Thanks to everyone who showed up and braved the heat, and yes, the lines at Taste of the Trucks Saturday. It was amazing to see that much interest in the growing culture, and if “the taste” showed the city of Indianapolis anything, it is that the people have spoken: they want more trucks, and regulations reflecting the city’s adoption of this idea into their burgeoning cultural scene.

But we here at Intelligent Designs Media also wanted to prove a point to the businesses of Indianapolis:

The ways of marketing and advertising are changing.

Our advertising budget was, purposefully, $0 dollars. Why? Because our whole company philosophy is that you don’t have to spend half of your company’s hard-earned money to advertise, if you have the right people to do it for you.

We came with a plan:

A Facebook page, hard work, and utilizing the concept we believe in so dearly: people talk, and social media gives them the opportunity to gossip in a whole assortment of circles. What we ended up with was 3,000 people who came to eat food.

3,000…..people….who came for lunch.

That is not to say that traditional media did not help us in our quest to launch a successful festival, below is a list of some of the traditional media companies that helped our campaign:

Nuvo:

http://www.nuvo.net/indianapolis/taste-of-the-trucks-2011/Event?oid=2324798

WTHR:

http://www.wthr.com/story/15258785/taste-of-the-trucks-event-planned-for-saturday

FOX

WISH-TV

VISIT INDY:

http://visitindy.com/indianapolis-events

MSNBC:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44124727/ns/local_news-indianapolis_in/t/taste-trucks-event-planned-saturday/

WIBC

NPR

Some of the more non-tradional included:

Naptownbuzz:

http://www.yelp.com/events/indianapolis-taste-of-the-trucks

YELP:

http://www.yelp.com/events/indianapolis-taste-of-the-trucks

AROUNDINDY:

http://www.aroundindy.com/mobile-food-trucks.php

And the list of blogs is too long.

As you can see, social media has the transferability to traditional media without having to pay for it. You have just to build enough credibility and interest to make it appear “worth their time.”

And the point is? That traditional media exposure is gained through other outlets than “paid media.” Social media is a chance to take the traditional concepts of “earned media” through the roof. The trick is, well, we won’t give you all of our tricks, so “A” trick is to NEVER STOP PROMOTING! Social media sites don’t close, so why should you stop advertising and promoting when every post, tweet, or blog can give you an advantage over your competitors?

The answer should be, you shouldn’t stop.

We here at Intelligent Designs Media believe in the power of social media, hard work, and the promotional ideals of “word of mouth,” “grassroots campaigning,” and “buzz.”

Next event you want promoted, idea you want shared, campaign you want to raise awareness of, or message you want to deliver to the world, consider the new way of advertising and marketing.

Consider, Intelligent Designs Media.