Out of the box marketing

Today’s marketers are dealing with increasing fragmentation of their audiences in traditional media such as broadcast and print, but now have access to a myriad of non-traditional marketing techniques to assist in the task of capturing an increasingly elusive audience.

Combined with greater cynicism and ever-decreasing attention spans, particularly among younger demographics, marketers are seeking salvation with emerging techniques including ambient, viral and guerrilla marketing.

While the definitions are somewhat blurred, what all these communication techniques have in common is their ability to deliver messages in a highly impactful way, with a relatively small investment (compared to the traditional methods of large media spends to support marketing messages). And done well, they can also create a deeper level of engagement with your target audience.

These emerging marketing techniques can include:

• Ambient or outdoor media
• Stunts
• Events
• Ambush marketing
• Viral agents such as videos posted online

What they all have in common is their ability to be disseminated widely by the target audience among their peer group, and/or to be picked up by media (ironically the broadcast and print media not being paid in advertising dollars) hence delivering the marketer a huge benefit in “free” publicity.

Furthermore, a message embraced and distributed by a target audience is a message that carries a lot more credibility and weight than a traditionally passive advertising message.
But, while the outcomes are potentially spectacular, there are some things that you need to consider before cancelling your advertising and throwing your total budget in this direction.

Who are you?
Non-traditional marketing techniques have generally been embraced by edgier companies prepared to take risks. Challenger brands and those with relatively smaller budgets than dominant industry leaders can also gain a lot of traction using these methods.

It’s not for the faint-hearted, and requires a complete commitment come what may. It also requires that you stand for something and can clearly communicate this position via whatever communications platform you utilise.

How do you get started?
Like all marketing communications, you need to consider the following in planning your campaign:

• What do we stand for?
• What are the risks?
• Cheap doesn’t mean good (such as spam email)
• It’s not a silver bullet – consider the broader context of your marketing activities and how this

Making it work
Once you decide to go ahead, there are some tips to help your campaign be successful:

• Be opportunistic and aware of events happening around you so you can frame your activity in a broader social context (if relevant!)
• Great ideas can come from anywhere – look outside your marketing team for different, off-the-wall ideas
• Be true to who you are – what makes you unique, and what position do/can you “own”?
• Prepare the market with pre-publicity and seeding of your activity through traditional media channels (via editorial as opposed to advertising)
• Follow-up, make sure to communicate what you are doing

Overall, high leverage, non-traditional marketing techniques can deliver huge results with relatively smaller budgets. But they are also riskier, so be prepared to have a go, and embrace failure if it occurs as an experience. Otherwise, you might as well stick to traditional advertising.

Article written by Rob Fraser, Director of Big River Creative www.bigrivercreative.com.au

Click here to return to the newsletter