Gossip Girl: OMFG

Despite New York Magazine declaring teen drama Gossip Girl the “Best. Show. Ever.,” ratings have fallen short of expectations (though, to Gossip Girl’s credit, the show is continually the number one download on iTunes). To combat this crisis the CW launched an aggressive campaign promoting the return of Gossip Girl following the end of the writer’s strike; the “OMFG campaign.” A controversial campaign, the CW has printed promotional posters that imply elicit behavior and language and creating equally racy promotional clips for television and Youtube to entice people to tune in.

For example, I walk past this ad in Times Square, located on the corner of 7th avenue and 42nd street, while on my way to work:


While the mediums used are not that innovative or new, it is the content that makes these promotional posters and Youtube videos stand out from the norm; especially considering Gossip Girl’s Monday at 8 time slot is usually reserved for "less-provacative" material. While not really a guerrilla promotion in essence, this would have been a great opportunity for the CW to have one. By simply handing flyers, or t-shirts, or some other creative promotional product along side the posters would have given the show more of a personal connection with its possible viewers. Even though the ads really do grab your attention, the CW lost a big chance to get exposure.

Duane Reade - Burn Response Team

Just a heads up for all the deal seekers and freebies fans in NYC: Duane Reade is currently holding a city wide guerrilla street promotion for First Degree burn cream. I spotted the the first costumed street marketing team outside Penn Station on my way to work and another outside Grand Central Terminal.

The street marketing team have a cute costume theme going, with the girls in nurse uniforms and the guys in surgical scrubs. There's also one guy in a chef's hat at each location manning a portable grill (presumably to tie in the 'burns' angle). The promotion they are giving out is a bandage dispenser (with bandages included) and coupons for the burn cream. I hear there are a few more teams at other major transportation hubs around the city, so keep an eye out if you're interested in catching this promotion.

Dangling Denim

To commemorate the grand opening of a new Lee Store on the trendy Rue des Rosiers street in Paris, TriBeCa--a guerrilla marketing agency--hung jeans and accessories from clothing lines and poles that line the streets of the local neighborhood. A street team of promoters then gave out stickers and flyers to drive traffic into the new store.

As you can see in the video, the guerrilla promotional event was a success as people flocked to the grand opening and waited in long lines. The event garnered awareness for the brand as well as demonstrated its urban versatility through the use of denim apparel.

(Via: YouTube)

Quit - X-Ray Ashtray

Those zany British are at it again. Instead of just telling their audience why cigarettes are bad, Quit, an anti-smoking charity in the United Kingdom have turned to a new visual medium to demonstrate the effects of smoking. Saatchi & Saatchi London designed this promotion that took full advantage of the adbins advertising service.

The ashtrays have been setup all over London and feature a transparent lung x-ray overlay that allow you to view all of the discarded cigarette ends inside the bin. The result is an effective metaphor of the serious damage cigarettes can inflict on your lungs. The charity hopes that upon discarding your cigarette and taking a look at those filthy lungs, you may just reconsider your next smoke!

(Via: directdaily)

Pantene - Rapunzel

Here's a clever ambient advertising campaign to promote Pantene Pro-V Anti-Breakage Shampoo. Prop builders Swayze Props and Sets and Full Serve Productions helped advertising firm Grey Toronto design this attention grabbing promotion based on the Rapunzel fairy tale.

Rapunzel is, of course, the perfect metaphor for hair strength. This elaborate capaign took full advantage of that association by hanging gigantic braids of hair from the upper story windows of several buildings, complete with a dummy 'climbing' the hair. Just to make sure no one missed the point, promotional shampoo samples were given out with the copy "Really strong hair."

(Via: ibelieveinadv)

Blush Wear - Stop Nudism

Can you think of a better deal than having tireless models that'll advertise your store 24/7 without having to be paid? Glow Berlin might have hit the jackpot with this ambient outdoors marketing campaign for Blush, a German retailer of lingerie and swim wear by dressing up statues with promotional apparel.

The ad agency compounded the effectiveness of this marketing stunt by putting up promotional stickers of a fake awareness campaign to "Stop Nudism." We're not so sure about idea of using 60's style swim wear on the statues, but apparently the store do sell much racier items. Be sure to check out the rest of the photographs at adsoftheworld.

(Via: adsoftheworld)

Cardboard City

The increasing number of homeless people living in Australia has become growing issue within several communities. In order to raise awareness and help raise donations, the people of Australia have teamed up with realestate.com.au and Mission Australia to create an amazing display in Sydney Australia's Martin Place. The display consists of over 500 boxes arrange in the streets to create a cardboard city. This city represents and draws attention to the homes of the 100,000 homeless living in Australia. Passers and spectators were urged to visit the site, and for every click realestate.com.au will donate 1 dollar to Mission Australia and its cause.

This promotional campaign was supported by many advertising mediums and was picked up by the media, along with dozens of websites and message boards. The cardboard city was so widely exposed in the media that within 48 hours the target had been reached and $100,000 was raised to help the homeless.

(Via: directdaily)

"Shiatsu" Press To Relax

In order for the Kofukan Therapy Center in Brazil to raise awareness for its "Shiatsu" (a thousand year old relaxing finger pressure technique), they came up with an attractive and interactive promotional poster, that really caught some attention.

The poster shown above features a womans back and upon pressing any point of the poster, we hear a sound similar to that of your back cracking. To make the cracking sound-effect, the poster has two sheets of bubble wrap built in behind it. This promotional poster emphasizes the method and results of the "Shiatsu".

(Via: directdaily)

Guerrilla Tip: Choose Your Promotions Carefully

Here's an example of good concept that may be questionable in execution. Giovanni+DraftFCB's latest attempt at creating an ambient marketing campaign for Fiat's Punto involves life-sized magnetic sunroofs placed on top of cars parked at malls and restaurants. Unfortunately, this promotion, which is intended to promote the popular European supermini in the Brazilian market, is flawed on several levels:

To start off...while promotional magnets can be highly effective when used creatively, it is a questionable choice in this instance due to the nature of the positioning. This promotion would never work on owners of SUVs or other larger vehicles where the roof is higher than the average person's line of sight -- there's a good chance they would never notice the introduction of a foreign object on their roof. But...even on smaller vehicles, the average passerby is unlikely to check out the tops of other people's cars, especially when the promotion in question looks exactly like a normal sunroof from a distance.

The only people likely to notice this promotion would then be the owners of the small cars on which they are placed. There is two problems with this. First, unless this group is perfectly targeted as potential purchasers of new cars, this just seems like a waste of advertising dollars. Secondly, unless given explicit permission to do so, you should NEVER touch the personal belongings of the people you are trying to market to. My initial response on seeing a foreign object on MY car, would be panic over potential defacement -- not exactly the kind of emotion an advertiser would want to evoke.

Finally, there is the unclear nature of the copy. "Wouldn't it be cool to have one of these" and the Punto logo is pretty ambiguous and tells a new audience nothing about the product or service being offered. My first assumption is that Punto is a company that provides custom automobile bodywork, such as sunroof installation. When using imprinted promotions, it is always a good idea to include a website address or at least an explanatory branding slogan to let people know what products or services your company offer -- especially if you are seeking to increase market share in a new area.

(Via: directdaily)

Teas For Health

The House Cafe is a chain of restaurants in Istanbul, Turkey that caters to a discerning clientele. The House Cafe's keen attention to aesthetic decor coupled with their fresh and continually changing menu have made the restaurant chain a popular destination for the hip and health-conscious crowd.

To further promote this brand image, TBWA\Istanbul came up with this simple, yet effective marketing idea featuring promotional teas. Cut-out images of people doing outdoors sports (e.g.: rock climbing and bungee jumping) were attached to the strings of the tea bags to associate the teas with a healthy, active lifestyle. The promotion was so successful that the cafe is now seeing a surge in consumer demand to buy these teas for home consumption.

(Via: directdaily)

Finding a Needle in a Haystack

LoJack security claims that with their new system, "finding a stolen vehicle is easier then finding a needle in a haystack." In order to show consumers just how serious they are, LoJack created a clever guerrilla promotion using a piece of direct mail to indirectly display how the system works. Inside this direct mail promotion is a wooden box filled with hay and a very powerful promotional magnet.

The recipients of this promotion are instructed to use the magnet to retrieve the needle from the stack of hay. Of course the needle pops right up, letting LoJack emphasize how with the help of their new security system, a stolen vehicle can be retrieved just as easily. Interactive promotions like this one, requiring audience participation, are often the best at raising brand visibility.

(Via: directdaily)

Think You Can Do It?

In attempt to attract customers to a new weight-lifting club "Metalac" in Croatia, the club decided to setup a clever promotional gimmick in order to receive some attention. Outside a number of popular shopping malls in Croatia, a 40 kilo weight sat anxiously waiting trying to provoke a reaction from the passers by using the headline "Think You Can Do It?" A number of brave consumers took on the challenge only to be suprised when they found out that the actual 40 kilo weight was welded to the ground, making it impossible to lift.

The weight turned out to be quite an attraction, and the club certainly benefited from the exposure. People are always drawn in by some sort of challenging game, event or promotion taking place, whether it be at a mall, carnival or office building. Fun and interesting promotional items are always a great way to get and retain attention from your recipients. Give them something they wont be able to put down for maximum brand exposure today!

(Via: directdaily)

Mohegan Sun - Sidewalk Musical

One of the perks of living in a major city is getting to see firsthand the zany antics of street marketers every so often. This morning a street marketing team for Mohegan Sun treated the morning commute to some song and dance routines outside the Grand Central Terminal. The musical numbers were instantly recognizable, having came straight out of the latest KBP designed commercials.

Between their song and dance routines, the marketing team handed out promotional travel brochures with a sticky note on top promoting the casino's latest sweepstakes. The winners will get a mid-week hotel stay and dinner for two at one of Mohegan Sun's restaurants.

HP - Ripped Photo Realistic Paper

The new HP Advanced Photo Paper guarantees true-to-life image quality, and in order to highlight and prove this benefit, HP came up with several guerrilla promotions that were impossible to miss. Stand-in giant pieces of paper were placed in strategic locations to trick spectators into thinking that what is real to their eyes is actually a reproduction of the scenery using HP Advanced Photo Paper. In order to create this illusion, human-sized standees were placed in strategic locations to give the appearance that someone had accidentally walked through a gigantic photograph.

It's a very impressive and clever promotional stunt, but we think it might work even better if there are some customized promotional sticky notes or coupons attached to the standees for passersby to peel off. It never hurts to remind people of a clever promotion and to give them incentives to buy your product.

(Via: directdaily)

The Rough Ticket

The employees of a local park took notice to the fact that upon receiving a parking pass, all the park visitors would stick the pass directly into their mouth. In order to take promotional advantage of such a phenomenon, Blistex lip balm setup a guerrilla promotion by changing the texture of the parking pass to a rough sandpaper type surface.

Once the texture had been altered, the unsuspecting park visitors would instinctively stick the pass into their mouth and notice something was different. The distorted texture immediately provoked the visitors to take the pass out of their mouth to examine promotion, letting them know that "Rough lips? Blistex lip balm helps."

People love to keep and show-off fun and clever promotional items that had some type of impact on their day. Word of mouth is generally accepted as the best possible advertising medium, so it is definitely important to have some interesting promotional items for your recipients to share and discuss.

Make sure when clients and employees come into your office they have something with your company name or logo to leave with. That way no matter where they go, your brand will ride along, receiving the exposure it deserves!

(Via: directdaily)

You Can Do Tae Kwon Do

A new athletic gym in Santiago, Chile has began to offer training classes in the martial arts form of Tae Kwon Do. The only problem with this new service was no one was aware. In order to impact a response, the gym used clever promotional apparel in the form of a black karate belt to advertise the gym and its new Tae Kwon Do training. Black karate belts were seen hanging everywhere from telephone poles to tree branches, and people were really taking notice.

Two weeks after the promotion there was a 33% increase in hits on the website, plus the gym visits and calls grew significantly. Custom imprinting your company name, logo, or service information on promotional apparel is a great way to increase exposure. Every time one of your recipients steps out the door sporting your company apparel, everyone they see will be reminded of you!

(Via: directdaily)