DISQUS

Mashable - The Social Media Guide: Dead Grasshoppers Give Life to Social Media Marketing Campaign

  • gretelgoing · 5 months ago
    We got some but none of us have been brave enough to eat them. And that's saying a lot considering the 4:00 chocolate cravings we have at the office. We're thinking of regifting them around holiday time...
  • Jennifer Van Grove · 5 months ago
    Regifting chocolate covered grasshoppers? That's kind of funny. Let us know how the present goes over.
  • rafer · 5 months ago
    I was one of the people who got the insect. I'm not sure where it went, though I had planned to eat it. I was turned off by the effort because they got one huge thing wrong.

    The bug arrived by FedEx, which is *not* how you appeal to a bunch of cost-conscious startup types.
  • ctmarcom · 5 months ago
    I think I would've eaten the grasshopper--I'd eat almost anything covered in chocolate. What an inspiring video. I'd definitely check out the company because the video was so well done, delivery was so creative and it sent quite the positive message. It makes me want to quit my job and become an entrepreneur.
  • Helen Hoefele · 5 months ago
    Great to hear the whole story. I had only caught bits and pieces of it before. Love their video. Any stats on what the campaign did in terms of increased sales for Grasshopper?
  • geekevaluation · 5 months ago
    cool idea!!
  • Jeanette Joy Fisher · 5 months ago
    I would eat one ... and more if they taste good. After snails and gator, how bad could a grasshopper be? Great video!
  • Stan Phelps · 5 months ago
    David Carradine (rest his soul) and other fans of the show KUNG FU would be proud of this campaign. Smart move grasshopper.
  • Bob · 5 months ago
    Am I the only one out there who is shocked and appalled that someone would be trying to make money so soon after David Carradine's Death?
  • Patrick Courtney · 5 months ago
    Hopefully they made sure to filter this influencer list for PETA members. Insects are technically animals, right?
  • Jennifer Van Grove · 5 months ago
    Well they didn't send any to me...and I'm vegan...not sure if that means I'm not influential enough or if they were conscious of people's lifestyles.
  • tom cummings · 5 months ago
    Well, they sent a package to me (and my colleague Josh Bernoff) and I'm vegan. Some folks in the office ate 'em. I tweeted back when they came (april? may?) that it was a strange thing to send a vegan who also isn't an entrepreneur ;)
  • Jennifer Van Grove · 5 months ago
    That confirms it then, I'm just not influential enough. Thanks for sharing Tom. :)
  • geekevaluation · 5 months ago
    cool idea!!
  • Jen · 5 months ago
    My boss got a package and we checked out the site, but haven't tried the grasshoppers (yet). And a reply to "Bob" - yes, you are the only one. We received the package well before Carradine's death and you can read in the post, the promotion began several months ago.
  • Philip Nowak · 5 months ago
    Excellent way to engage the digital public, many of whom don't even have a house phone anymore. By the way, I would eat a chocolate covered grasshopper any day over the stuff that Andrew Zimmern eats on Bizarre Foods over on the Travel Channel.
  • Tamar Weinberg · 5 months ago
    Those are my grasshoppers pictured above -- and while I was tempted, nope, I didn't eat 'em. I do think that the idea is pretty darn awesome though. ;)
  • matt mcgowan · 5 months ago
    I too received them... there were only 3 in the bag and 3 members of my team consumed them:

    Shawn: http://twitter.com/matt_mcgowan/status/1810678437
    Christian: http://twitter.com/matt_mcgowan/status/1810664805
    Angela: http://twitter.com/matt_mcgowan/status/1810649178

    All in all sounds like it was a great campaign. Well done!

    BTW - They are approved by the FDA in Thailand (fantastic!)
  • Rahul · 5 months ago
    Really smart use of offline and online marketing media. Though we were not one of the guys to get these grasshoppers, I think we got something more worth than this. Unorthodox is in, and this is just a testimonial for that. This gave us at Raahithi INC, a lot of food for thought, and god save our clients when we start some weird marketing strategies :)
  • Rae · 5 months ago
    I got one. I did not eat it. I gave it to one of my employees. Have no idea if he (@studawg) did. LOL
  • Chaka · 5 months ago
    Here's the real question: what kind of sales did they see out of this campaign? I got the grasshoppers, thought it was cool, tweeted about, but in the end, when I went to their website, I thought, why do I need this? So did they really reach the people they wanted/needed to? And isn't this an example of stunt vs. the meaningful relationship-building we all talk about? Hats off to a cool/memorable idea, but was it money well spent?
  • Jim Kukral · 5 months ago
    My 4-year-old loved them. I think the ROI on this is good, unless the grasshoppers overall cost was really expensive? They didn't mention how much all that costs.
  • Mary Jo Martin · 5 months ago
    That's cool. How much new business did they get from this?
  • Andy Ciordia · 5 months ago
    I'd love to know over the next 6 mos how that helped their bottom line. The cost of sending 5k packs out of product/s&h is no joke.
  • Jesse Stay · 5 months ago
    You're not a real man unless you eat the grasshoppers, fried, without chocolate. (and yes, I have pics)
  • Shelly · 5 months ago
    My CEO was among the recipients. He refused to eat them, so I offered (how many opportunities would I have in my life to try eating a chocolate-covered grasshopper?).

    The green-covered ones weren't that tasty (I think it might have been green-colored white chocolate?), but the regular chocolate ones were surprisingly good. It helped that you couldn't really see the grasshopper; it just looked like a piece of candy. Tasted like a Kit-Kat, seriously!
  • Anne · 5 months ago
    That was a very interesting post, i must say.

    Here is the contribution from my side -

    http://www.webguild.org/2009/06/the-cost-and-pa...
  • Mark Havenner · 5 months ago
    Our President, Stefan Pollack, at the Pollack PR Marketing Group got one. Despite our badgering, he did not eat them. It's probably a good thing, though, I'll bet a sealed package will go for some $$ on eBay one day.
  • vickman · 5 months ago
    Hats off when everybody is all over (to quote Dennis Leary) facey space and how much chocolate covered crap can I tweet (with my link attached) per day here is a company that actually used a marketing campaign. Bravo! And they get facye space, twitter, and main stream media coverage. Great job guys lesson to us all.
  • Paul Chaney · 5 months ago
    I was one of the 5,000. Frankly, it took me a while to get the gist of the whole thing. (In fact, it took a co-worker who had seen some tweets about the campaign to clue me in.) While I have no intention of eating the bugs, I am keeping the bag as a souvenir. I also took a picture and tweeted it. I thought the effort was admirable...a funky, creative way to get their rebranding efforts across.
  • Douglas Karr · 4 months ago
    I was one of the folks and, yes, I did try a grasshopper. I little bitter, chewy and crunchy... but interesting. I am curious about what the return on investment on this campaign was!