Walking home from dinner one hot night this summer, the beau and I noticed an interesting sight in the Boston skies. A cluster of dirigibles hovered in the airspace above Fenway Park, all vying for the attention of baseball fans watching the All-Star Game.
Martin Allen of Aviation Promotions, a company that flies planes towing ad banners over major outdoor events, was quoted in The Boston Globe as saying the air was “the last uncluttered medium.”
Well, not that night anyway, thanks to Budweiser, Tommy Hilfiger, Monster.com and a host of other advertisers hoping fans would be looking skyward. And the streets weren’t any less ad-covered, thanks to mobile billboards prowling the roadways.
It’s no secret that advertising messages are virtually everywhere, and where they aren’t, people want to put them. Marketers are spending big bucks to find new places to plop their logo, URL, corporate mascot or – if they’re particularly literate – copy.
The mishmash of messages in the skies, streets, Web, mailbox and everywhere else is naturally confusing to consumers. One solution? Eliminate the competition.
Webstreet.com did that, in a way, with its campaign in Boston’s South Station this summer, renting all of the Amtrak/subway terminal’s 40-plus advertising spots. Its green banners – with URL teasers like “tamethedogs-of-the-Dow.com” – were everywhere.
Was it successful? I asked a friend who commutes through the station daily if he remembered who was advertising there.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “Webstreet.com. It’s the stupidest campaign. Their ads are all over the place, but the only ones identifying who the ads are for are on the side wall. What a waste.”
Definitely not a good review, especially when you consider the only reason my friend tried to find out whose campaign it was was that he has worked for Web companies himself and was professionally curious. Garden-variety consumers probably would just shake their heads and not bother investigating.
Wallpapering the world with your message is fine and good, but there’s one inherent problem with all these advertising methods.
They cost money.
I’ve got a better idea. Let your customers be your walking billboards.
Now, I’m not talking about selling corporate logo merchandise. You have to spend big bucks up front to design, manufacture and market that stuff yourself. What I’m talking about is customer-created advertising efforts. Tired of crafting a campaign that will target your demographic? Let your customers do it themselves.
Don’t laugh. It can work. Wizard Entertainment’s ToyFare magazine recently began a department called “Friends of Ol’ ToyFare,” or more concisely, “F.O.O.T.”
F.O.O.T. soldiers are encouraged to show the world their admiration for the magazine by creating homemade ToyFare T-shirts, Web pages, posters and whatever else they manage to dream up – and then send the magazine pictures or videos recording their efforts. In exchange for the free publicity, fans are rewarded with “cool crap” from the desks of ToyFare editors, like “rare toys or Taco Bell wrappers.”
I like ToyFare’s editorial style – it’s well written and treats its subject matter with respect, while not taking itself too seriously. And thanks to F.O.O.T., I’m now a fan of its grassroots marketing approach, too.
Since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery – and a heck of a lot easier than coming up with an original idea – I’d like to announce the formation of D.R.A.T., the DIRECT Readers’ Action Team.
Want to become a member of D.R.A.T.? It’s simple. Just show the world how much you love this fine publication.
Next month’s annual DMA conference in Toronto is a fine place to start (if only because Canadians may be more tolerant of this nonsense). Wear an “I’m Large With the Curmudgeon” T-shirt. Display a “Direct Hit Always Gets a Bulls-eye” banner across your booth. If you’re up for something more permanent and meaningful, tattoo the DIRECT logo on your forehead. (Personally, I wouldn’t. But hey, it’s your skull.)
If we like your idea enough – and you can prove you actually carried it out – we’ll reward you with cool crap from our desks. Coffee-stained data cards! Pens actually chewed by real DIRECT editors! Action figure accessories that don’t match up to any of our toys! File photos of people we can’t identify!
Join now!
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