If there’s one thing the Ikea monkey taught me about both guerrilla marketing and gorilla marketing it’s this: Never underestimate the power of a little monkey business to generate a veritable media circus of free publicity for your next meeting event.
(If you’re not up to speed with the Ikea monkey reference, here’s the skinny: A monkey, disguised as an airline pilot, boarded a plane from Malawi to Montreal. After the plane was diverted to 
Toronto, the monkey found work at a Canada Post sorting depot in Burlington. It was during this time he met and fell in love with his boss’s wife, Rose. I’m going to skip the events that transpired over the ensuing months – suffice it to say things got a little bananas, to the point that the only way “Darwin” (his most recent alias) was going to win Rose back was to show her that he, unlike Rose’s rather un-evolved husband, could easily put together an Ikea bookshelf. This is where immigration authorities caught up with Darwin – comparing shelf tones in the dizzying maze of a Toronto Ikea. Why he didn’t just go to the Ikea in Burlington, or for that matter, build his own bookshelf from scratch, remains a mystery.)
Within 12 hours Ikea monkey had morphed into a worldwide media phenomenon. Yes, you can even follow Ikea monkey on Twitter (at the time of writing, Ikea monkey had more than 8,000 followers on Twitter).
The marketing lesson for meeting and event planners is this: Letting a dressed monkey loose at your meeting location a week before the event will garner you more exposure than “two-for-one Tuesdays” at a nudist colony.
Now I’m not suggesting anything ridiculous like actually letting a live monkey loose. The loose monkey is merely a metaphor for doing something outlandish that would generate free publicity, such as letting a beaver, moose or wolverine loose at your meeting facility (all of which being much more realistic options than finding a monkey in Canada, I’m mean let’s be real here).
If live animals are too wild for you, consider one of these ten tamer, yet still effective, buzz-boosting options:
- Introduce the world to “Tom”—someone who was so enamored with LAST year’s event that he never left the meeting venue. Like Tom Hanks in Apollo 13, or Tom Hanks in Castaway, or Tom Hanks in The Terminal, your Tom is a likable every-man stuck—no, not in a space capsule, on an island or in an airport—no, your Tom has refused to leave the hotel ballroom of last year’s Transformation 2012!! event that left him so transformed in such a transformational way that he has camped out 354 days waiting for Transformation 2013!!
- Announce that Jerry Springer will be moderating all of the “no-holds-barred-and-no-chairs-tied-down” plenary panel discussions.
- Two words: Edible lanyards.
- Two more words: Mime-free.
- Eight words: Glow-in-the-dark Laser-tag enabled name tags.
- Announce a surprise, last-minute guest appearance that may or may not include people who may or may not be famous and may or may not still be alive and may or may not include the following: Oprah, Bruno Gerussi’s Beachcombers’ stunt double, George Clooney, the actor who played the voice of Finnegan on the beloved children’s show Mr. Dress Up, Oprah, Richard Branson’s second cousin Norm Branson, Justin Bieber, Wayne Gretzky’s skate sharpener, Oprah, Tony Robbins who manages the pizza parlor down on Fifth and Main, Dr. Phil… Schmidt, and quite possibly, if time and her schedule permits, Oprah.
- Announce that the opening keynote speaker will perform their entire presentation cliché-free. Guinness Book of World Records will be on hand to document and verify.
- Announce that the first 1,000 registrants will be entered into a draw to win the chance to go to dinner with the mystery surprise guest which may or may not include. . .
- Start a rumor that last year’s event was so successful and solved so many problems it was the last meeting participants ever had to attend. Ever. For the rest of their lives. Like, seriously, for EVER. The meeting was just that awesome. (And billing it as the LAST MEETING YOU’LL EVER ATTEND gives you wiggle room in case the meeting really, really sucks.)
- Welcoming remarks to be delivered in English, French and Klingon.
If any of these tactics fails to produce the desired buzz, you can always resort back to the basics of gorilla marketing: I hear Darwin is working for peanuts these days. Plus, he’s got an awesomely heartwarming signature story to share with audiences.
Michael Kerr is a Canadian Hall of Fame Speaker, highly in-demand international keynote speaker, and the creator of the Culture Leadership Online Academy. Michael is also the author of 8 books, including: The Humor Advantage: Why Some Businesses Are Laughing All the Way to the Bank; Hire, Inspire, and Fuel Their Fire; and The Jerk-Free Workplace: How You Can Take the Lead to Create a Happier, More Inspiring Workplace. www.MikeKerr.com
