Take a look at this place. Take a good long look. This is Flea Market Montgomery, a roadside strip mall built on the cheap, all 73,000 square feet slavishly adhering to the aesthetic of ‘how little per?’ To put it charitably, this is an unassuming business.
But not to Sammy Stephens. Not to a guy who started out renting booth space there in 2000 and a few years later, bought it outright. A former AM disc jockey on local stations, Sammy has a love for music and a promoter’s soul. And through his singular focus and one dubious rap, Sammy extolled the virtues of his Flea Market on radio and television, announcing to the world how his spacious selling floor “is just like, is just like, a mini-mall.” Dig it.
His ad’s production values are the video equivalent of something pulled off a middle school mimeograph machine–sloppy and decidedly low-fi. In fact, many websites declare this “The Worst Ad on TV” though the folks at the Effies might beg to differ. Because this rap has travelled far beyond the local cable market in Montgomery, Alabama, to achieve legendary status on the web. Go to YouTube and you’ll find dozens of parodies, mash-ups and Super Cuts, all using Sammy and his Flea Market Montgomery rap. My favorite takes the Pet Shop Boys’ “Minimal” and mashes in a Sammy vibe, mostly by adding another “L.” Genius. More locally, the Smithe Brothers of Walter E. Smithe hitched their wagon to Sammy’s internet sensation in this clever interpretation for their decidedly more upscale furniture stores.
After tens of millions of views, Sammy’s rap earned him a spot on The Ellen Degeneres Show. In what deserves to be the greatest textbook case of bootstrap integration, Sammy has cobbled together this notoriety into quite an adhoc media plan, starting with his own webpage. It doesn’t look like it’s been updated too recently, but it’s hard to imagine Sammy has a big staff tending to his brand and helping him produce those ‘Just Like a Mini-Mall’ CDs. No, it’s probably just him, bartering a dinette set for some web development, a loveseat for a couple of t-shirt designs.
Yet unlike many big companies currently tripping all over themselves and throwing money around hoping to understand how to approach the one-to-one social media experience, Sammy seems to get that intuitively. Because he’s a social kind of guy. Check out this fan-produced video captured during a chance encounter at an Applebee’s. Though he’s off his home turf, Sammy stays on message, delivering his signature rap and closing with some merchandise.
That’s a personal connection, that’s one-to-one marketing, and whether or not you think his jingle possesses any redeeming value, I’ll freely admit, I’m a fan. I admire this guy a great deal. He doesn’t intellectualize his brand, he lives it.
And makes some sweet, sweet lemonade.
He even managed to spin it into a short-lived endorsement/appearance career.
His Chicago performance:
http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=8783
I just never understood why anyone would want to liken his store to a mini mall, unless you’re saying “that sucks worse than a mini mall”.
Take another look at that photo brother. It doesn’t exactly look like the most bustling corner of commerce. In fact, I bet 2270 E South Boulevard in Montgomery, Alabama is about as far away from a shopping mall–mini or otherwise–as you or I can imagine.