Being Cheryl: Social Media Marketing Strategist from Columbus, Ohio.

I’m a huge Nine Inch Nails fan. The band is coming to Columbus ON my birthday. Obviously, I already have tickets and can’t wait for the show. So imagine my surprise when I’m headed to work one morning and on the radio I hear a promo for a contest to win:

• A custom ticket with winners name on the header

• Winner’s name on the marquee inside the venue

• Dressing room backstage for a total of 8 people

• Dinner backstage for winner & guests

• Meet and Greet with Trent Reznor and NIN for winner & guest

It’s safe to say at this point I probably peed myself a little. BACKSTAGE ACCESS ON MY FREAKIN’ BIRTHDAY TO ONE OF MY FAVORITE BANDS!?! MEETING TRENT?! OMGZOMGZOMGZ. Whatever you want me to do, local radio station, I will do it. Murder? Sure. Who/where/when?

The challenge was to create an unconventional guerrilla marketing campaign for the show. In the 15 minute drive to work, I had the entire plan formulated in my chaotic brain. The following is the thought progression that led to my campaign:

It was November 5th. You know, like Guy Fawkes day. (V for Vendetta for those less historically inclined.) Why the hell I remembered this, I don’t know, but the plan was to have three people walking down the main street of Ohio State University’s campus with the Guy Fawkes masks on, each wearing a sandwich board with a different letter (N-I-N) and handing out DVDs. On the DVDs would be written the basic information about the concert (NIN. 11.17.08. @ the SHOTT) because, well. DVDs are cooler than flyers, right? And ON the disc, should anyone be inclined to watch it, would be some short, stupid viral video with information about the show and the Guy Fawkes mask jumping out at the end.

Where the hell this idea came from, I have no idea. But it sounded like a win to me.

The problem was… that it was November 5th. Almost a week AFTER Halloween. All the temporary costume shops closed, Wal*Mart type stores cleared out of their halloween supplies, and the only costume store I know of… had sold their last Guy Fawkes mask a few hours before I got off work. AWESOME. Also, I couldn’t find 2 other people to walk and one other person to film it as evidence for the station that we actually did this. Plan shot. Tears tears tears.

BUT I AM NOT A QUITTER, MY FRIENDS. I WILL PERSEVERE. I WILL MARKET THIS SHOW. I WILL WIN! I AM SPARTA!

So I decide… screw it, only 5 people might actually get the Guy Fawkes reference anyway, I’ll just do this tomorrow night when I have more time to find people and resources. So after searching a few more stores in vain for any kind of masks, I end up back at the costume store, find 3 of the cheapest mask they have (still freakin’ $8 a piece), and head to my friend Matt’s to shoot/edit/burn the DVDs. They’re stupid, cheesy, etc., but they get the message across.

So I round up my roommate, my boyfriend and another friend of mine who, thankfully, had nothing better to do on a Thursday night, make the signs, label the discs and head out to march victoriously down High Street.

I also utilized this little thing you may have heard of called social media to have a TON of my contacts call into the radio station and tell them what was going on downtown “in the name of CD101.” They plugged my grand march on air and sent some promo folks to find me.

Here are the masks/signs:

Here is the collateral we handed out:

This is the video that Matt Lydy and I ended up creating and burning to the discs:

(Revolutionary cinematography? Hell no. Effective? Hell yes.)

And this is me, @SarahSpiero and my fiend Josh Lake walking down High Street on OSU’s campus causing a stir, as documented by Demetrius Hall:

So… what happened?

I just got a phone call from the radio station about 5 minutes ago.

I’ll be spending my birthday backstage with 7 other people at the Nine Inch Nails concert

(if you’re local, and you listen to the CD101 morning show, you MIGHT have heard me cry a little on air, haha)

Erm… usually my blog posts have “lessons” and deep insights and stuff, so here it goes: The lesson of this is, I guess, work hard if you really want something and don’t give up when crap doesn’t go your way. You can make anything happen for yourself if you’re willing to sacrifice the time, money and energy to do it.

…did I mention I did this all in 1 day on a college students budget of… nothing?

Oh, and the other lesson is NIN FREAKIN’ ROCKS.

THANKS SO MUCH TO CD101 FOR PICKING ME AS THE WINNER!

UPDATE:

Yeah, I know - you’re jealous.