When in doubt, throw a party

What a Sri Lankan public health outreach can teach about reaching new customers

By Jed Brewer

There are few goals more important for business and organizational leaders than reaching new customers. And one of the best options for doing so is also one of the oldest: throw a really great party.

As it happens, recently, I was at exactly such a gathering.

This party was a heavy metal concert, where I was jammed into a hundred-year-old meeting hall in Sri Lanka with 300 South Asian metal fans. It was 90% humidity inside. The flashing lights and video screens were blinding. The sound was deafening. And everybody — from the mosh pit to the sound guy — was having a fantastic time.

But one detail is critically important: we were actually all there to talk about cancer. We were there to spread awareness about resources available to people when they receive some of the worst news of their lives. 

We were there to reach new customers.

How and why this approach worked — and it really worked — holds key lessons for business and organizational leaders.

1. Seek Out Shared Success

Reaching new customers often means doing something new. And new things are often difficult. But partnerships can reduce the level of difficulty; we can focus on the things we’re already good at.

Good Loud Media (my nonprofit) has a simple mission. We use music to connect listeners with resources that will improve their lives — especially their health. We became aware of a need in Sri Lanka to connect people with greater support when facing a cancer diagnosis. To meet this market opportunity, we had two options: one, attempt to build an infrastructure for cancer care from the ground up; or two, find the right partner and work together.

Fortunately, a Sri Lankan NGO was already doing the hard work of providing wraparound services to cancer patients across the country. Partnering with them meant we could focus on our specialty: building awareness in under-resourced communities.

Takeaway: Which strategic partners could complement your unique value-add as you reach new customers? Is it time for an exploratory conversation?

2. Nothing Replaces Boots on the Ground

Reaching new customers often means connecting with people who have a different lived experience than yours. In the spirit of finding the right partners, it’s critical to rely on people who know how to make that community, place and culture work. Their expertise will translate to your success.

Depending on the time of year, Sri Lanka is 11.5 hours ahead of Chicago (where I live). Colombo, the capital city, has a metro area of nearly 6 million people, along with all the richness and complexity of culture, politics and logistics that come with it.

It would be nearly impossible to carry out effective outreach in such an environment without boots on the ground — local professionals who know the landscape and understand how to get things done. So, we hired Misha Wickramanayake, a media producer, band leader and concert promoter in Sri Lanka. He knew the system, the situation and the key players. 

Takeaway: Who are the experts that can help you understand — and reach — new customers? 

3. When in Doubt, Throw a Party

If you’ve got the right partners and the right advisors in place, then you know you can do the work and speak the language. Now, get people together! Throw a party and invite all the folks you want to have there.

We knew the goal. We knew the right partner. And we knew — because it’s Good Loud Media’s specialty — that heavy metal fans are both social connectors and statistically underserved in terms of medical care. That is: ideal new customers. 

Now we needed an event. So, we began to reach out to the top rock and metal bands in the country and invited them to be part of a celebration of hope — an event titled ‘Hope Out Loud’. The whole night would be a joyous, loud, raucous tribute to the idea that no one has to face a cancer diagnosis alone.

Takeaway: What would a party look like in your context — one that potential customers would be excited about?

Final Thoughts

Over more than seven hours, magic happened. A dozen artistes performed. The head of the Sri Lankan NGO spoke. Testimonials of transformed lives were shared. And, for good measure, enough funds were donated to power multiple days of operations for our NGO partner.

But most importantly, the audience loved it. We got people together to talk about cancer, and the thing they wanted to know was, “When are we doing this again?!”

The truth is, most businesses and organizations need to talk to their stakeholders about topics they’d rather avoid. (Most people don’t exactly savour a conversation about roof repairs, for example.) But the right context, the right experts and the right partners can transform those moments into celebrations — and into success.

Growth often requires reaching new customers. And there’s no one right way to do that. It can be tricky and complicated. But when in doubt, I encourage you to do what we did — and throw a party.

-rollingstone.com