Big kudos to the folks at Bear Naked Granola folks for puttin' together the best and most Surprising Hallowe'en promotion EVAH!
While the big boys stocked supermarket end-caps with stacks of junk food, Bear Naked recruited wigged-and-costumed college student street teams across the country, reverse-engineered the concept of Trick-or-Treating and went door-to-door to GIVE AWAY hundreds of thousands of granola samples.
Door-to-door marketing used to be a familiar, homespun North American staple (remember "Avon calling!" and the Fuller Brush man?), but with modern innovations like home invasions, they have kinda fallen out of favor.
Which makes Bear Naked's reverso initiative even more brilliant.
The company's marketing director, Ryan Therriault, admitted that going door-to-door "is looked down upon," but said that "Hallowe'en was the one day of the year that people would actually be expecting someone to show up at their door," so...
This is supreme Surprise marketing; as good as it gets.
Coming up next--Bear Naked's Christmas promotion, where Santa takes presents and slides UP the chimney. (And then fights a lawsuit from The Grinch.)