BRAND ACTIVATIONS & MARKETING
With communications boundaries toppling around the world, there is a growing sense that in-person marketing techniques are going the way of the newspaper, a relic of an age where trade agreements weren t hammered out online. And while we re all about early and agile adoption of new techniques, on this point, we beg to disagree. Mobile media marketing could easily be seen as quaint and out-of-touch as 53-foot semi trailers trundle around the nation. But these road shows offer advantages that tap to the very heart of marketing success.
No matter how many ads we see on television or online about a product that tickles our fancy, a chance to try something out hands-on will never go out of style. Personal attention sells and a mobile road show can help create a valuable relationship with customers.
The Chrysler Road Show: Nothing beats hands-on. Image from Automotive Fleet
People don t often talk to each other about advertisements they see online and why should they? They re inundated with them every day. A food truck giving away free cookies, on the other hand, like the one we built for Ketchum and DoubleTree by Hilton, is not as forgettable. A mobile media road show isn t an advertisement, it s a happening a spontaneous mini-event, a break in monotony, a bright spot in someone s day. And when people participate in interesting events, they think about them and they talk about them. And in a world where most marketers are turning to the digiverse to the exclusion of all else, in-person interactions may actually have become more valuable for their rarity.
Last year, General Electric s Lighting Revolution Tour took to the road to give designers, distributors, architects, contractors, facility maintenance, and utility executives a first-hand experience of GE s latest innovations in lighting technology. Not the sexiest subject matter, perhaps, but at every one of 57 stops, its truck deployed a 600-foot-square awning covering all of the company s latest lighting solutions. You can t get that kind of customer interaction online.
What you could get online and this is where technology plays a critical role was mobile road tour tracking information and scheduling. A mobile road show s success does not just depend on rocking up in a pretty truck. Much of the pre-planning involved in event management still applies. E-mail campaigns, social media announcements going out 3-8 weeks in advance and online truck tracking via microblog are a must.
Decibel Management has concepted, designed and overseen more than a few mobile media campaigns. Give us a call: we ll handle the rest.
