Proof You Can Sell Sunglasses Using Social Media

In September two young women approached Hawkers, a Spanish sunglasses brand, with an unusual proposition: If the company paid for each of them to get the iPhone 7, they’d help hijack the hype on the phone’s first day on sale at the giant Apple store in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol. Their idea was to get there early enough to be first in line, then let Hawkers promote their wait to generate almost-free publicity. It may sound dumb, but it worked.

The women waited in line for 38 hours. While they stood there, Hawkers amped up the stunt by hiring them a masseuse and a violinist, plus a professional Instagrammer to document everything. The brand launched an online raffle to give away one of the iPhones, promoting it repeatedly to more than 4 million fans on Facebook and 174,000 followers on Twitter. Participants had to fill out an online form and tweet a video and a hashtag. Some 6,000 submitted, and the promotion became a top trending topic inside and outside Spain. Hawkers says about 30 million people saw it on Twitter and Facebook. Each.