A man with a goal
This story starts in May 2014 when Fabio Zaffagnini had a problem. He is a fan of rock group Foo Fighters but he lived in Cesena in the Romagna region of Northern Italy, about 90km South East of Bologna – not known as a hotbed Rock Music performance! Foo Fighters had played Romagna but that was back in 1997 when Fabio was a young boy. He desperately wanted them to play his home town again, but what could he do? Fabio needed the power of marketing to make things happen!
Getting the message out
He needed to communicate his message to his target audience (even though there were only 5 of them!) in a way that they would take notice and, hopefully, buy in to his proposition.
Making things happen
First he needed an idea and a plan to make it happen! His idea was crazy (it needed to be!): Recruit 1000 musicians to come together to play a single Foo Fighters track and then publish the results online with his heartfelt plea to the band to visit Cesena and play a concert. In some ways, the idea is the easy bit. The process of implementation and driving the idea (particularly a crazy idea!) forward into practical action is what delivers results. Like any marketing project, Fabio had to stick at it – and he did. Over the next few months the idea took root and the Rockin’ 1000 project was born with a dedicated team all focused on the goal. There were problems, not least a lack of budget (where have we heard that before!) and a lack of musicians, but these hurdles were overcome and the project reached it’s on 26th July this year, barely a month ago. When you imagine the difficulties the team have faced in bringing this project in, the power of joined-up marketing, where you can see the path from beginning to end, really shines through. I think the result is inspirational; maybe you will too:
Did it work?
OK, so they pulled off the plan, but here’s the question: Did it work? Within 5 days of the release of the video, Foo Fighters front-man Dave Grohl released a message on Social Media confirming they would be coming to play!
What does this mean for me?
Well, hopefully you found it an interesting story, but more than this, it just shows that if you are committed to your marketing or business idea, have a clear plan and you focus on taking action, you really can make things happen and turn that idea into reality. If you want details of the trials and tribulations of the Rockin’ 1000 project, check out their website here
