I have decided. If I am not passionate about doing something, I am simply not going to do it. For a recent experience, Lovin’ the Lou, I was able to let my passion flag fly and find others flying theirs proudly as well…it was magical!
First things first, we have a fabulous new development/rehab called The Laurel Apartments located in Downtown St. Louis in the Mercantile Exchange District. This is an up and coming neighborhood with incredible potential to really help rejuvenate Downtown – and we are right in the middle of it. So we needed to get the word out. In comes Lovin’ the Lou! In order to enter, we asked Lovin’ the Louers to create a 2 minute video capturing their love for St. Louis.
This is not just a contest with a fabulous prize (Free Rent for a Year at The Laurel), it is much bigger. It is about reminding an entire region how alive and exciting downtown St. Louis really is. We originally wanted to use all the traditional media outlets like television and newspapers but as it turned out, that is not where you find people for passion projects. So you ask yourself…how can we find this targeted audience of people passionate about St. Louis? The internet of course! This project was run completely through social media – twitter, facebook, website, and blog posts. And maybe we sacrificed some volume (maybe) by avoiding traditional media, but I think we gained a ton more in passion.
We received 18 passionate, creative, and fun videos showcasing St. Louis for this project! Every entry had a great story to tell and it was clear that this was not really about winning free rent. BAM! Exactly what we were looking for…our prize was secondary to real passion for the city! Not only were people loving the videos, they were also commenting and sharing the information with their friends. Our broader goal of helping revitalize downtown was really coming to fruition. We have 18 mini-commercials from real St. Louisans that are much more intriguing than any ad I have ever seen. This is only the beginning. It’s funny (and maybe this is a precaution), when you start a passion project you find it will never be complete – you will feel internally compelled to do more. So I guess we will see what the next chapters bring!
But for this chapter, we are in the final stages of judging to announce the winner later this month – check out all the entries at Lovinthelou.com.
Broader reminder to marketers: Don’t push your content (especially with passion projects). Passionate people who really buy-in are much more inspiring than fancy ad campaigns with fake passion. Passionate people truly believe in what you are trying to accomplish and they will find you. It’s like a social media flash mob for your project! Ok-ok. Here are some stats… (over 5 month period).
5,058 Visits 3,231 Unique visitors 16,951 Pageviews 280 Comments 166 Lovin the Lou fan page likers 554 Facebook individual webpage likes 63 Tweets 11 +1’sWe are nearing the first chapter finale for this passion project and I can’t wait to continue! What will your next passion project be?
0 Responses
MD
Thank you for taking the time to pen this. LTL was awesome.
Having this experience behind you; what would you do different the next time around? What would you do more of? Less of?
Thank you for the passion – you and all of the amazing people the worked on this project deserve some big kudos.
M
Thanks Mike! @jessicadh83:twitter and the whole @LaurelMX:twitter team worked really hard and made this amazing! It was really important that everyone involved had the same passion.
In terms of doing things differently, we would have had a more solid date to end the contest and possibly worked with twitter a little more strategically.
It was a wonderful experience and we can’t wait to announce the winners!!
Really, I think the ladies running around in squirrel outfits at Mike Shannon’s deserved a mention in this post.
It would have been nice if some of the various groups charged with promoting the city had bought in to the contest and helped promote it more. I mean, the premise of the contest is exactly what we need more of and we got some great footage of people enjoying St. Louis, not just the part that can afford to pay to get mentioned.
Agreed – I attached our Lovin the Lou Rally Squirrel photo. Kudos to @30lines:twitter as well for that idea! It was disappointing that some of the groups in St. Louis didn’t buy in… This was the first time at least to my knowledge that anyone has really gotten footage of actual people who love our city, it (s)would have been a great opportunity for them as well! Thank you Ryan for all your help with the project – You Rock!!
Thanks for the shout out, Melissa! We’re just disappointed that we weren’t in town to enjoy the festivities!
I am so glad you got a good response to this! I love St. Louis and all it has to offer, so it is really fun to see all these creative videos. Great job!
Thanks for commenting Michelle! I am super impressed by how creative the videos are – we have great people in #STL
Yay for Lovin the Lou! My next passion project is rooftop QR codes! Really though, it was a lot of fun, and I think it’s not just downtown St. Louis that has a lot to offer, but St. Louis as a whole and I would love to see the contest branch out and cover the entire realm…who’s next?
Since rooftop QR codes are your passion 🙂 – I think to show that passion you should get a QR code tattoo!!!!! Just kidding, mostly. You totally rocked this project and your passion showed through – even sans tattoo!
Rooftop QR codes? I like it. Might need to add a few photos to the website for that!
I’m excited to see who won, I was really impressed with the videos they reminded me of some places that, even as a native, are still on my to do list. I think it would be good to do something that really puts focus on the core of downtown. I think it is still an area of St. Louis that people are yet to fully discover. The idea is on the tip of my tounge.
A giant hat tip to the whole team. I am absolutely in love with just plain fun marketing. Getting involved with the community has enormous feel good benefits and long term connections. Way to go Team Mills!