Dive Brief:
- Zappos delivered about 1,900 boxes filled with assorted merchandise such as sunglasses, headphones and backpacks on doorsteps in Hanover, N.H., overnight last month.
- Compared to other towns of its size, Hanover is "fiercely loyal" to the Zappos brand; it is also one of the state’s wealthiest communities and home to Dartmouth College.
- An independent unit of Amazon, Zappos also staged a giveaway in Austin earlier this year that stole Google’s thunder—and its cupcakes.
Dive Insight:
Zappos executed another grass-roots promotion last month, unexpectedly “Delivering happiness” to consumers in Hanover, N.H. Deploying about 30 employees in vans overnight, the brand delivered boxes filled with a variety of merchandise to every doorstep in the tiny town, surprising residents with an early holiday gift.
At sunup, Zappos’ elves disappeared—or at least after filming the joyous reactions of a handful of Hanoverites. Hashtagged #ZapposLovesHanover, the stunt was engineered by Boston agency Mullen Lowe, which punked potential Google customers in Austin, Texas, earlier in the year by taking the tech giant’s cupcakes as payment for real merchandise.
Both stunts underscore the Zappos slogan, build loyalty among the small number of people lucky enough to have been in the path of the promo, and power media mentions. But while they are clever, it remains to be seen whether such efforts are sufficient to power a big e-tail brand.