adidas Drives Store Traffic With Shoe Box Marketing Stunt

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adidas celebrated the grand opening of its flagship store in Melbourne, Australia with a creative marketing stunt designed to drive excitement and foot traffic. adidas erected several giant shoe boxes throughout the mall and gave unsuspecting consumers passing by a left shoe with a voucher attached that they could redeem for a free pair of shoes of that style inside the adidas store. 

The adidas marketing stunt was creatively executed and served as a great way to generate buzz and excitement at a relatively low cost. Check it out below:

It would be interesting to see professional sports teams benchmark this marketing/PR stunt to drive awareness and excitement for new merchandise items throughout the season. Teams could set up mystery boxes throughout the concourse (staffed by interns) giving away free apparel and premium giveaways - a tactic designed to drive traffic and sales in the official team shop.

Lynx Uses Augmented Reality to Make a Splash at Victoria Station

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Unilever recently teamed up with Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) to create a captivating augmented reality campaign at London's Victoria Station in an effort to drive buzz and awareness for the Lynx brand (an extension of Axe in the UK).

Unilever created an initiative where consumers could stand on a special floormat within Victoria Station and see themselves interacting with virtual Lynx Angels (models) on a giant video board near by. The augmented reality campaign attracted the attention of thousands of consumers passing through the busy locale and served as a great way for the brand to create a viral piece that has generated plenty of buzz in the digital realm.

Unilever's campaign is very interesting because it is a tactic that could be replicated by professional sports organizations looking to make a splash in a high-traffic location prior to the season, during key events (All-Star weekend, etc.), or during the offseason. Teams could work with a local agency to create digital footage of players and embed it in an augmented reality campaign that truly engages fans at a moment when they least expect it.

Check out the Lynx Angels campaign below:

Sports Radio 790 Uses Guerrilla Tactics to Thank Bobby Cox

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Sports Radio 790 The Zone, a premier sports radio station in Atlanta, recently pulled off a terrific guerrilla marketing stunt to celebrate the career of retiring Braves coach Bobby Cox and build goodwill with sports fans in the local marketplace.

Sports Radio 790 The Zone celebrated Cox's retirement and engaged with fans by setting up a mobile display just outside of Turner Field that featured an authentic painting of Bobby Cox. The station asked fans passing by to sign the commemorative piece, which the station plans to present to Cox at a later time.

To drive engagement, Sports Radio 790 The Zone also distributed a collection of "Thanks Bobby" fans to consumers passing by and asked conducted live interviews asking fans about their fondest memories of Cox as the Braves head coach.

Sports Radio 790 The Zone was able to pull off the successful guerilla stunt around the historic moment in Braves history despite Sports Radio 680 The Fan and Rock 100.5 being the official home of Braves baseball. To support the stunt, Sports Radio 790 The Zone partnered with an official "Thanks Bobby!" Facebook page and movement that was created by Braves fan and 790 listener Scott Munn. The site has amassed 20,000+  fans and has received media support from the AJC, The Regular Guys, The Braves Radio Network, and MLB.com.

Check out a few pictures of their guerrilla activation below:

September 2010 Partnership Activation 2.0 Newsletter

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Thank you for coming to check out PartnershipActivation.com. I am excited to share with you the new September 2010 Partnership Activation 2.0 Newsletter.

I hope you enjoy all of the great content included in this month's issue and want to thank you for your support and willingness to help spread the word about Partnership Activation amongst your friends and colleagues in the industry.

This month's newsletter features a collection of insights, including:

  • Red Bull's NASCAR Taxi
  • Creative Sponsorship/Marketing Tactics from the Barclays Premier League
  • Old Spice's Interactive Banner Ads
  • Los Angeles Dodgers "My Town" Billboard Activation Tactics
  • The Oklahoma City Thunder's Corporate Partnerships Website
  • The Essential Guide to Grassroots Sports and Social Media
  • September 2010 Rising Stars
  • Official Redskins Nation Foursquare Badge
  • Activ8Social's Reggie Bush's #RedZones Promotion
  • Insights about the 2010 FIBA World Championship
  • A Close Look at The New Meadowlands Stadium
  • Southwest Airlines' Thought Starters
  • Fresh New, Creative Ideas from the Idea Box

Click here to check out the September 2010 Newsletter now and be sure to also join the Official Partnership Activation - Users Connect! LinkedIn Group today!

If you are interested in signing up for the newsletter, please send an email with "Subscribe" in the subject line to newsletter@partnershipactivation.com. In the body of the email, please include your name, company affiliation, and contact information when subscribing.

 

If you enjoyed the September 2010 Issue, you may also be interested in:

Fuel Guerrilla Marketing Initiatives with QR Codes

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Brands looking to create unique guerrilla marketing campaigns that leverage social media technology should benchmark a recent tactic implemented by the Oral Cancer Foundation. In August, the Oral Cancer Foundation called on several teams of young women to hit the beaches of Surf City to message to thousands of teens and 20-somethings attending the 2010 US Open of Surfing.

With 500,000 visitors attending the three-day surfing event sponsored by Hurley, Oral Cancer Foundation personnel knew that they needed to create a compelling, unique program to effectively get their message across about the risks of oral cancer, HPV, and other diseases. To do so, the Oral Cancer Foundation created a social media strategy that leveraged QR codes.

Throughout the US Open of Surfing competition, teams of female Oral Cancer Foundation brand ambassadors scoured the beaches and handed out creatively worded stickers, t-shirts, and temporary tattoos that all beared a unique QR code. When recipients scanned the QR codes with the mobile phones, they were taken to a microsite that provided educational information about the risks of certain preventative diseases.

The Oral Cancer Foundation found that the QR codes enabled their guerrilla marketing teams the ability to communicate life saving messages to consumers in a very powerful way. The initiative proved to be an influential, cost-effective means to target a crowd of young, tech savvy consumers.

Check out some pictures of their guerrilla marketing outreach below:

 

Source: PR Newswire, Oral Cancer Foundation Flickr Page  

Mobilizing Brands - Benchmarking the Tour de France

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With thousands of fans tailgating outside stadiums and arenas every given night, ample opportunities exist for brand marketers to drive consumer impressions and partnership affiliation awareness. As organizations and brand partners continue to analyze opportunities inside stadium parking lots, it's hard to ignore what has become a common practice at the Tour de France.

With limited marketing opportunities along the course, Tour de France sponsors invest their activation dollars into building mobile vehicles designed to entertain fans lining the course. These vehicles, traveling as a parade of sponsors, serve as effective awareness drivers for partnering brands.

Sports organizations in the United States can benchmark this practice of mobilizing sponsors by incorporating them in:

  • Tailgate lot activation (on display; strolling through the tailgate lots)
  • Pre-Game Team Walks (Tiger Walk, etc.; serving as a prelude to the team's arrival)
  • Race Track Activation (driving along a NASCAR track prior to a race or during a caution)
  • Championship Parades
  • Team Festivals
  • Guerrilla Marketing (Operating Co-Branded Vehicles)
  • Retail Activation Displays
  • On-Field Vehicles (Drive on the Warning Track or On-Field During Pre-Game; Stretchers, etc.)
  • Pace Cars During Marathons / Endurance Events

Check out how sponsors are being mobilized at the Tour de France below:

View more presentations from Brian Gainor.

Activation of the Day - PokerStars

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Are you looking for new ways to promote an upcoming poker tournament? Are you looking for new ways to leverage guerrilla marketing tactics to promote your organization or an upcoming event?

PokerStars, the world's largest online poker room, recently hit the streets with a guerrilla marketing campaign to drive awareness in a city setting. The marketing stunt featured paid actors leaving branded briefcases stuffed with money around town to illicit reactions from consumers passing by.

Check out PokerStars' humorous street tactics below:

Hugo Boss Goes Ambush on the British Open...

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Are you looking for ways to drive brand awareness at premier sporting events without paying large sums for partnership fees? Are you looking for creative ways to leverage sponsorships in the golf space?

During live television coverage of the '09 British Open, Hugo Boss pulled off one of the greatest ambush marketing tactics seen to date at a premier sporting event. The high-end menswear apparel company creatively parked a hi-tech sailboat in the waters off Turnberry, Scotland that appeared in the tournament's worldwide television coverage.

The sailboat's extensive branding was easily picked up on camera, providing extensive media value for the Hugo Boss brand as their target demographic watched from around the globe. While some companies paid large sums of dollars to advertise through ABC's coverage of the tournament, Hugo Boss found a sneaky way to effectively incorporate its brand into the coverage.

Source: Industry.BNet.com

A special thanks to Jeff Snyder of the Kansas City Chiefs for his insights and contributions to this column.