Today, on officially the laziest day of the Year . . . ‘The Make It Great Guy’ Phil Gerbyshak (@philgerb) dropped a bomb on me.  A P-nut bomb to be exact.

I asked him if he had any examples of marketing lagniappe and he immediately posted this gem from Milwaukee:

Phil nominated AJ Bombers.  In Phil’s words:

#152. One of my favorite Purple Goldfish is AJ Bombers (@ajbombers) in Milwaukee. Joe and his team consistently provide the Purple Goldfish by offering free peanuts…shot at you in metal WWII bombers. It’s way fun to get those from the bartenders.

Making AJBombers even more fun is the fact he is on Twitter, recognizing customers and anyone who mentions the place, hosts Tweetups at Bombers, has guest bartenders where he donates shots folks can sell…with all proceeds going to the charity of the guest bartender’s choice. Full disclosure: I’ve been a guest bartender and raised money for my charity.

Last but not least is everyone who wants one can get a Sharpie and put their Twitter handle anywhere they want at AJBombers, so when friends come in, they can look for your Twitter name and leave you a tweet…in real life.

Do you believe in love at first sight?  I do now.  I’m a huge ‘Five Guys’ fan because of the free peanuts.  In fact – I put them in the Purple Goldfish Hall of Fame based on their peanuts and the handfuls of extra fries.  AJ Bombers takes the P-nut to the next level! Move over ‘El Muchachos Cinco’ . . . you’ve got some company.

There are 5 main ingredients / r.u.l.e.s when creating a ‘purple goldfish’.  AJ Bombers scores huge on the fourth ingredient, which is expression.  Expression is how the marketing lagniappe is delivered.  It’s not so much what you give . . . but the manner in which it is given.  At AJ Bombers, the bartenders literally send bombers to deliver the nuts.  Check out this 9 second video on YouTube:

That’s flat out awesome.

How this for a little extra lagniappe:

Joe (one of the owners) e-mailed and tweeted me (@ajbombers) this afternoon to thank me (class act).  He also mentioned an added wrinkle,

“By the way, not only do we offer free pnuts to our guests while they are at the restaurant, they always get BONUS unexpected nuts with all togo orders.  Their reactions are priceless, they love it.”

We’re only scratching the surface on AJ Bombers.  I might need a separate post to discuss the oversized chairs, the no smoking policy and the Sharpies.

I have a feeling that I’ll be talking to Joe again.  AJ Bombers and their P-nuts are going to be featured in the book.  In the meantime I need to finagle a stopover in Milwaukee.  I can taste the burger already . . .

HELP me catch another 849  purple goldfishes for a great cause.  Click here to send me your example.