Our office is located downtown Chicago in the River North area, so for most of us it’s easiest to take the bus or L into work during winter. My walk after getting off the bus is about 9 blocks, and it always amazes me the number of un-plowed/shoveled walks in front of businesses along the way. Yesterday morning i found myself walking through the snow and wishing there was a site i could go on to list these companies – and there you go, an online promo idea out of nowhere.

Translating that online would be a promotional concept for a snowblower manufacturer like Toro or John Deere during the winter months that would callout businesses that don’t clear their property (a sarcastic thank you for caring so much about the consumer) – so for example i would visit the site and submit Kozy Cycles, AT&T, Ed Debevics, and The Catholic Charities – and i could also upload an image from my cell of each.

The promo site could showcase locations across the country – and it could easily also include neighborhoods as well – we’ve all had the neighbor that waits for mother nature (the sun) to clear the driveway and walks.  A contest component where the manufacturer gives away a snowblower to a business or homeowner based on certain criteria (user voting of images, # of submissions for a location, amount of foot traffic at a location and you’re looking to help the consumers with goodwill, etc.) could also be added.

The goal of a concept like this would be three-fold:
1. Buzz for manufacturer with an online promotion (blog, press coverage).
2. Act as a sales lead generator (because you can contact all these businesses or alert dealers in the area).
3. Position the brand in a more positive way in consumer’s minds – make it more pop-culture, a different kind of communication exchange, more modern and fun.

You can then use the situation to create web content in a fun way:
-Snow Blowing 101
-Shovels for Dummies
-The Business Showcase
-Plowed-In Gallery: Submission for video/images of snowed in cars on side streets
-The Carriers: exclusive section for paperboys, mail carriers, and Fedex/UPS workers to rant
-Send a Reminder: Users can submit a neighbors address to receive a snow removal reminder from Toro (done in a funny/appropriate way)

Lots of different options for how it could be handled, and for sure the concept could be flushed out in better detail than the 15 minutes i’ve spent on it just now. We’ll contact a manufacturer and see if they have any interest, but it’s more a simple example of you never know where ideas come from.