The Southwest Rap

Rapper's Delight
Have you seen the Southwest Rap video? It's a YouTube sensation that features energetic flight attendant David Holmes, who puts his own spin on the pre-flight instructions that attendants give to passengers before every flight. The video went viral about a year ago and it demonstrates Southwest's unique take on customer service — the airline encourages its flight attendants to be creative in their work and to have fun at their job.

I love the Southwest Rap. I think it shows how much fun Southwest is as an airline, and it makes me want to be a part of that fun during my next flight.

That's a Rap
I think Southwest should capitalize on the video's popularity by holding a Southwest Rap Video Contest. Southwest should ask people to submit their own Southwest Rap to the company's YouTube channel. Video submissions could be about how much people love Southwest or their favorite places to fly with Southwest. The topic would be open to interpretation. Southwest would allow people to vote online for their favorite video, and the winner would receive several free round-trip flights. Southwest would require that each video submission be less than 30 seconds so that they could show the winning submission on a tv commercial.

I think many people would jump at the opportunity to win free flights and fame. Southwest would get hundreds of submissions, generate tons of goodwill among current and prospective customers, and would do something that no other airline has ever done. So what are you waiting for, Southwest? Start a contest and see how it goes. I've got some new dance moves I want to try out and they'll fit perfectly with my own Southwest Rap.

Add This To Your To-Do List
I originally wrote the following to-do list advice after I wrote a post that called for David's Bridal to run a contest for the best wedding entrance. My advice still rings true:

Strike while the iron is hot. Be willing to turn a portion of your marketing strategy on a dime if you can do it in a way that taps into a hot trend. But don't put all of your eggs into the trend's basket. Like all things, trends come and go, but if you're the only company in your market to capitalize on a huge trend, you'll reap huge rewards.

This will be my final post before going to Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo for three weeks. I look forward to all that I will see and I'll be taking notes on the coolest marketing methods while abroad so that I can share them with you here. I'll be back in mid September.

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