Mugshots, one year later ☕ and a typo? at Rothrock Coffee
It’s been over a year since I launched Mugshots, my take on a morning coffee meetup.
My friend Jason Smoyer suggested forming a photography group. But I wanted it to have a broader appeal. I thought coffee was a fun connector, so I combined the two… Mugs ☕ + Shots 📷
I asked another Bellefonte friend, Elliott Killian, if he’d host the event for us. He and his family own a building conveniently situated next to the Centre County Courthouse, so it was an appropriate location for “Mugshots.”
I did weekly Facebook Live videos on my walk to Mugshots, every Monday morning for the first six months. Then, we went on hiatus. That was almost six months ago now.
But that hasn’t stopped people from mentioning Mugshots to me or asking when our next meetup is. I hear about it almost every week from someone, even strangers on the street, who notice me from the videos.
It reinforced my beliefs in the value of unfiltered content, video, live video, and our social-first approach to marketing.
I’ve since borrowed those same lessons in my Braden Social marketing and my work with clients.
And now we’re bringing Mugshots back, at least in some capacity. Today, I held the first Mugshots pop-up at Rothrock Coffee.
After grabbing my cup and taking a photo, I noticed a typo on the cup, “UELED BY ROTHROCK.”
I wanted to share the photo right away and tag Rothrock. I did, and they commented with a “😂”.
This error, likely unintentional, is actually great for marketing. And if I were advising Rothrock, or if you’re still listening, Rothrock, I would keep the typo. I’ll bet it encourages even more people to take a photo and share it on social media. There could even be more done with it, like a fun social campaign for users to share their cup, fill in the blank, or find the missing f. wgaf?
This is also exactly the type of conversation we’d have at Mugshots, as I’d often bring up behavioral science topics, one of my favorites being the Pratfall Effect…
The Pratfall Effect — first identified by psychologist Elliot Aronson in 1966 — causes people to become more likable after a small mistake (I should add, as long as the person is competent and likable in the first place).
This Rothrock cup is almost a brand Pratfall Effect itself, so I was happy to have this appear during my first Mugshots on the road.
Braden Social Fieldwork & Advisory 