Growth Hacking Conan 🚀

Okay I didn’t get on Conan…but I did growth hack my friends brand in front of millions of people. Here’s how:

My plan for Conan was simple

1. Meet him

2. Impress him

3. Be a last-minute addition to the show

If you think that sounds ridiculous, it’s the exact strategy Jimmy Carr (at that point, a nobody in America…pretty much still a small-timer now but) did once realized he was in the same room as Jay Leno.

Jimmy googled him, saw he was into classic cars and blagged some knowledge, getting on Jay’s good side and immediately being booked on the show, to the surprise of every other comedian on the circuit.

So how did I plan to do that?

My friend Jen and I got VIP tickets to the Conan show.

We were there to hype Chalkin’ Social , the self-expression hat company (I just made that pitch up)

So we made it backstage!

Alas, no sign of Conan or the Game of Thrones actors at the time we got there (about an hour before showtime) that we could give the hats too (or charm them).

So now we’re in our seats thinking “Damn, well that’s that”

Then I had an idea

We had snuck two huge bags of the hats in with us (trick is to go around the security guards, oldest trick in the book)

then and an idea hit me

We wrote “Team Coco” on the chalkboards attached on the hat, got down to the front two rows and inferred we were with the show and could people wear them for the show (and they could keep them afterwards if they did).

So we had the two front rows wearing them while they filmed Conan, one of the biggest shows in America, huge brand awareness for $0.

I don’t do too much guerrilla marketing these days (the spiritual father of growth hacking) but it feels so GOOD to make the system work for you rather than you for it.

The hats made it onto the show in front of the exact audience who would love them, and was a major win.

So, al though I didn’t get to tell some of my best stories, I helped my friends company, and she has promised we’ll meet Conan here in LA sometime soon

There’s always a way to get your product out there

You just need balls of steel.