Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Street Marketing: Think Ambient

I wanted to write a little bit about a company I appreciate. I met them during the point of sales business fair back at the beginning of the year. Think Ambient is a company specialized in street marketing. They have developped a quite interesting technology of paper called Clings.

Here is what is said about it on their website:
Clings will stick on both sides to most clean surfaces without the need for tape, tacks or adhesive. Clings are easy to install and remove, will last for up to 6 months on most clean surfaces and are repositionable and reusable for their entire lifetime. Clings will not leave an adhesive residue or damage surfaces in any way when removed. You can also write on Clings with a dry or wet erasable marker and they can also be inserted into magazines.

I just love it. I actually have samples sticked everywhere in my office.

But today, I wanted to advertise for them a little bit, as I received one of their case studies, which shows how much impact you may get thanks to Street marketing. Street marketing was very popular couple of years ago when it showed up, but somehow I don't hear a lot about it lately.

Ambient Media has its critics so we like to show off when we get great results!

We often produce clings with website links or phone numbers on them. This gives an accurate portrayal of the cut-through our guerrilla marketing campaigns have. For two years we have been running successful and targeted cling campaigns for our client for Ashton, Leigh and Wigan Primary Care Trust. Their objective was to promote Cancer awareness amongst specific consumers in key postcodes within the Wigan area. We identified key venues in these postcode sectors including pubs, bars, hairdressers, cafes, bingo halls and office blocks where we could post Clings and communicate directly with the key target audience. Clings were used in conjunction with various bus formats (inc. tickets, rears and interiors), pharmacy bags, pub washrooms (inc. beermats and mirror stickers), roadside posters (48-sheets and 6-sheets) and some local press.

McCann Erickson’s “Cancer Chancer” campaign for Manchester Versus Cancer Alliance has been setting standards, winning awards, and oh yes, saving lives! Their multi-channel approach resulted in a massive 55% increase in GP referrals and a 69% increase in awareness, which helped early diagnosis of 26 more cases of cancer in 2008. The IPA awarded the campaign their Bronze Award for Best Media, and also cited the campaign as a great use of creative media in their article “Big lessons from small advertisers” (Andy Nairn, the convenor of judges at the IPA Effectiveness Awards, 13/11/2009)

By spreading limited resources over numerous targeted media the chances of reaching those most in need increase. Our client was so happy with the results that the campaign was repeated in Wigan and also rolled out in South Manchester!

I like this case study because data about street marketing efficiency is lacking. I believe this is the reason why a lot of people cut their street marketing budgets during this crisis to focus on more reliable media.

But if used properly, and with a little bit of imagination, a lot can be accomplished thanks to it.