Vending PR guru Johnny Broderick has hit the jackpot with influential newspaper the Manchester Evening News.
The good old MEN has shrunk its business section, so unless you’re a major plc or you’re making people redundant in droves, it’s virtually impossible to make it into the business section – not even winning a brace of VIAs in 2013 or the ‘Best Operator’ Vendie this year was considered good enough to warrant a mention for the Broderick’s in their home town tome…
Not one to be fobbed off, Johnny soon got to grips with what it is that the MEN calls ‘News’ and decided to move the grand piano (yes, the one that once took centre stage in the Broderick Group showroom) to Broderick’s Coffee Shop in Manchester Airport’s T2. It worked – and some.
Look and learn, peeps. Under the heading, ‘Musicians can eat and drink for free at Manchester Airport – by entertaining fellow passengers’, ran the following article by Amy Glendinning… (You can read the original story here).
A cafe in Terminal 2 is offering free coffee and sandwiches to anyone prepared to play or sing while they wait for their flight.
A New York rap group, a man playing the spoons, a sitar player and a male Welsh voice choir have already taken part in exchange for free food and drink at Broderick’s Cafe.
The idea has become so popular managing director John Broderick has now installed a piano and is buying guitars for those travelling without their instruments.
But he says people have to have talent to take part – with ‘no chopsticks’ allowed on the piano.
John, who opened the independent coffee shop in Terminal 2 six years ago, and also runs vending machines from his company’s base in Sharston, said: “Basically, if you rock up and play we’ll feed and water you for free.
“The piano has been so successful but not everyone plays that so I’ve got some guitars to go in as well because people don’t always come in with their own.
“If people are good we want them to stay, if they’re rubbish we tell them they’re calling their plane.
“You can’t come on and play Chopsticks.
“Yesterday we had a choir from Wales going to Boston who stopped the whole terminal, they were amazing.
“We’ve also had a rap group from New York and a man playing the spoons.
“Yesterday we had six or seven people playing, one was a man who played the piano and so we did free drinks for his family.
“It’s created a real buzz.
“We’re a bit crazy and different, we’re an independent among a lot of national chains.”
So there you have it. Well done Johnny, for getting to grips what makes a tabloid story. Who needs to be on the business pages when a frothy filler can get you 676 Shares?
