Model (blank)

So I was sitting in class this afternoon dosing off as usual when I was struck with an idea for guerilla marketing. I was thinking about models and I was wearing a pair of shorts from quicksilver that I bought in NYC, this triggered the thought. Models are everywhere in NYC, they are on billboards, magazine covers, any available wall. Using the idea that I first broached with the Pepsi girl ad I was thinking that using models for guerilla marketing could be easier and cheaper than the elaborate setup of the proposed Pepsi ad.

I figure Times Square is a great place to try out this idea. Male models get dressed up and just walk down the street as if it was a runway. They don’t look left or right and they do their model walk down one side then the other, when the finish their walk they are done for the day because I don’t want the ad to become stale after one day. I would pay about ten different male models to do the walk every day. They would get their check as long as they documented their walk of glamour.

They could be advertising for anything. To advertise clothing I would put the logo on the front on the model on a t-shirt, or on his back in someway. For cars I would put a picture of the car on the model’s white t-shirt. Advertising food could be especially fun. I could have the model have some type of oil that smells like the food on his skin and a picture of the company’s logo on the front. I could also have them eating the food with the wrapper visible in their hand. I could have the model give a free sample to someone on the street. If a destination wanted to advertise, for example Tahiti, I could put that name on the model or have him talk to three random people about his trip and how much fun he had last time he was there.

In fury I find guerilla marketing

Yesterday I had a huge fight. My girlfriend and I were yelling at each other and both of us threatened to walk. I won't detail the experience but I will state that many pictures of us were thrown from a third floor balconey and littered around the yard. I picked most of them up but when one was returned to me the next day it gave me this idea.

Why not put some pictures on the ground that are interesting enough or eye catching to get someone to pick it up. Say for instance the Pepsi decided to put pictures of Fergie or their can. Or anything that can get a person to pick it up. So just random pictures that seem intimate or voyeuristic enough for someone to be interested.

Ethical problems of littering could be an issue and their might have to be a mandatory cleanup after the campaign is over. But I still think that this could be a great idea. I think that this could be something to work off. I think that their could be something here to potentially capitalize on.

That's Cool

So I just found a possible career choice for myself. The company that I blogged about previously in the year merits some more attention. They are called Alt Terrain and they are an awesome company that manages guerilla marketing campaigns. They cover all the different aspects of guerilla marketing and have some innovative ideas that I found interesting.

They use mobile billboards. This is a truck that pulls up the any busy street, usually in the city, inside the truck are three different compartments with people in them. The example showed women advertising SKY, photography. The images of the event show how people stop and look.

They also use take-away billboards. This type of guerilla advertising puts ads in different places such as the sides of Chinese takeout cartons, pizza boxes, and coffee sleeves. These types of adverting use the customer to promote their brand. Their customers will be walking around and putting their brand name everywhere.

The last type of guerilla advertising that I was impressed with were tear-away billboards. These involve posters being hung all around the city that feature a sign saying free posters. They are meant to be taken by people to hang on their walls. I hadn’t heard about this type of advertising and I thought it was clever.

P.S. Tonight I am going to Atlantic City. Where I go, you will hear about. Talk soon.

IC streakers

I was thinking about illegal guerilla advertising. I have read some examples about Smirnoff putting up an ad on an overpass before getting the go-ahead with the government. They were later given the cleanup bill for their little campaign.

Another example was Vodafone paying streakers to paint their logo on their backs. The streakers ran around for a while during an international rugby game.

The last example was for Acclaim. They publicized that they were going to be willing to pay for all of the speeding tickets issued on a certain day to sponsor Need For Speed. I am not sure if this was for the entire country or what but it was going to be a lot of money. The dept of transportation found out and they said that their deal was going to encourage reckless driving. The offer was taken back, needless to say.

So is it worth it? Could some companies benefit from defying the laws in order to sponsor their product? I say Yes.

I think that companies like Harley Davidson, or lost could do well to advertise and not care about the repercussions. I think both companies harness that bad boy feeling that their customers would enjoy. They would hear about the violation and laugh or at least not care about it.

Smaller companies might not be capable of paying the fines but I think that the publicity that goes along with such violations and street credit could help a company going for this type of image in the long run.

Very Fresh

Just found an awesome site. This is the specific page that will bring up a great video. The video shows examples of guerilla marketing around the globe. There are examples of backpacks, mugs and hand bags by Pandol. The bags have faces on them that seem to be interacting with their environment. The mug face is giving a ‘my hair is burning off face’ the backpack seems to be having their face stretched to the limit.

The Canadian Red Cross did an ad showing a real women lying face down on the floor at the bottom of an escalator. The women looks dead and is surround by a large blue circle. The copy next to her says “know what to do.”

One other quick example showed a poster over a brick wall. The picture turns the bricks into a stomach. The copy just says “hard like a brick.” This ad was just for a gym, but the idea was innovative and gets people to laugh.

The slide that really interested me was the reference to Binky. Though I am extremely interested in this subject, I choose not to broach this subject because it deserves an entire post. All I will say is that he is a highly visible guerilla artist.

I don’t think that you ever need to have any amazing idea like these shown. If you can, more power to you, you the forerunner. If you can’t, I think there is room for you in any industry to follow and elaborate of their ideas.

Dancing in the Rain Ya Heard

Many different companies have used the idea of dancing in the rain. Understandably, the idea of dancing in the rain evokes many strong emotions. Pure unbridled joy of just letting of inhibitions can appeal to everyone. Nothing else matters if you find yourself dancing in the rain. Your clothes don’t matter, your hair doesn’t matter. Everything that companies try to tell us is important gets thrown out the window as we regress in years.

Volkswagen did an ad for their new golf using dancing in the rain. They used the classical male figure doing some of the same moves from the movie, but adapting new urban moves.

Recently Pepsi did an ad using Eva Longoria from Desperate Housewives. She walks out of a corner store and opens her Pepsi. Rain starts and she just starts dancing down the street with techno music playing.

Anyways, Guerilla Marketing.

My idea for Pepsi would be to actually recreate this ad. They go to NYC and stake out a block. They either get some water proof speakers that they can put on a car, or rent a house where they can blast the music out of the windows. They would have to choose the time and place very carefully. This would have to have to be middle of the day where there is a lot of foot traffic. The sidewalk would also have to not have a cover so the rain would hit it.

So here is the picture. You are walking down a street when the sky opens up. People start scurrying around looking for cover when this music starts. Everyone on the street start looking around to see what is going on. Then they see this model/dancer/male/female/ whatever going down the street. There could be one on each side of the street and maybe one walking down the center of the street. Either way they will be dancing and drinking Pepsi.

I think this would be a great way for Pepsi or other companies to make ads seem less like fantasy and more associated with their brands.

NYC can't be beat

Last weekend my girlfriend and I went to her home in northern Jersey. The second day we were there we woke up early, drove to the bus station and barely made the noon bus into the city. We had no agenda, limited resources, and plenty of energy. My goal was to buy a notebook and record the best examples of Guerilla marketing that I could.

I bought my notebook at Borders near Times Square and then headed off for China Town.

The first example of guerilla marketing was at Williams Sonoma. This store featured many cooking tools and fancy dishes. They placed a dish outside their store with free dog biscuits in it. At the same time that I was writing down this example of Guerilla Marketing I watched it in action. A dog walker went by and was forced to stop and look into the windows as their dog ate from the dish. The dish got the potential consumer to stop and pay attention to their store for longer than usual.

As we got closer to China Town I saw the second example. I was standing next to Murray’s which is an upscale deli with meats and cheeses. I was literally on top of the ad before I saw it. They have a Plexiglas window on the sidewalk in front of the store. Under the glass is cave filled with aged cheese. This fun display was entertaining and almost got me to go into the store to find out what exactly cave aged cheese is.

As we walked out of the chaos of China Town I saw the next guerilla marketing display. I think that it was guerilla marketing at least, it was certainly interesting. There was a tea ceremony being conducted on the street. There was a line of people that were able to drink tea with the man. This man was dressed like a Tibetan monk with white paint on his face. I didn’t find what he was trying to promote but there was writing that I couldn’t understand next to him.

I had a great trip to the city and I encourage anyone that is interested in marketing to take a walk down Times Square.