How to Be Remarkable on Halloween! [Marketing Update]

On last week’s episode of Marketing Update, Karen Rubin the nun and Mike Volpe the cowboy discussed companies doing it right for Halloween, social media updates, and Gronkowski on Twitter, with special guests Andy Paul and Jon Wuebben.

Doing it Right for Halloween

Nightmares Fear Factory, a haunted house in Niagara Falls, Canada, decided to take reaction photos of frightened customers and then posting the pictures to Flickr. The haunted house is so frightening that there is a “chicken list” where guests can be escorted out if they choose to yell out "nightmares."

As a result of this marketing initiative, Nightmares Fear Factory's traffic increased by over 10,000% after posting the pictures to Flickr. They increased engagement on Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, and their website temporarily crashed after gaining 600 visits per day and 60,000 unique visits in less than 24 hours.

Nightmares Fear Factory has been talked about on ABC News, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Comedy Central’s Tosh.0, Huffington Post, and Newsweek.

Marketing Takeaway: Content that is worthy of remarking on (AKA remarkable content) is the key to breakout inbound marketing success.

Gronkowski Ruffles Feather for Twitter Fame

Rob Gronkowski, tight end for the New England Patriots, made a decision/publicity stunt that could have jeopardized the Patriots’ reputation. Adult film star Bibi Jones posted pictures of herself posing with Gronkowski. The pictures show her wearing Gronkowski's football jersey, with Gronkowski shirtless.

Jones posted the photos to her Twitter account. "I asked him if I could put it on Twitter because some athletes wouldn't want that since I do adult films, and they don't want to be associated with that. He was really cool with it because I have more Twitter followers than him."

Gronkowski apologized for taking the photos and putting his team’s image on the line. Even though Gronkowski gained 5,000 Twitter followers, it was not worth risking his team’s reputation. 

Marketing Takeaway: In the quest for more Twitter followers, stay true to your brand.