Last week I got to attend the 2011 FIRE Sessions hosted by Brains on Fire in Greenville. I recapped the morning and afternoon sessions (Including a LIVE #Blogchat) over on the Brains on Fire blog.
The event itself was delightful and inspiring just like it was last year. But for me, the highlight of my 3-day stay in Greenville came the morning after the FIRE Sessions, when I went visit the Brains of Fire headquarters. There I had a chance to sit down and chat with Greg Cordell and John Moore. Both conversations were absolutely fascinating, and today I wanted to share with you some of the smartitude that I heard from Greg.
We were discussing how companies can connect with their advocates, when our chat turned to the idea of sponsorships. Greg said something that completely grabbed my attention:
“The greatest thing you can sponsor are the people that love you.”
Greg explained that the idea was to find what your customers love about your brand, and think about ways to sponsor events that tie into the qualities of your brand that attract your customers, or the way in which they use your product(s). Here’s a couple of examples:
1 – If your customers love the elegance and simplicity of your product, create events and touchpoints that are elegant and simple.
2 – Figure out what your customers love about your brand and product, and create events that give them a reason to connect with each other and share that common love. Greg explained that with Fiskars, they found that customers were using their scissors in their scrapbooking projects, and they also discovered that scrapbookers are very passionate about their projects. So it was a natural to create events that bring scrapbookers together and let them connect over a common love: scrapbooking.
What’s important is to not only create an event that ties into the reasons why customers love your product and brand, but to also connect them to other people that share that love. Greg clarified that companies should “sponsor the things that connect people to people, when you connect people to people through the things that they care more about.” When you put people in contact with other people that share their same love and interests, it energizes and excites them. And if your brand can facilitate that meeting and event, your customers will love your brand even more for doing so.
Isn’t that just so smart it makes your head hurt, in a good way? When you relate this back to how Rockstars connect with their fans, this is really all a concert is. It’s an event that brings fans together over a shared interest and lets them connect with each other.
What concert can you create for your brand’s fans?
@amberhutchins Thank you Amber!
Great stuff, Mack – and SO true. Connect with love. 🙂