Creative Marketing: Hop Outside the Box with Chocolate Grasshoppers

It happened one day.  An invasion of some 5,000 FedEx packages began arriving, one by one, at their intended destinations – without warning and without notice.  Mysterious boxes were curiously being opened all across the country within a two-day period.  Even President Obama and the entire Senate received one.  And no one was expecting what they found inside.

Then, the call from Washington officials arrived asking, “What are these?”

David Hauser, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Grasshopper, joins hosts Anita Campbell and Brent Leary to share some insider perspective and personal insight into Grasshopper’s recent successful re-branding marketing campaign in which the stars of the act proved to be (yep, you guessed it) edible chocolate covered grasshoppers.

Listen to the podcast.

Here is their story:

• (3:45) First David, can you tell us a bit more about yourself and how you came to found Grasshopper?
• (5:22) Is your background in telecommunications, David?
• (6:17) Can you explain exactly what the campaign was using the chocolate covered grasshoppers and how it came about?
• (9:37) So you actually got the grasshoppers and covered them in chocolate?  Was there an outside firm that helped you with that?
• (10:26) You sent these chocolate “hoppers” to 5,000 of the most influential people in America.  What makes these people so influential?  How did you pick them?
• (12:22) What role has your video “Entrepreneurs Can Change the World” had in this campaign and what message were you trying to send?
• (14:19) Was this really a successful re-branding campaign?  How do you define the success?
• (15:49) What value are the video reviews?  What success did that translate into for the company and the business?
• (17:00) How did the money already sunk into GotVMail factor into your re-branding decision?
• (20:21) What were some of the apprehensions leading up to this campaign?  Was it considered risky?
• (22:11) I’m sure you had a lot of surprising, unexpected results that came out of this.  Can you give us one or two?
• (24:35) Had you eaten a chocolate covered grasshopper before?  Did you know what you were sending out?
• (25:29) How do you follow up this kind of campaign?  What do you do next?
• (26:22) How is the case study being taken?  Are you hearing any feedback?
• (27:37) David, where can people find out more on the web?