Being able to fly and drive certainly opens up your options for commuting! Think of the time saving – that’s got to be worth something!

Church of the Customer picked up the flying car a while back and suggested it was prime material for word-of-mouth marketing: it’s a great idea and if people know about it, they’re likely to talk about it.  People want to talk about cool stuff to their friends, family, colleagues, anyone who will listen. However, people can’t talk about your idea if they don’t know about it and if the channels for communication aren’t easily available, and that’s what Church of the Customer picked up as the problem with the flying car. The company who had the idea (Terrafugia) weren’t making it easy for people to connect and share their excitement about this great product. Ben McConnell (who wrote the original blog) also suggested videos, social media, Twitter etc. to increase participation and help generate word of mouth.

The flying car company now at least have some videos.

In Ben’s most recent post, ‘The flying car flies’ (which includes the first video above) he suggested a multi-media fest, including videos on the front page, to help get people excited and to create a buzz; along with the code to embed the videos to help us bloggers!

However, I’d go one step further.

To create a real buzz you need a real sense of participation. At $194,000 anticipated retail price (when it goes on the market) that’s going to be out of reach for most of us and therefore limit the sense of being involved.

If however Terrafugia were to offer 5 lucky winners the chance to go for a drive/flight in the flying car by entering a special competition, then I’d be excited (especially if they flew me over to America for the prize – I’m based in the UK!).

Then, if they then offered me an extra chance to win for every one of my friends who also entered the competition, I’d happily suggest they entered – for my sake as well as theirs!

At very little cost to them, they could generate huge marketing and PR opportunities.

Within a short space of time you would have generated a buzz and a sense of participation far beyond what could be generated by YouTube and social media assistance alone. Combine the social media, YouTube and an exciting competition and you’d get something that was greater than the sum of its parts!

ps. If  you’re a member of Terrafugia and you’re reading this, you can sign me (and all my friends) up for the competition!