Mike Stiles
If you haven?t experienced the food truck phenomenon in your city, you probably soon will. Here?s how they operate. They paint colorful trucks. They come up with unique menu items. They find a place to park, tweet & post their location, and serve the long lines that pour out of offices. The next day, they go somewhere else and do it again.
Why do people love them so much? And what can radio stations learn from food trucks?
Tip 1: It ain?t about the food. It?s about the experience. Diners like the surprise of learning from a tweet a food truck is downstairs. They like telling other people in the office about it. They like going to the truck as a group. And they like telling others what they?re doing on Facebook and Twitter. What is your station?s ?experience?? How can you make the discovery and acquisition of what you offer fun and social?
Tip 2: Food trucks give us something familiar, but served up in a different way. There?s nothing new about razors. But if you?re Gillette and sent experienced barbers into the lobbies of major office buildings to give free shaves using Gillette products, then you?ve presented your product in a new, experiential way. How can you deliver your music and information in new and unexpected ways?
Tip 3: Food trucks became hip. A party atmosphere surrounds them wherever they go. It?s a culinary flash mob. How hip is your station? Be honest now. Is your station the hottest thing going to your audience? Is there an ?event? atmosphere everywhere you go? Do people want to socialize at your events as groups? Do your events generate a sense of anticipation? Or?do you park your rickety-ass van on the outer edge of a shopping center and make the 4 people who stop by spin a wheel for the chance to win a sticker?
Tip 4: Food trucks activate the natural desire in people to blab. And people have more ways to blab now than ever before. But?the news has to be newsworthy. When an office worker gets a tweet saying a food truck is downstairs, they?ll tell everyone within earshot. They?re doing the truck?s marketing for them! Social media is uniquely suited for ?breaking news.? What news is your station putting out there your listeners will want to break to friends?
Tip 5: Food trucks can change their menus and locations quickly and nimbly. If they get a better cuisine idea, no problem. Location stopped working, just put it in drive. This is where the news is good for radio. No other type of media (other than social) can change and adapt faster than radio. A great show idea doesn?t require moving the stick. Capitalizing on breaking news doesn?t require stopping the presses. The problem is, even though radio has this speed and flexibility, it?s rarely used. The technology is there, only your own corporate culture can bog you down.
Tip 6: Food trucks are a ?limited time only? value proposition. Who knows when that truck will come around again? This might be the only chance to ever experience that truck. The great thing about radio is also the bad thing. Your listeners know you?re there, doing the same thing, 24/7. You?re reliable, but totally un-special. So beyond your regular programming, what opportunities or experiences can you dream up to create a sense of urgency and exclusivity? Remember, it?s got to be significant if you want people to wake up and care.
To summarize, there?s a HUGE difference between people listening to you and experiencing you. Create experiences. Surprising, timely, limited, innovative, fun, rewarding experiences your listeners can group around and share.
Mike Stiles is a writer/producer with the social marketing tech platform, Vitrue, and head of Sketchworks comedy theatre. Check out his monologue blog, The Stiles Files. Find him on Facebook or on Twitter @mikestiles
Stiles Facebook: www.facebook.com/mike.stiles
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