Surprise! It's delight. How we built a social media campaign around SXSW that would engage attendees but not create noise for our fans/followers who weren't there.

1. By Carmen Shirkey Collins, Sr. Manager, Citrix SaaS Social Media CoE
Disclosure: views are my own.

3. The Challenge: SXSW
How do you:
Drive conversation around your brand at an event
Post without creating “noise” (the majority of
followers probably aren’t in attendance)
Represent your authentic brand self

4. The Answer:
A Surprise &
Delight Campaign

5. How we did it – Step 1
Picked a good partner - @TwitGift
@Twitgift had the existing infrastructure, we just
gave it a few tweaks
Allowed people to give us real-time locations
Allowed for pick up at a local meeting point
(Twitgift’s idea!)

6. How we did it – Step 2
Entered existing conversations
Followed & responded to hashtags
#SXSWFail
#SXSWeats
#SXSW
#SXSWi

7. How we did it – Step 3
Responded in conjunction with other brand
activations
We also offered free grilled cheese sandwiches in
return for app downloads.
We replied when people Tweeted about their free
lunch.

8. How we did it – Step 4
Staffing
A staff of 4 full-time staff people tag-teamed
watching the conversation through the weekend
A staff of 10 Twitgifters/messengers
Two senior staff on the ground at SXSW

9. The Gifts:
- Cupcakes in jars
(Cupcake Wars-winning
cupcakes at that!)
- Unicorns (branded with
shirts)
- Single Serve Coffee (the
weather was awful!)
- Chocolate bars

10. The Logistics:
- A person Tweeted with a
complaint or compliment
- @Handle replied with a
link to Twitgift
- Receiver entered info
(phone number, current
location)
- Bike messengers and
runners delivered the gift!

11. The Results:
- RESULTS:
- The conversation with brand at
SXSW increased 1300% year
over year.
- We got TONS of user-generated
content
- We gained positive brand
recognition
- People were actively asking to
participate
- It went viral (people who were
delighted wanted to delight
others)

12. Questions?
Comments?
• @CShirkeyCollins
• How have you done surprise
and delight campaigns? I’d
love to learn from you, too!