Simple Truth Makes Delicious History
Simple Truth prides itself on doing the unexpected. With that in mind, we decided to showcase the power of social media and demonstrate to the Chicago History Museum that making a big impact doesn’t require a big media budget. The result, conceived and executed in just a few short days, was Chicago’s first Food Truck Flash Mob.
Follow the leaders
Unlike traditional restaurants with fixed addresses, food trucks are constantly on the move, changing locations every few hours. That means success comes down to staying in constant contact with customers. By using social media like Twitter and Facebook, instead of traditional advertising or even email, these fabulous food-filled fun mobiles are able to instantly inform potential customers of their whereabouts. The goal for Simple Truth was to build and leverage a community of these trucks and demonstrate, in a very tangible way, how the immediacy of social media could make an impact at the museum and how the museum could, in effect, make a little history right now.
Turning tweets into turnout
After securing the participation of a handful of popular Chicago food trucks, Simple Truth began creating buzz for the event. Though Facebook posts and tweets (tagged with #HotFreshHistory), members of the Simple Truth team as well as the food trucks themselves began spreading the word about the city’s first food truck rally. By the day of the event, #HotFreshHistory was a trending topic on Twitter in Chicago and local blogs were running stories about the rally.
When it came time to present, seven food trucks — Meatyballs, Gaztro-Wagon, Haute Sausage, Sweet Miss Givings, Taquero Fusion, Sweet Ride, More Cupcakes — helped Simple Truth deliver a delicious presentation and demonstrate to the Chicago History Museum how social media could help them stay relevant to old audiences as well as attract new ones.
Event by the numbers:
Tweets: 102
Retweets: 64
Impressions: 100,000