Visual Marketing: 99 Proven Ways for Small Businesses to Market with Images and Design

43. High-Tech Digital Communications from a 1970s Chevy Van: Marketing by Creating an “Experience” That Includes a Digital Billboard, Social Media, and an On-Site Presence

Would you spend a week living in a van in Indiana? In the bitter cold of winter? Broadcasting live via digital billboard and online? What if you could raise $18,000 for your favorite charity? Darren Heil, executive director of Community First Initiative (CFI), and Daniel Herndon, owner of Redwall Live, spent five days in an old 1970s Chevy van with nothing but a couple of bucket seats and an old couch. They braved temperatures in the low teens awaiting donors. Everything had to be donated: They wanted to spur on participation. “We had no food unless it was donated, no heat unless it was donated,” says Herndon.

Why It Works

“The campaign is experiential, interactive and involves social media in a major way,” explained Herndon. With a webcam and a couple of laptops, they blogged and tweeted as their image flickered 50 feet above on a billboard along Interstate 65 and streamed online via the Forkout.org website. Forkout.org is the charitable offspring of Redwall Live, an experiential marketing firm. They used social media to spread the news of the event and garnered attention from local press and from viewers online throughout the world. By living out this stunt and constantly communicating via Twitter, Facebook, ...