Dec 3, 2012
The Story Behind the MailChimp Billboards
If you’ve walked around San Francisco or New York City this past year, you might have seen our mascot, Frederick von Chimpenheimer IV, looming overhead. Or maybe you’ve noticed him winking tirelessly into your office, day and night.

Freddie’s playful intrusion of privacy and public space has been great fun to work on this past year. It started as a casual half-idea:
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2011. MAILCHIMP OFFICE—EVENING
(Hurrying home for the holiday, BEN CHESTNUT pokes his head back in the door toward JULIE and LAIN.)
BEN CHESTNUT: "Hey, wouldn’t it be fun to have a MailChimp billboard?"
(Cue smoke machine.BEN CHESTNUT recedes slowly into darkness. JULIE and LAIN turn to one another, confused. Fade out.)

Ben’s idea gave me a wonderful opportunity to learn about billboards (ahem, excuse me: "out-of-home media"), something I’d totally dismissed before.
Defining Purpose and Success
At first I was pretty conflicted about the whole endeavor. I really enjoy helping MailChimp sponsor events by organizations like Living Walls and Flux Projects—they engage people in unexpected places with public art that’s beautiful and interesting and weird. Adding another advertisement to the quiet assault of corporate clutter seemed like the exact opposite of that.
After a brief discussion about exactly why MailChimp would want a billboard, the consensus was that we wouldn’t try to sell anything, we wouldn’t pander to anyone, we wouldn’t even advertise any features, like our new drag-and-drop editor (though that is pretty sweet). Instead, we just wanted to make MailChimp users smile.

When return on investment is measured by delight instead of sales or conversions, there’s a lot more freedom to be creative, to be bold, or maybe even to be creative and bold. It was liberating to begin the project knowing that our metrics were much closer to Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index than the kind of metrics that analysts or shareholders of a public company might expect.
Navigating Out-of-Home Media from Home
The first item of business was identifying the cities where MailChimp has a lot of users: London, New York, Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto, Brisbane, Paris, Singapore, and San Francisco.
Then, Julie and I picked a handful of cities and went crazy on Google Maps Streetview, picking out highly visible displays in strategic locations. This part was probably the most fun—like playing Myst, but with a lot less load time, no CD-ROM, and fewer goosebumps (thank goodness).
Once we’d found our favorite displays, however, it wasn’t as easy as emailing the media company to tell them "we’d like to start right away, please." And it’s not like these displays come cheap either. Eventually we decided that one city would be just fine for an initial experiment. We chose San Francisco because there’s plenty of inventory, and our users tend to flock there.
Julie and I sent several dozen emails back and forth with sales reps. Some of them tried to ply us with tickets to football games, some immediately smelled the naïveté on me, and others didn’t need our business enough to email back. Only after we sent these dozens of emails did we have to wait an inordinate amount of time (like, months) for the exact right board to be open at the exact right time. And once the board was available I had a few minutes to sign a contract before someone else snapped it up.
Finally, it was time to decide what to put on our first-ever billboard. This was a little stressful. I have so many puns to share with the world, but where to start?!
After everyone listened to all my puns, we instead decided to use a single winking, floating Freddie head. MailChimp users who spend hours of their time working inside with app would recognize Freddie immediately. He’d respond with a knowing wink.
Measuring Confusion and Delight
Our first experiment was in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood for a few months last Spring, and I had the pleasure of measuring our results. Every couple of days someone new would post a new picture of Freddie. Most were happy to see him, some were confused, and a few were worried that nobody else would "get it." Dozens of pictures *of a billboard* popped up during the entire three month span, and only one person seemed annoyed.
Since our initial test in San Francisco, we’ve started two new experiments in Manhattan and Palo Alto.

The art on the billboards is slightly different, but reactions have been similar. Thankfully, folks are taking fewer pictures of Freddie while driving on 101 South in Palo Alto.

I wouldn’t be surprised if other displays crop up soon. Keep an eye out for Freddie, and if you happen to stumble across him, let me know if you smiled—I’m serious about our return on investment.
adam mclane
@lain – You and Ben ideating… sounds fun to me. Love the billboards. Maybe you’ll get all geeky and do the side of a hotel for ComicCon? :)
12.03.2012
Sue Lee
Saw the one in Soho last week. Made my day! Love that it’s just Freddie.
12.03.2012
Rishi Shah
The billboard on 101 is soooo sweet!
12.03.2012
Dominic Martin
Love the idea! Maybe I’ll see one in London sometime; on the screens next to the escalator going down to the tube platform, or across from the platform itself would be great. However, on behalf of all the confused non-mailchimp users out there who are curious about Freddie, you couldn’t just squeeze one tiny little web address on there?
12.04.2012
Vincent
Lovely idea! Now Paris is waiting for Freddie :)
12.07.2012
Tim
I smiled. At first i said, “why in the world would MailChimp spend money on a billboard and not even put a url under the chimpy’s head?” This article cleared all of that up. I love mailchimp i love Freddie (who i call CHIMPY!) and your billboard makes me happy. Heck Freddie always makes me happy. Cant go wrong with a chimp cartoon.
12.09.2012
karyn
i work near the one in soho, and our whole office (who uses mailchimp) discussed it…why is he there? are the mailchimp offices there? what’s the deal!? thanks for making us think about it…i love a billboard that causes a discussion.
12.10.2012
ItsBrianSun
Coolest billboard ever. Way to mess with people, and delight them at the same time.
01.07.2013
Visakan V
LOVE it when people have the guts to do this sort of thing!
09.07.2013
Chris
1. Guts
2. Happiness
3. Good on ya!
10.24.2013
Nick
Loving the side-by-side MailChimp billboards on Ponce de Leon in Atlanta. One with Freddie’s head, the adjacent just the blue background. Very pleasing to see and definitely made me smile.
10.24.2013
David
Thanks for sharing the story. Freddie stopped me in my tracks at SFO. Glorious.
12.30.2013
Grant
Cool billboard but seems like a wasted opportunity to me. If the goal of the billboards isn’t acquiring more customers then the expense appears extravagant. Even a small “MailChimp” logo would have given those unfamiliar with MailChimp a chance to get more info. The Freddie only approach alienates all but current users….
12.30.2013
mike brown
Thank god billboards are illegal in Vermont…
12.30.2013
Geoff
Yes. One smart state. Wish there were more. That is not a neg. toward Freddie, just billboards.If we have to have billboards then we need a lot more Freddies!
01.01.2014
Head Fred
All the Freds here at FredQuarters (home of the FRED Society) were jazzed to find out that Mail Chimp’s mascot is a FRED!!! Too cool. We need a Freddie billboard in Phoenix Arizona.
Thanks for the great service. The Freds love Mail Chimp.
12.30.2013
Bryant Jaquez
Count me for a smile
12.30.2013
Jennifer
Love these. Love your story. Love Freddie. Love my MailChimp knit hat that arrived unexpectedly one day. It’s a good thing I love to visit NYC, SF, etc because I suppose you probably wouldn’t put a Freddie billboard in New Concord, Ohio. On second thought, you couldn’t! We don’t have any billboards in our Village.
12.30.2013
Joel Barnett
Truly inspiring stuff guys, I wish MailChimp an exciting 2014 – don’t stop innovating!
12.31.2013
riyas
:)
12.31.2013
Jessica Zurik
Awesome marketing idea!
12.31.2013
Peter Dalton
Thanks for helping us to grow as a company and thanks for your “out of home” campaign which is gutsy and cool at the same time.
12.31.2013
jade
Lain, loved reading this. I live in Atlanta and saw the side by side boards on Ponce and I could not get over them. “They get it” I thought to myself. I mean one that was just solid blue? Incredible. Then I saw the front and back inverse set behind Tech. Hard to read, not matching anything in your brand guide. I died all over again. (and I work in branding!) Started exclaiming to the person in the car with me how genius they were. He was curious why I thought so and what the purpose was if they were so vague and cryptic. I told him they aren’t for him (someone who doesn’t use MailChimp), they are there for customers and those who are already fans of the company. They’re saying to them, “you have clearly made the right choice.”
Keep being brilliant, you guys.
12.31.2013
Jana Jopson
I’m reading through the annual report here on the last fine day of a fine year (and the next will be even better!) when I came across the reference to the billboard experiment and branched off to have a look. It’s SO NICE to have the chimp speaking to those of us to adore him and understand his very quiet message. And SO NICE to have a wink and a smile and NOTHING to sell. Wow. Love. It. Thank. You. SO. MUCH. Hugs to the chimp!
12.31.2013
Shuki Mann
Thats exactly the reason why i LOVE the chimp – just because he loves me :)
12.31.2013
Pavel Israelsky
Amazing marketing idea!
12.31.2013
Craig Rae
Love the Chimp philosophy and culture and this campaign just reinforces everything that is great about the chimp. GO PRIMATES!
01.02.2014
Robin
Absolutely brilliant! and cool, love the chimp. Any chance to see his smiling face in southcentral, PA?
01.02.2014
Angela
Just reading this and knowing that you are putting the billboards out there like that made me smile.
01.03.2014
Brian
I say take it a step further, MailChimp, and start a street art campaign! Hire artists to illegally plaster Freddie’s face in key locations all over the U.S. It would be cheaper, farther-reaching and best of all, more provocative. Your users want to see the chimp stick it to the man!
01.03.2014
Fred
Missed opportunity (waste of resources)
Inside joke, maybe?
NO new clients came from this, just done for yourselfs and people who are already clients, F in my class mate
01.03.2014
hartley
Hmmm. Made you look, read, reply. Seems like an A+ to me.
This put marketing into the hands of satisfied customers and fans of the company. That is genius.
So, what’s next? I’m thinking full page ads in magazines now and then. Again, just Freddie. Nothing more is needed.
01.06.2014
JohnnyK
I smiled at the end of the blog post. No need to see a billboard to smile, that is what imagination is for. I will sure keep a watchful eye while traveling for Freddie. I’m a new user (today), just migrated my contacts (subscribers) from Constant Contact. Tutorial helped. I’m looking forward to learning more and doing my first email.
01.07.2014
Sharin
Love Freddie nothing more satisfying than his chimpy high 5 at the end of the campaign. As a printer I am desperate now to see him on shirts choccy bars balloons lol. Genius guys. Well done. Refreshing to see someone doing something for the joy first. x
02.11.2014
Stephanie Meacham
If you ever decide to make a giant, inflatable Freddie. Call us, please. We love MailChimp! (I love the grey t-shirt, too btw.)
03.11.2014
Dan Hough
Very cool, so classy! I wanna know whether you get a lot of visitors coming from the search “winking monkey billboard” or not, though ;)
03.20.2014
Lain MailChimp
Thanks, Dan! We love seeing people tweet about the new MailChimp billboard right outside their office. It’s even more fun when, say, two weeks later they tweet about how they just found the blog post.
03.20.2014
Josh
Saw this little guy on my bus commute home. Chicago is definitely confused, but I was interested enough to look it up, plus I like your mascot. Color me amused.
04.08.2014
Louie
I see your billboard walking home from work every day in Chicago. It makes me laugh every time I see it. Was it strategic that the placement of that billboard is right across the street from the Salesforce building?
04.10.2014
Lain MailChimp
Hi Louie! So glad you’ve enjoyed it. The location of that billboard isn’t related to any specific company. But it does happen to be enormous, and we believe that the city of big shoulders deserves a well proportioned Freddie to match. :)
04.10.2014
Frank
Why don’t you make it so you can scan Freddy face, so it goes to your website, so all those who don’t know about the company can find out about it? You wouldn’t need to change anything in it.
Great billboards by the way!
04.16.2014
Jason Spencer
Saw the San Francisco board last week. Made me stop and wonder if there were any job openings in the greater SF Bay Area. :-)
09.02.2014