A Little Crazy Means A Lot of Fun

Consumers have done and seen it all. If you don’t stand out in today’s market, you simply get ignored. That’s not a nice feeling. So where do marketers turn to in order to reach their consumers? Many times, nontraditional marketing is the answer. Nontraditional marketing catches the consumer on the move rather than asking consumers to seek out advertisements in magazines or on television. It breaks through the clutter because it’s unexpected. And it has the potential to be amazing. It can make people smile, make them think, make them laugh, and make them purchase.

Here are a few of my favorite creative nontraditional tactics.

Coca Cola’s Happiness Machine has been making the rounds for a while now. Coke’s idea was to make people happy through the use of a vending machine. Here, you can only get a Coke from the Friendship Machine if you have a friend to help you out. Ingenious! Shows just how much consumers love Coke.

T-Mobile filmed this musical flash mob at the Heathrow, London airport. I’ll be honest, I might punch someone if they started singing that close to my face, but these people really seem to enjoy it. The guy around the 2:00 mark is by far my favorite. His face kills me. And if you skim the comments you’ll notice comments like “I’m changing to T-Mobile now.” 

Volkswagen’s Fun Theory has created a lot of wonderful nontraditional tactics. These piano stairs brighten everyone’s day and tie the VW name back to fun.

Sony’s “Foam City” is one of my all-time favorite commercials. Yes, this nontraditional tactic is technically “traditional,” but only because they filmed it and turned it into something the whole nation could experience. Can you imagine living on this street? I’m pretty sure this would be the best day of my life. And it makes perfect sense for the product. Images like no other. The rest in the series are great too.

My favorite thing about nontraditional advertising is that creativity has no limit. You can sing to people, flood their street with foam, make them climb on each other’s shoulders and make a piano out of a subway staircase. Sounds like every creative’s dream to me.

Next week I’m going to give you a look at some of my favorite dramatic ads.