Making people happy still fosters some of the strongest Word of Mouth you can find.

This video has been all over the web and TV, and it never fails to make me cry tears of joy. Why is that good? Because joy is a feeling that you just don’t come across every day, so when you do, you remember it. And I sent it out to a bunch of people so they could enjoy it as much as I did. Take 5 minutes and watch this if you haven’t seen it already (and see the story behind it here.)

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

The astute mind behind Servant of Chaos has a great post about this video, and he makes some great observations. Most especially, I was struck by the fact that this video is indeed sponsored by a national chewing gum brand – Stride – but they were content to take a credit on the end of the reel instead of their logo plastered all over everything. In fact, I had to watch the whole video before I realized it WAS sponsored.

Sometimes, it’s not about sales or pimping your product. It’s not about splashing your website url or MySpace page all over. Stride did a powerful thing by sponsoring this effort – they put a whole bunch of money into merely spreading happiness and joy. And guess what? We’re writing about them. Happiness – and the power of community – is truly contagious. (PSST – all you “viral” marketing people out there, take note).

The takeaway: How can you make your customers happy, just for the sake of it? Does it always have to be about key messages? How about finding something that makes you happy and sharing it with them, just as a thanks for being part of your community?

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