SLEEPING WITH DINOSAURS

Over the weekend ‘A Night at the Museum’ became a reality as the Natural History Museum opened their doors for Dinosnores, the ultimate adult sleepover. 

The concept has already proved a hit for children, but this event was adult only, providing thought provoking seminars, tours of the museum after dark, a sit down dinner and a glass or two.

What a great example of an original, fun and rich way to utilise resource.  Traditional consumption of museums has evolved of course, but I love the bold idea of something fresh and relatively simple too.

These gems of ideas are magnificent examples of content marketing:

• Creating valuable content – tick
• Distributing that content – tick
• Attracting a defined audience – tick
• Driving profitable customer action – tick

There are a myriad of comparable initiatives to be discovered still, and all it takes is the bright idea and the bravery to drive it through.  The impressive thing about Dinosnores is that has become the product of its own evolution (no pun intended.) 

Starting small, the popularity of its children’s sleepover has grown into further events, varying in theme and target market.  All providing valuable content to drive the exposure of the next.

Dinosnores is an example of content marketing at its finest.  I wonder how long the process was from the idea to its execution.  Sometimes these things also happen through making the most of an unexpected opportunity.

Last week, David Willis, an American tourist, was accidently locked in a Waterstones store after closing time.  (Thank goodness for modern technology, it didn’t turn into a scene from Career Opportunities.) David took to social media and the story went viral.  Up stepped Airbnb to spot the opportunity.

Airbnb worked quickly with Waterstones to turn an accident into a fantastic mutually beneficial marketing opportunity – running a competition to win a sleepover in a Waterstones book store. 

• Creating positive media coverage – tick
• Driving website and social traffic – tick
• Data acquisition – tick
• Attracting commercial partnerships – tick

The ability to work quickly was key to this activation and it’s a testament to both Waterstones and Airbnb that they were able to make it happen whilst harnessing the media coverage at its height. 

After all, it seems that unconventional sleepovers are a hot topic right now so, conversely, you snooze, you lose.

To find out more about Dinosnores click here