Limited editions and collectors items

This past weekend, Brian Halligan and I were at the Gathering of the Vibes festival launching our book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead. We hung out backstage, met some of the bands, did some media interviews, and signed books in the merchandise tent. It was a rock star weekend.

I’ll be posting more on the tour next week, but for a taste of what we did, check out this short video I shot. Direct link.

The most surprising aspect of the weekend was that Grateful Dead poster collectors wanted to purchase our book posters! Wow!

The book cover, which we turned into 11’ x 17’ posters, was designed by Doug Eymer and features a photo by Jay Blakesberg. It is insanely cool, yes, but we were amazed people wanted to buy them.

On Thursday we were asked a few times from people who wanted to buy, so on Friday we got smart and put them on sale in the merchandise tent (where we signed) for $10 each. We did brisk business. Grateful Dead poster collectors love them because they are Grateful Dead posters but with a twist.

This got me to thinking about how any company can offer limited editions and collectors’ items. Disney has pins. McDonald’s has Happy Meal toys. There’s a special U2 iPod.

Service companies also get in the game with special call center numbers (I can call the American Airlines Executive Platinum desk for example). B2B software companies offer expanded support.

What are you doing to offer something special to your fans?

Comments

[Steve Woods]

David,
interesting point, as always. It seems in many ways to be related to the trend of "game mechanics" thinking that is making waves in software development and other circles.

People innately have an instinct to collect, achieve "levels", and personalize their environment. Game designers have been leveraging this for decades, now it's time for the rest of business to catch up.

[David Meerman Scott]

Steve - "Game Mechanics" is a new one on me. But it makes so much sense. In the Grateful Dead world there is a lot of that around how many shows you've seen and where.

Thanks for jumping in.

David

[chandani]

This approach is becoming more familiar lately. For instance the movie Twilight New Moon Saga had it clothing, accessorize line and full life sized poster available for purchase in Nordstrom.