So who is buying bananas? One can surmise that moms buy bananas for their kids as a healthy snack. And WHO else sees the advertising on the banana? Yep. Kids. Guess the QR code is for the curious adults. But wait! Kids have smart phones so they may very well be scanning and viewing the trailer too.
Moms are you peeling that sticker off before you hand that banana to your child?
Advertising pops up just about anywhere nowadays. We’re all used to seeing it in our shopping carts at the supermarket. It’s almost “normal” now.
And what about building wraps? Now there’s something you can’t miss. Saw this one recently while visiting Las Vegas:
Sorry to say I wasn’t in town long enough to catch their show. But I sure knew about it!
Advertising. On cars. In pools. On objects placed on city corners. Heck, even around the manhole covers. What's next?
Does this suggest that “traditional” advertising is no longer effective? Heck no. Non-traditional and traditional advertising work together. Chipwrecked had TV spots during that all important holiday season and no doubt had billboards too. There’s a Facebook app (9,000 monthly users) and a fan page (27,000+ users). Hadn’t seen any (I’m not the target audience), but it’s highly likely there were banner ads on carefully selected websites too. A quick search revealed no presence on Twitter or Google+. Makes sense since you won’t find kids there. You WILL find mommy bloggers on Twitter though, so perhaps that’s a missed opportunity?
It’s all so much, isn’t it? Why? Simply put, it’s hard to grab your attention. Too many of us on the run; advertising, when we see it, gets mere seconds of our time. Brace yourself for more attempts in unusual places in an effort to increase your likelihood of viewing the information, gaining your awareness and hopefully heightened interest. Down the purchase funnel we go!
A target audience for Chipwrecked: Moms of young kids. Uber-busy moms who may be holding down part-time or full-time jobs AND raising a family. How much time is left to relax in front of the television? A half-hour a day? Are they going to catch that TV spot? Not unlikely. But they shop. A box of disposable pampers for their youngest gets used up pretty quickly. Fruit needs to be bought often so it’s fresh and a box of cereal is gone in no time with a family of four. By now they may be ignoring ads on shopping carts, so why not put them on the actual food?
Speaking of food, some of us enjoy snacks and drinks when flying, right? Imagine my surprise during a trip in October when I pulled open the tray and discovered a nifty print ad instead of off-white plastic greeting me. Being up in the air does not allow you to escape advertising anymore!
Makes you wonder how far out advertising is going to get. People have sold their foreheads for $20,000 and tattooed advertising on them; remember goldenpalace.com? Can it get any crazier?
Yes. It will. And our brains will adjust and learn how to tune out noise yet again. Sigh. On the other hand, a company may finally reach you with the solution to fulfilling a need or desire you have.
On that note, I’m running to the drug store now for just a few items. Let me grab a basket...
Where have you seen “unusually placed” advertising and how do you feel about it?
10 comments:
I ignore it just like I ignore all advertising I didnt ask for.
Another form of pollution.
I'll take a different spin. To me that is a great idea and shows that someone was thinking and using their brain. Where would we be in this nation if we didn't think? As we move to socialism I guess we'll find out.
Totally agree that it is creative! We will see more "out of the box" thinking in the future. While I'll hail it for originality, I'll be groaning at the same time.
A friend of mine had QR code on all of his price tags at his gallery opening. He sold a lot of prints! I'm all for thinking out of the box...
That's a great use of QR codes! They are becoming more popular as more people get smart phones.
Way back in 1999, a friend and I were talking about exactly this: the pervasiveness of advertising. While trying to think of places we had NOT seen advertising, we realized we had never seen an ad on a cow. So we made one: http://paintedcows.com/specs.html
We also — as a joke! — sent out an email offering to pay to rent ad space on people's children in the form of temporary tattoos, and were a bit frightened by the number of responses we got from people who were actually interested in the idea of selling ad apace on their kids!
Neither of these things seems nearly as wacky now as they did then.
Very clever, Shelley! Just looked at the website. Your second paragraph is scaring me and I agree these are not "wacky" concepts nowadays.
Thanks. :)
I remember the first time I saw ads in a bathroom it freaked me out a little. Now it's commonplace.
Re: the kids tattoos. As parents, we already do that when we let them wear temporary tattoos. The difference is, Disney didn't pay ME to let my daughter wear the Little Mermaid on her arm. I actually paid for that privilege. :P So yeah, I'd rent out my kids' arms if the temporary tattoos were fun and familiar. If the product and price were right, I'd probably sell space on myself w/ a real tattoo, too. :)
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