Fireworks at Aquatennial
I went down to the Minneapolis Aquatennial this weekend to see the firework display. I took some cool snaps including the one above and these two. It was impossibly packed with humans down by the river but we were able to find a nice spot on the lawn. Some marketing genius over at Target Corp had devised these 3D like glasses for viewing the fireworks. When you looked through them they didn’t produce a 3D effect instead they turned any light source into a clever little target-like bulls-eye. When the fireworks really got going, it looked as if the sky was lit up with hundreds of differently colored Target logos. Easily the best marketing idea of the year. Not only did Target hand out these nifty glasses but they also passed out pin wheels with the Target logo all over them. These were a big hit. People of all ages were rocking pin wheels. Usually when free promo stuff is handed out at a public event like the Aquatennial, it doesn’t take two seconds for the ground and the trash bins to be filled with the stuff. But when the fireworks were over and we were walking back to the car, I looked all over for a pin wheel but no one had dumped theirs. Of the thousands handed out it looked like 100% of the people brought their pin wheel home.
The lesson here is, good ideas coupled with good design not only can create enjoyable public moments in collective entertainment but can do so without producing instant throw away items.