, Guy Kawasaki and Kevin Rose tweeted it to 875,000 followers, and the video hit 100,000 views in under a month.

Cost breakdown

Bulk novelty edibles and shipping to your target list

Time to pull off

A few weeks to produce and ship

Steps

1. 1

   Pick an object that is your name

   Choose a weird, cheap, edible or physical thing that literally plays on your brand name.

2. 2

   Send it to your whole target list

   Ship it to the influential people, press, and buyers you most want talking about you.

3. 3

   Ship it like it is urgent

   Use a courier like FedEx so it feels important and actually gets opened.

4. 4

   Point to one simple action

   Add a tag with a single link, like a short video, and reshare the reactions people post.

Notes

Tie the object to your name so the joke lands instantly, grasshoppers for Grasshopper. Ship it in a way that feels urgent, they used FedEx to boost the open rate. Point the hangtag to one simple thing to watch, and reshare the reactions people send back.

Receipts

Grasshopper's own case studyPonoko writeup