What do you think of when you hear “advertising”? Many people think of TV commercials (that always seem to be just a bit louder than the show being watched), endless station breaks on their favorite radio station or maybe a compelling print ad in a magazine or newspaper.
While working on a guerilla-marketing plan we found ten really unorthodox places to place messages bound to attract attention.
1. Parking Stripes – Quest, Pepsi and Ford have all utilized ads printed on temporary parking lot dividers. Over three million stripes have been produced!
2. Outlet Ads – Chase bank introduced stickers adhering to the wall area around electrical outlets in airports. The theory is that business travelers covet gate outlets to use their laptops, charge their phones, etc.
3. Pizza Boxes – Cingular/AT&T ran a regional NY campaign plastering the tops of local pizza shops’ boxes with their ads.
4. Airline Tray Tables & Airsick Bags – US Airways is selling ad space on their coach class airline trays and airsick bags. (I’m not sure airsick bags in use will really garner the hoped for attention!)
5. Straws – Y-Plus yoga placed ads for their locations on bendy straws. Really a unique way to demonstrate the benefits of yoga.
6. Manholes – Folgers used the top of Manholes in NY to simulate a cup of coffee. Steam rising from the vents mimicked what you’d see rising from a fresh cup of coffee. (I’m guessing it didn’t smell fresh though!)
7. On Eggshells – In 2006, CBS actually printed messages and the CBS logo on eggshells.
8. Street Art – We’ve actually executed this for one of our clients. Three-dimensional objects are placed out on the streets with messages. Our client used paper macheted mannequins to promote their “friends” campaign and Liquid paper placed human-sized bottles around NY looking like they’d painted the cross walk stripes.
9. Tattoos – Lease Your Body runs an entire business with people willing to wear advertiser tattoos. While LYB’s tattoos are temporary, Craig’s List actually let’s willing participants to rent their bodies with permanent messages!
10. Legal Names – Last but not least, people are actually legally changing their names to promote causes, companies and hobbies. ESPN, Transformers, and Trout Fishing in America are all current US resident names. Recently, someone sold his name on Ebay for $100,000 for one year. Crazy.
What other crazy places have you seen used for advertising or, what ideas do you have? Lemme know!
