Surprise Expert Office Hours
Place an unexpected expert inside the product experience and turn access into content.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 95%
Surprise Expert Office Hours is an experiential influencer campaign in which selected teams unexpectedly find a respected expert inside the product environment. Participants know they may receive a special guest, but they do not know exactly when the guest will arrive. The expert occupies a virtual desk or equivalent product space and spends the day answering questions, conducting informal AMAs, and interacting with the team. This directly demonstrates the product’s ability to create spontaneous human contact rather than merely describing that capability. An assistant records the questions and answers, with consent, so the company can edit the interaction into additional content. The method combines influencer credibility, product demonstration, participant excitement, and post-event distribution in one campaign.
Origin
Extracted from Marketing Against The Grain as Kieran Flanagan’s “office hours gone big” campaign for the virtual-workspace company Worker.
Core principles
- 01The expert should appear inside the product’s natural environment.
- 02Surprise makes the experience memorable and demonstrates spontaneity.
- 03Direct access is more valuable than passive influencer endorsement.
- 04Recorded questions and answers extend the campaign beyond participants.
How to run it
- 1
Match Experts to Teams
Select recognized practitioners whose expertise corresponds to the participating teams’ work.
Pro tip Prioritize experts who are skilled at informal interaction, not only public speaking.
Watch out Audience size alone does not guarantee a valuable office-hours experience.
- 2
Recruit Participants
Invite companies or teams to enter for a chance to receive an unannounced expert visit.
Pro tip Explain the possible format without revealing the exact guest or time.
Watch out Surprise should create delight, not conceal important participation conditions.
- 3
Embed the Expert
Place the expert visibly inside the product environment with a virtual desk, room, or profile.
Pro tip Use the product’s native interaction model rather than routing the session to another platform.
Watch out Moving the experience elsewhere weakens the product demonstration.
- 4
Enable Open Interaction
Let team members ask questions, hold AMAs, and converse with the expert throughout the visit.
Pro tip Provide lightweight prompts in case participants hesitate initially.
Watch out Over-scripting will remove the spontaneity the campaign is meant to demonstrate.
- 5
Record and Repurpose
Capture the questions and answers, then edit them into clips, articles, or reusable product experiences.
Pro tip Pair the expert with an assistant responsible for consent, recording, and notes.
Watch out Do not record private workplace conversations without clear permission.
In the wild
A selected remote team enters its Worker virtual office and discovers an industry expert at a virtual desk. Employees spend the day asking questions while an audio assistant records the useful exchanges for later editing.
→ The team experiences spontaneous expert access, while Worker gains product-led influencer content.
Common mistakes
Using a Famous but Irrelevant Guest
The visit produces novelty but little lasting value when the expert cannot help the participating team.
Moving the Session to Zoom
Using another platform breaks the connection between the experience and the product’s utility.
Recording Without a Plan
Poor consent, audio quality, or editing preparation can make the resulting content unusable.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for collaboration products that can host live interaction between a relevant expert and customer teams.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when surprise participation could disrupt critical work or when conversations cannot be recorded safely.
From the transcript
“It is office hours gone big.”
“So what we're gonna do, Kip, is we're gonna launch a marketing campaign where the winning companies and teams will have a special guest join…”
“We're gonna pair that person up with an audio assistant. And so that audio assistant's gonna record all of those questions, all of those answers.”
From the episode
‘Half-Baked Marketing Ideas’ with Kipp Bodnar and Kieran Flanagan
Kipp Bodnar