TBT: Clever marketing stunt gets all the attention
This company's advertising and marketing team took a bold risk, and it clearly paid off...
Who wants to be ordinary anymore? These days it's all about disrupting the norm and making a statement.
South Africa's advertising and marketing scene has always been one to watch. With a rich pool of talent, many of our creatives have a unique, boundary-pushing perspective.
While great ad campaigns have traditionally succeeded by tugging at the heartstrings or making bold, splashy moves, it’s the ads that broke the mould that really stick with us.
We all remember the campaigns that stood out, the ones that refused to blend in.
Let’s rewind to 2010, when Frank McDouall, owner and managing director of Carfind.co.za, took a daring leap with his outdoor advertising campaign.
His mission? To get noticed. And let’s be real – when it comes to advertising, that's the ultimate goal, isn’t it?
After years of building his brand, it was clear that McDouall was deeply passionate about his business.
Despite having never incorporated a "visual component into his advertising campaigns" before, he took a bold and risky step that could have affected both his company and the media owner’s reputation.
In an interview with Media Update, McDouall said, "This is the first time I have advertised in the outdoor space, and when I approached Primedia Outdoor with my concept, they loved it and set about ensuring the campaign launched on time. We knew exactly when it was launched because the calls started coming in, and the marketing and motoring community were even using Facebook and Twitter to add their opinions and get the conversation going."
In short, McDouall decided to place his billboards upside down.
I gave this campaign considerable thought and decided that the best way to get noticed is to literally turn the message on its head by placing it upside down. As an advertiser with a tight budget, my marketing rands have to work four times as hard – and even though we only flighted seven Carfind boards around Gauteng and Cape Town, the impact has more than qualified that outdoor is where we need to be.
More than a decade later, the impact of his bold idea is still being felt.
The beauty of this campaign lies in its irony, which sparked curiosity and conversation, even among those not in the market for a car. It was a conversation starter that had everyone talking.
Check out the video below – courtesy of Instagram.
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Image courtesy of iStock