Role: Sponsor, Designer, Creative Director
Context: Company Launch Event
Location: Wall Street, New York City
Audience: General public, financial services workers, media
Experiential production in public to launch free-commision stock broker. At Zecco, I oversaw the marketing efforts to bring this online stock trading company to market, building from zero to 140,000 customer accounts over two and a half years.
The idea:
Zecco needed media coverage to propel the company into investor awareness. My team’s initial media relations efforts yielded coverage in Bloomberg and the WSJ. Unfortunately, that coverage was skeptical. Journalists saw Zecco as an upstart brokerage with an untested business model. Our European investors and headquarters outside the financial center of New York were suspect. The gist of the criticism was, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” With an incipient launch and media skepticism coalescing, we needed something big to turn the tide and build momentum from a launch. So, we seized the moment to change the conversation. As a stock brokerage, it made sense to launch on Wall Street. We set out to prove there is such a thing as a free lunch.
The Space:
The production took place in a four block area around the New York Stock Exchange. It extended from the sidewalk in front of the NTSE to Bowling Green Park a few blocks down Broadway. We incorporated landmarks such as the Charging Bull statue. The venue was entirely public, an unregulated uncontrolled space. New York City in general is noisy, and rambunctious. Although our activity didn’t need to be permitted, we planned for potential disruptions. The star of show was rebranding 10 street hot dog vendors with Zecco trade dress: umbrellas, signage and stickers. We bought out the entire days stock of hot dogs for each of the vendors and trained them to give away hot dogs to any comers. At the same time, we had a street team of actors with bull horns holding a mock protest of high brokerage commissions that were marching down the broadway and Wall Street holding enormous protest signs and chanting slogans. Our PR team was camping out at CNBC and local news studios with free hot dogs and schwag in tow.
The Execution:
Getting the hot dog vendors on board was the most challenging task. It turns out each of the vendors is an independent contractor. There was no way to corral all these vendors without boots on the ground. Our local producer sourced a local producer to help put the deal together. Turned out the whole transaction needed to be done in cash. I arranged to get $10K from the CFO, before flying out to NYC, with another $10K cashier’s check in my pocket. The night before the event, I walked with the local producer and a security guard to warehouse where the hot dog carts go to sleep and met with each of the hot dog vendors to cement the deal, hand off the cart dress and train them on the event. I got stares of incredulity when I asked each one for a signed receipt for the accounting department. At the same time, another producer was coordinating the graphics and training the mock protest street team. We had all the graphics printed locally in NYC. At 11:00, the protestors started up at Bowling Green Park and began to march towards the New York Stock Exchange. Our hot dog vendors opened their umbrellas and started serving. For the next 3 hours, we kept up the event serving hundreds of people. By noon, the tv cameras were all over the district, and our management team had secured multiple interviews.
The Outcome:
The PR team made hay of the event, sending free hot dogs up to the producers at CNBC and engaging the media to full effect. We earned spectacular media attention: four segments on CNBC, coverage in Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USAToday, Forbes, Businessweek, Wired, and Fast Company. Within 24 hours, Zecco had 4,000 funded brokerage accounts.
