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People in airport terminals, waiting rooms, and long lines all have one thing in common: they’re stuck there. But great word of mouth marketers don’t see these moments as problems, they see opportunities to start conversations.
Here are a few great examples to inspire you:
1. Make someone’s day better
2. Give them a chance to give back
3. Make the wait more bearable
1. Make someone’s day better
Photo thanks to Fast Company.
No one likes getting stuck in those seats at the back of the plane where you can’t lean back, the seats next to the restroom, or those dreaded middle seats. But passengers who had to sit in one of these unfortunate spots got a surprise from Danish chocolatier Anthon Berger. By scanning their boarding pass at an Anthon Berger kiosk, they could receive a piece of chocolate — the worse the seat, the bigger the prize. That’s a plane full of people eating Anthon Berger’s chocolate and talking about how it made their trip better.
2. Give them a chance to give back
Photo thanks to Springwise.
With lots of airlines banning liquids at their security checkpoints, tons of plastic bottles get thrown away and sent to a landfill every day. But Frankfurt Airport has other plans for the hundreds of bottles people surrender. They take the money they earn from giving the bottles to a recycling company and donate it to charity. When someone recycles a bottle, they get to choose which charity their recyclable will benefit: the World Wildlife fund, a humanitarian aid, a homeless shelter, or a local food bank. That takes something as simple as a recycling bin and turns it into something worth talking about.
3. Make the wait more bearable
Photo thanks to KarenandJay.com.
You don’t need cool tech to wow your captive audiences. Sometimes all it takes is a little extra effort to be nice. Congdon’s Doughnut Shop in Wells, Maine has a loyal following, and some people will wait in long lines just to order their famous breakfast. But to make waiting in line more fun, their staff hands out doughnuts. Nothing fancy here, just a nice gesture that makes waiting for your table not so bad after all.
