Your Brand Needs a Bubble Gun
Authored By Jake Engel
While I was in Austin, Texas last week, I kept going back to the same bar near my hotel. Not because of their drink specials. Not because of a Google review. But because of a bubble gun.
Yep. A bubble gun!
There were probably fifty bars on that street offering the same food and drinks. But this one created energy. The employees were outside dancing, laughing, blasting bubbles into the air, and waving people in. The music was louder. The vibe was lighter. And it worked – I walked in. So did a lot of other people.
But here’s the thing: the bubble gun brought me in, but it wasn’t what made me go back.
The people were.
Our server asked for our names and actually remembered them. She gave us her personal list of favorite spots to check out. She told us when she was working next and asked us to come see her again. And we did – because she made us feel like we mattered.
And we were greeted with a loud “JAKE! JOSH!” when she saw us the very next day.
And that’s the part I can’t stop thinking about.
The bubble gun got my attention. But the culture they’d created made it stick.
If the staff inside had been cold or less fun, if the vibe didn’t match the energy outside – the bubble gun would’ve felt cheap, gimmicky, and like a marketing bait-and-switch.
But nope, they found the perfect alignment of their external brand and their internal culture.
You can have the best campaign, the flashiest ad, the sexiest new idea. But if your people and your experience don’t back it up – it falls flat. Or worse, it harms your reputation. Because people can feel the difference between a brand that’s aligned and one that’s just putting on an external show.
So yeah, your brand needs a bubble gun. Something fun and unexpected.
But even more than that – your culture has to match it.
