Flash Mob as a Marketing Tool

A couple of days back, an interesting video surfaced up on my Facebook timeline. One of my friends shared a video of a flash mob that happened in the Ambience Mall, Gurgaon a few weeks back. Ostensibly, the flash mob was organized by a guy who wanted to do something innovative to propose to his longtime girlfriend – and he found willing accomplices in LG WR Men Greg and Sherlock – who agreed to play modern day cupid. The LG WR team thought up a flash mob and the guy popped the question to his lady love in great style. I saw the video of the flash mob marriage proposal, and despite the cynicism gathered with having seen the world, I couldn't help but feel a bit mushy at the romantic tale! Here, see the video for yourself –

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Flash mobs originated as a fun experiment that was intended as a satire on the conformist norms of the society. A flash mob, by its very definition, is a collection of people who gather to perform a specific task for short period of time, usually in a crowded place, and then disappear as quickly as they had come. This gathering of people is done through social media and telecommunications.

From its early casual character, flash mobs have evolved a long way – and are now considered an important tool for marketing efforts. Quite a few companies and major brands have used the flash as a tool of marketing – perhaps drawn by the social aspect of the mobs. People who gather around a happening flash mob – and those who are not involved in it, are naturally surprised by the sudden burst of activity. This element of surprise is crucial – since it commands complete attention of the onlookers, and any brand message that is conveyed during this has a very high recall value. And since people are very likely to remember the event for a long time, the message will remain in their mind for all that period. The value of this is obvious if you are a marketer.

However, when a flash mob is being used for marketing purpose, the real work starts AFTER the flash mob is over. Such flash mobs are usually recorded – often on multiple cameras and professionally, and a video is created for online consumption. A carefully prepared video has the potential to go viral – creating a valuable publicity tool with wide reach.

On another level, the viral marketing effort is lent further impetus by those people who were personally present during the flash mob event, and witnessed it as onlookers. They would probably record the event on their mobile phone cameras, and share it with their friends over social media websites, thus augmenting the marketing efforts with genuine social sharing. And THAT is the best kind of marketing that any brand can hope to get.