The Coronation of King Siskar

Just need to fix the URL of this post before we get going here. Click here to fix this now and then you can keep reading! - Much better now! 

By the time you are reading this the 1:39pm EST Coronation has most likely come and gone. I Kevin Siskar, am now a King. Of an actual kingdom and an actual Castle in Ireland. You might be thinking to yourself: "I had no idea you were descended from Royalty Kevin?". 

Well the truth is me either. And to the best of my knowledge I am still not descended from Royalty. I am however now and forever a King. And I have some decrees to make before I explain to you how I found myself having the crown thrust upon my head. 

King Siskar's Royal Decrees. 

1. You must listen to the "Ambition Today" Podcast. You can find it here: http://www.siskar.co/ambitiontoday
2. All people need to hence forth refer to me as King Siskar, Kevin Rex, or Your Royal Highness.
3. One day I will own another castle. Once a King, Always a King. See you then.

As you can see I am having a lot of fun with this. This all started last year when I paid $15 to Cards Against Humanity for their Holiday Bullshit giveaway. The final gift of the promotion in 2014 was 1 square foot land on a Private Island named Hawaii 2 located up in Maine. Along with rights of that 1 square foot also came rights to use of the entire island. Thanks to that campaign I now own part of a private island! (See isn't this fun!) 

Naturally happy with the amount of fun that Cards Against Humanity generated with the $15 I gave them the year before, when I saw the 2015 holiday promotion I jumped on it right away. The first two gifts I got were socks. The third gift was also socks. Soon after followed a social experiment with laser cutting an original Picasso. For the final gift of the 2015 Holiday promotion Cards Against Humanity used a portion of the $15 from the 250,000 people that signed up to buy a Castle in Ireland. Yes, an actual Castle! 

Then they built a program around that Castle. Coronating it's customers one by one as actual Kings and Queens of this actual castle. They built a website to see at all time who sits a top the rocky throne of Sensible Castle. They enabled the ability for each King or Queen to make 3 decrees during their time as rightful ruler that would be entered in to the Kingdom's laws. And lastly each King and Queen will have their name etched within the castle walls so that generations to come can remember the great rulers who righteously spent their 3 minutes as King.

So there you have it. You can now call me King Siskar whenever you want. I am having A LOT of fun with this with my friends and family. I love the history around Royalty ever since I lived in London. My younger brothers have jokingly threatened to steal the crown once or twice already. 

I actually think there is a startup lesson in here too though. I am spending a lot of time and energy talking about Cards Against Humanity. It is all because of this awesome experience I have had with them over and over again. It could possible be the best $15 I have ever spent. The amount of creativity in this company is unreal. The result of that creative culture is extremely satisfied customers and organic virality.  

The island last year only cost them $200k which is much smaller than most corporate marketing budgets. Next time you plan to go dump your marketing budget in Facebook or Google ads in hopes of "going viral" stop and think to your self, is there a better, scrappier, cooler way to get the return on that money you are truly looking for. A concept that is actually worthy of "going viral". I should note that since the 2014 promotion I have spent money to also become a customer of Cards Against Humanities normal product, it's card game. I have bought it for both friends and family as gifts. I have transcended from a customer to a brand evangelist. That is the lesson here. 

Most importantly getting back to fun of today, just remember:

Once a King, Always a King!!!