Snowballing Experience-Leverage Loops (a nifty new term I just made up now) can Push Your Marketing Messages into Hyper-Drive!

Yesterday, Ben Chick and I took a field trip. We left the Home Office in downtown Vancouver and crossed the Lions Gate Bridge to West Vancouver to visit La Maison Simons newest department store, in the Park Royal Shopping Centre.  Why? We wanted to see a project with my business partner Douglas Coupland come to life, and witness what I'm going to trademark here-and-now as a Snowballing Experience-Leverage Loop , or SELL, in action. 

Since it's my kooky-fabulous new marketing buzzword, I get to define what a SELL is, so here it comes: a Snowballing Experience-Leverage Loop is any marketing effort that has a perpetual motion effect, and grows and gets bigger under it's own steam, spinning-off benefits in multiple channels and making everyone involved happy.  Now I just need an emoji to match the awesomeness of this newest addition to the marketing lexicon. 

If you can make all of your marketing programs work stronger and harder with a filter like SELL, you'll be the CEO in a flash. 

Here's how this SELL project for La Maison Simons worked. 

Simon's is a fifth-generation retailer in the province of Quebec, and recently embarked on a massive expansion project, building new stores in cities across the country.  They are known and loved in their home-province, but needed to introduce themselves, shake hands, and build relationships with shoppers throughout the rest of the country. 

All of which led to this scene yesterday, where Douglas Coupland was creating art in the menswear department, next to the in-store cafe (which, by-the-way has a great cheese platter and very very good espresso).  

Coupland is visiting every store in the rapidly-expanding Canadian retailer's portfolio, literally a cross-Canada tour, to collect 3D scans of people who volunteer to sit perfectly still in a chair for about 60 seconds, and have their head digitally captured for the project. In exchange, they receive a 3D model of their head, a digital portrait if you will, courtesy of the artist, and Simons Department Store.

Up at the top of this post you can see me attempting to sit still and be scanned. And here's the outcome: my very own bust of me. 

Later, once this scanned-database representing a cross-section of the Canadian population has been compiled, Coupland will create a mass-portrait artwork, a snapshot of what we, as Canadians look like, to be unveiled in 2017 during the 150th anniversary of Canada. The artwork will have a permanent home in the newly built Simon's flagship store in Toronto. In fact, a space is being designed and created specifically to house the artwork, as the store is built from the ground up.

Before the artwork is ensconced in it's final home, it will tour all the stores in the Simon's chain, allowing everyone who was scanned (and anyone else who is interested) the opportunity to come and see the Coupland piece, a birthday-portrait of the people who make our wonderful country so great. 

What's more precisely of interest to anyone involved in brand-building and marketing-messaging is the SELL. This fairly simple program is spinning off all the following benefits, each of which leverages off the other, and creates a snowball-effect: 

1. Crowd sourcing  Anyone who wants to come and be scanned and be part of the artwork is welcome; it's free and you get a portrait of yourself to take home. Of course this also generates great foot-traffic for the store. 
2. Publicity driving  The media are fascinated with the project, and thanks to the hardworking team at Jane Gill Public Relations, have been writing and videoing great stories about the project. It's a smart way to make sure everyone in town knows about the new kid in town. 
3. Art creating  A very significant piece of art is being created, and thousands of Canadians are involved. That sense of ownership is a wonderful thing to engender, and making public art for the world to enjoy is a noble goal. Having the final artwork on display in the Toronto flagship store will make this whole effort visible and impactful for millions of people over the coming years.
4. Canadian pride reinforcing  Working with Coupland, a Canadian literary and artistic icon, on a project that uses the images of Canadians from across the country in time for Canada's 150th birthday party? What a fantastic way to reinforce that Simon's is no longer a provincial retailer, they are a Canadian retailer now. 
5. Expansion message imprinting  The project further imprints on all stakeholders the story about Simon's moving into new cities across the country. It's a story of growth and success and being proud of a home-grown alternative to the US-based retailers who are not-so-slowly coming to dominate our retailing landscape. (Personally, I'm still weirded-out by the nation-building historical brand Hudson's Bay Company being owned by Americans, but that's another story.)
6. Nation celebrating  As a country we are turning 150 years old! It's a party! And Simon's is at the party with us, with a very cool gift of art for all of us to enjoy.
7. Event generating  In every city where a scanning event has been set up, it's become just that: an event.  So often, marketing events are empty and meaningless: "It's our Annual Tent Sale with Hotdogs in the Parking Lot Event!" In this case, the event is a unique opportunity to be part of the creation of a meaningful work of art celebrating our country! What could be more uplifting and worthwhile than that?
8. Traffic-generating  Getting people into the store is a huge goal for any retailer. With this project, every store has at least two opportunities to see huge spikes in traffic: the scanning events underway throughout 2015/2016, as well as the tour of the final artwork to each store location during Canada's 150th birthday year.
9.  Advertising Messaging  So much advertising says so little to so few. But this project is an opportunity for Simon's to create brand awareness in new cities by inviting people to help make art and celebrate the country we all love. Who is going to ignore an advertising message like that?
10. Social Media Momentum  The combination of intriguing factors here: Douglas Coupland, Art, National Birthdays, Crowd-Sourcing, New Stores, Canadian Success Story: it's pretty easy for this project to spin off through social media channels in all directions. And it has. 
11. Word of Mouth Creation  Staff, shoppers, fans, media, social mavens: this project gives everyone a story to talk about. And people love to have a story to share.  My associate Ben Chick was sending pictures to his pals, of his head being churned out of the 3D printer, while we were still standing in the store. He was not the only one. 

And those are just the snowballing experience-leveraged outcomes I can think of as I write this on a Saturday morning in my bathrobe. The list could be twice as long. 

Point is this: as the David Allison Inc. positioning line refers to, we believe it's imperative to Make Things Interesting. Using a SELL framework to expand the benefits of your next project could help you make that happen.