San Francisco Water Power Sewer is not a business you’d associate with creative marketing campaigns and killer social media. But guess what? It has done what many non-traditional companies struggle with their entire existence. It created a campaign all about #2 and are driving wild engagement with it. Here’s how:

1. Ads in the right place at the right time. In the city of San Francisco, heaps of commuters rely on our public transportation known as MUNI. San Francisco Water Power Sewer placed its clever marketing campaign, posting slogans like, “Your #2 is my #1” and “No one deals with more crap than I do,” on both the inside and outside of MUNI buses and trains. Plus, they translated them into many languages to serve the diverse population in San Francisco. And guess what? The audience inside and outside saw them, starting taking pictures and creating a buzz.

2. They manned up on social media. You might not think a sewer service would be a case study for how to do it right on social media, but in this case you’d be wrong. San Francisco Water Power Sewer has done what many a tech company can only dream of. It has driven engagement with tons of user-generated content. You see all those pictures of the ads that are being snapped and shared are being leveraged on the San Francisco Water Power Sewer social media channels. And the folks sharing them are oozing with love about the campaign. Plus, there are real, live people at the other end (no pun intended) responding and conversing with folks that share. Check out a few of the posts from their Twitter feed.

3. They took a risk. Ask most traditional service based companies how risk averse they are and most would answer “very.” That’s what makes this campaign so innovative and inspiring. It took a huge risk with their potty humor and it’s totally working. By being a little cheeky the company was able to talk about something usually only discussed behind closed doors and raise awareness about the service they offer to the city and the residents.

How can you draw inspiration for your own campaigns? I’d love to hear in the comments.

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