I’ve been doing some research for a post on the best Social Media campaigns of 2009. When I starting reading about this campaign by Tony Hawk I couldn’t wait to gather the rest of the campaigns, I had to get it out right away. This is brilliant. 

It’s simple, cost-effective and hyper-engaging. Tony went from 200K followers at the planning stages of the campaign in April 2009, to just shy of 2 million today. He’s also on 6,306 twitter lists.  

The campaign engaged thousands of customers and fans around the world both virtually and physically, which is not all that common in online campaigns. It also generated plenty of media attention including the two video interviews below from CNN and ABC News. A Google search of the phrase "Tony Hawk Twitter Hunt" (in quotes) returns 818 results alone. 

Of course, Tony Hawk is a celebrity in his own right. But you probably won’t have to think to hard to come up with similar ideas for using Twitter to build your company’s brand by engaging customers in a fun, "on-brand" campaign. If you are finding it hard, give me a call I’d be happy to help. 

Tony Hawk’s Hide and Go Tweet

This video shows Tony hiding a skateboard himself in a dumpster behind a fast food outlet then tweeting the location and hints on the whereabouts of the hidden treasure to his, then about 200K followers. Then he sits back and watches and within 20 minutes people start to stream into the parking lot.

Imagine the surprise of the person how found it when Tony walks out to congratulate them and signs the board. Check it out >>

If you haven’t had enough yet, check out this story (a detailed account) of one seekers experience. It is a totally fun read as @Steven_Gill (the seeker) is about as passionate about skateboarding and Tony Hawk as one can be. 

Do you have an opinion of this campaign or another favourite from 2009. Let me know by leaving a comment below. 

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