Working in the type of job I do often results in people sending you lots of free stuff often completely unrelated to what they’re selling. The idea is that you’ll be so impressed with their random yet clever marketing campaign you’ll remember their name forever and purchase their goods/services. This is called Guerrilla Marketing.
Over the years I’ve been sent coffee, puzzles, sweets, had my office coated with random door hanger-thingies but the best thing I got was Chillies seeds! If I recall, about four years ago they were sent by some design agency and the link between them and Chillies was they produce red hot ideas or something.
They must have arrived at a pretty dull moment because I decided I’d grow em’. I figuring no one else who received probably even bothered and what a waste that would was. I had an empty plant pot on my desk doing nothing as a colleague had drowned my old desk plant while I was on holiday. I bought some compost from Woolworths (when it was still open, god rest its soul) and without paying any attention to how to grow them (I don’t think they even included instructions on what to do) I threw the seeds and the compost in, placed it on my sunny window sill and forgot about them.
I used to grow many things when I was child (I was one of those kids with their own ‘garden’ mainly made up of pansies and daisies, with random veg thrown in) but beyond planting a few herbs at uni I was a growing things novice.
Luckily Chillies are hardy and my third storey, floor to ceiling windowed office was more than hot enough for chillie growing which meant that all 10 plants germinated.
Impressed with life’s ability to flourish despite adversity I was instantly hooked and soon the ten little plants grew taking over mine and colleagues desk, sparking a ‘gardening in office’ craze. (Which I will tell you more about later – have ever tried to re-pot ten chillies plants in a sanitised office in the middle of Croydon? It’s not easy)
Can I remember the name of the design agency? No, did I even visit their website? Probably not. But I have had literally of hours of joy out of growing these little seeds.
So, the moral here is either make sure your marketing is relevant so customers can recognise who you are and what you do, or don’t just bin thing instead try something new.
Chillitastic 