The Top Marketing Ploy from SXSW 2011

What’s the fastest route to a conference attendees heart? Free food.

FedEx masterfully capitalized on this well-known fact by bringing a food truck masked as a FedEx delivery vehicle onto the grounds at SXSW. Inside, there was food galore, but it appeared to be an everyday FedEx truck on the outside. That was the first part of their marketing strategy. The second part was that the food they served each day came from a different part of the world, which entrenches the image of FedEx being an international company.

To top it off, the food came inside FedEx packages. One day it was an American hot dog, the next day it was an Indonesian sandwich. And the crowds literally and figuratively ate it up, as the lines for the truck never ceased. Now that the association has been made in people’s minds, and word is spreading, it seems like a surefire victory for FedEx in terms of influence marketing.

What did FedEx figure out? Nothing most people don’t already know. But to be able to realize the potential of a FedEx food truck was certainly an achievement. Perhaps the competition will give away full-course dinners next year in a show of one-upmanship. For more information on this subject, watch the video from OpenView Labs featuring Tyson Goodridge.