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| Stripes Convenient Store "TweetBoard" |
Billboards have had their important place in outdoor advertising. A visually appealing billboard with brief clear message makes drivers and passers by pause and think about the brand featured. Rainmakers know that attractive thought can lead to branding advantage when that consumer is ready and able to purchase product in the category. With the advent of social media marketing, traditional billboards may now taken on a whole new level of importance in the consumer's thought process. A convenience store chain in Dallas called Stripes (formerly Circle K) has introduced a novel way of sharing its customer's enthusiasm of its takeout tacos by providing a near realtime customer Twitter stream. Using the digital billboards, Stripes encourages its takeout tacos customers to tweet their love of product for a moment of fame on eight digital displays in the Corpus Christi, Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, Lubbock, Midland/Odessa and San Angelo markets. The billboards are on surface streets near red lights, so people have a chance to read them. Tweets, which go through a filter to keep conversations G-rated, are then streamed onto the digital displays. The comments are updated a few times per day to create a sense of conversation. More importantly the tweets create a sense of curiosity and product trial for those who've never tasted the tacos and deliver a real life customer word of mouth endorsement. This is yet another example of how clever rainmakers adapt and adjust to more efficiently utilize the marketing tools at their disposal. A Twitter stream today, Facebook product fans' photos tomorrow ?
