While getting the attention of conference-goers was the primary goal, we also wanted to reach people who didn’t attend the conference. We knew our target used social media like Twitter and Facebook, so we worked to create something they’d be sure to talk about online: the FedEx Food Truck. Disguised to look like a typical FedEx truck, our truck was sneaked into SXSW and delivered a different fresh, piping-hot international lunch each day. Food boxes were custom-designed to look like FedEx packages, and copy on the boxes and accompanying napkins and cups talked about both the food being served and FedEx product benefits.

Without using any form of traditional advertising, we generated over 400,000 unpaid consumer impressions in just four days. And while preproduction estimates determined that the food truck could hand out meals for four hours each day, thanks to buzz about the truck, we delivered each day’s allotment – thousands of meals over the course of the conference – in an average of two hours each day.