Unique Ad Ideas
September 20, 2006

Q: There has to be some other ways of spending my advertising dollar than the same old newspaper, radio, magazine trifecta I always use.  What do you like these days? -- Stephan

A:  I agree with your sentiment completely. We are all so inundated with advertising these days that it is easier than ever to tune it all out, which is fine if you are a consumer but bad if you are an entrepreneur.

The secret then, from an advertiser's point of view, is to do something unexpected, to market or advertise in an unusual way or unique place so that you are heard above the din and become memorable.

I am fond of giving examples from my dad's carpet store because, not only was he a marketing wiz, but his ideas worked. He grew a small single store into a huge chain in a little more than a decade, using marketing ideas big and small.

I loved the time he had his business card printed on one side of a card, with the other side printed to look like a folded $20 bill. He would then hire me to drop the fake $20s near the store, and people would get $20 off when the cards were "redeemed."

Hokey? Sure, but memorable too.

The other great thing about unconventional advertising is that it need not cost a fortune to be effective. What it does require is to be different. Ironically, unconventional advertising is becoming so popular that it is practically becoming, well, conventional. According to Blackfriars Communications, nontraditional marketing (e.g., online promotions, creating buzz, and so forth), rose 12 % in the last year.

In Tokyo, Apple lined the main train station with huge posters containing hundreds of cardboard iPod Nano cutouts. Commuters were encouraged to peel them off and take them home.

Or what about wrapping your car (or paying to wrap other cars) in your business name and logo? For as little as under $20 a day, you can have your car wrapped in a high-quality adhesive vinyl imprinted with your business info. Yet, while the cost per thousand impressions is less than almost all other forms of advertising, seeing a car drive down the highway wrapped in a logo is nevertheless memorable.

The unusual can be as simple as advertising where you don't normally advertise. For instance, what about advertising in the online Yellow Pages versus in the book? Service businesses like plumbers and chiropractors practically live and die by the physical Yellow Pages, right? Well, maybe they shouldn't. Yellowpages.com estimates that there will be over 1 billion searches in 2006, and that 73% who visit the online Yellow Pages will contact a merchant, and 45% will make a purchase.

Or what about renting a hot air balloon or a smaller rooftop balloon to draw attention to your short-term promotion or advertising campaign?

Last year, the Internet casino Golden Palace won an eBay auction and with it the right to print "GoldenPalace.com" on 100 cows grazing by the side of a major highway in Florida.

Or consider going high-tech and making your business card a credit card-sized interactive CD containing company info, clips, products and more.

These are just a few ideas to get the ol' wheels a turning. The important thing is to be open to considering new ideas that get your business in front of new faces. Do that, and see if you don't start to see some new dollars.

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Today's tip: Of course, you do not have to reinvent the wheel. There are score of marketing geniuses out there who have already put together highly successful, unique ad campaigns, with lessons for the rest of us. One source for learning about these is the excellent book, Creative Advertising: Ideas and Techniques from the World's Best Campaigns, by Mario Pricken.

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