Recently, I ran across a post that was rather fascinating. The blog ran an article about how the crew filming a certain outer space adventure movie transformed a local civic board's meeting room into a futuristic center of intergalactic government. Rather than try and kick out all the interested onlookers, they invited them in to watch and participate. Of course, the participants all had to sign NDAs, but all too often, these are not worth the paper they're printed on. It's only a matter of time before the leaks start dribbling out. What's going on here?

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"Who's that knocking at the door?
Somebody's ringing a bell.
Do me a favor.
Open the door, and let 'em in…" - Paul McCartney, "Let 'Em In"

To the surprise of nobody who knows me, one of my daily blog reads is TrekMovie.com. Yes, it's a daily Star Trek news blog with updates about the eleventh franchise film currently in production.

I'll pause while you finish giggling.

Recently, I ran across a post that was rather fascinating. The blog ran an article about how the film crew transformed a local civic board's meeting room into a futuristic center of intergalactic government. Rather than try and kick out all the interested onlookers, they invited them in to watch and participate. Of course, the participants all had to sign NDAs, but all too often, these are not worth the paper they're printed on. It's only a matter of time before the leaks start dribbling out.

What makes this interesting is how this breaks with the status quo. Normally, film sets are closed and visitors are strictly forbidden. For big-budget summer blockbusters, which are expected to reign in $200 million nowadays, security is suffocatingly tight.

This begs the question: What's going on? I don't know this for sure, but my theory is that this was done somewhat intentionally. The director of the new movie is JJ Abrams, Hollywood's resident maestro of buzz marketing. What better way to get fans talking about a movie a full year away from release than to invite a few in to watch and observe?

Because security is normally so absolute, this is an opportunity few fans would dream of passing up. Besides, a film crew gets maybe 1-2 minutes of usable footage for every 12 hours of work. It's not like the visitors are going to be able to spill the beans on the whole plot. I truly wonder why studios don't try this tactic more often.

Depending on the product or service, marketers can take this same tact with its core advocates and evangelists. Instead of doing everything possible to keep the lid on future products, why not invite them in to observe? It's not a focus group, but you can still pick up some valuable insight and intelligence. Far more importantly, you practically guarantee an advocate for life for the price of a three-hour tour and some t-shirts.

Guy Kawasaki calls this "opening the kimono." I call it being decent.

Involving people and making them feel important is good business and win-win for everyone. It shows a real passion for listening on the company's part, and will create memories for one lucky person to last a lifetime. This is classic word of mouth marketing in action. The company shows it's listening, the happy advocate gets a great story to pass along to friends and colleagues (who in turn pass it on their friends and colleagues, and so on...)

YOUR TURN
Do you know of any other examples where companies have invited in their core fans and advocates to be a part of the process from the inside? I'm listening.