On Victoria Day weekend there were all sorts of fireworks displays, special events, and parades across much of Canada.
But the best celebration I attended wasn’t to be found on any online event calendar… in any newspaper listing… or promoted on any local radio station. Largely because it was a neighbourhood street party that has been happening for over fifteen years at undisclosed location in North Toronto.
Friends, neighbours, former neighbours, near-neighbours, and friends of all of the above gathered en masse for this annual tradition of making fun… even if all the appropriate forms and paperwork hadn’t been filled out. (Perhaps I was jeopardizing my career by attending?!)
The party was held on a little street that benefits from being a cross between two streets that really provide little in the way of a shortcut for daily commuters, Because of that setup…the folks who live here benefit from having a relatively safe arena for their kids to skateboard, bike, play street hockey, or just stand around and chat. It made for the perfect environment for this party.
Any doubts I possessed that the festivities would be low key were squashed as I tried to find parking on one the adjoining crescents. Fist off the place was jammed. I am a bit of an exaggerator, so lets go with 400 people. But if you told me it was 700 I would believe you. At both ends of the street, makeshift signage blocked vehicle entrance as the street was filled with lawn chairs, food stands, and screaming children. A local family restaurant had donated hot dogs and while the lineup for the freebies was long, at least six people mentioned the “donation” to me on an unsolicited basis. Talk about great brand building.
Various parent volunteers had put ice cream, drinks, and face painting in place. The six dads behind the pyrotechnics had designed a staging area for the fireworks. Mother Nature cooperated with an incredible evening.
Someone brought me a beer… who knew we could drink on the street? It was probably the best tasting beer I had all week. Oh the liberty of not confirming to our ridiculous liquor laws for just a few moments!
After a couple of hours of mayhem, the crowd settled in for the show. A powerful home stereo, and some speakers on the lawn, provided the perfect symphonic backdrop. A barrage of roman candles, comets, and bombshells filled the dark evening sky. For a bunch of amateurs it was pretty impressive.
Parents kept one eye on the sky and another on their children. These dads knew what they were doing, for nothing landed out of the safety zone. Outside of a few burning embers on a pair of houses. This hint of arson was attributed to a local roofing company trying to drum up business.
As the main show ended, the kids were encouraged to get sparklers. Soon the street was aglow with dozens and dozens of sparkers. This was probably the only time I was truly nervous.
It seemed every tween boy somehow felt that lighting a girl on fire was an approved mating ritual. Needless to say, the young women didn’t agree and caught between this mindless form of fencing were a few terrified tots. Thankfully none were mine.
In the end nobody died or fried, so I guess all is fair in love and war. Even when you are twelve.
As the sparklers petered out and the firework smoke cleared, a dozen neighbours grabbed brooms and garbage pails, cleaning up the street faster than it had been (illegally) closed. I hustled my kid’s home for a now overdue bedtime. But I would not have been upset if the event had lasted a few more hours.
The agency geek in me of course kicked in as I started thinking… why don’t more marketers get involved in “unorganized” events? If I brought this to your desk tomorrow, would you chase me away? Does everything we do have to line up to a cost per sample measurement?
In this social media crazed world… where an unbranded viral video (or video that went viral) which reaches X thousand consumers is deemed a “success”… why can’t a viral event be worthy of consideration?
Think of how much more cost effective your sampling would be. How much more authenticate the brand experience would be. How much more word of mouth you could create, by letting your events go viral.
So I am not advocating we all break civic ordinances and ignore appropriate permitting and safety procedures, I do think a little spontaneity in our event world could generate significant ROI.