Unconventional advertising gaining popularity
Unconventional forms of advertising are gaining popularity these days amid the advertising glut in traditional media such as television, newspapers, magazines or billboards, particularly in developed countries.
Such non-traditional advertising often surprises us, when and where we least expect it -- on the supermarket floor, atop taxis, on the shorts of professional boxers, as an SMS, or even on parts of the human body.
Although many advertisers still doubt the effectiveness of such campaigns, they can hardly deny that times have changed.
The United States-based web hosting and Internet solutions provider C I Host, known for its unique marketing strategies, for example, uses a human body to advertise the company's services.
The sales campaign through the "human billboard" began early last year when a young man, Jim Nelson, agreed to have "C I Host" and "Managed Web Hosting" tattooed on the back of his head to promote the company's services.
A part of the contract Nelson signed with C I Host, he must travel around the country promoting C I Host and keep the 5-inch square, blue, black and orange tattoo visible for five years. He must hand out business cards and flyers and learn a 10-second C I Host sales pitch.
After six months, the company booked 500 new customers thanks to Nelson's service. Many companies have copied C I Host's marketing strategy but with temporary tattoos.
Advertising experts believe that such marketing strategies work particularly well for certain products or services. But, the most powerful non-traditional advertising might come from IT-driven technology, such as direct email, cell phone and long- distance calls. In fact, many companies have enjoyed huge success through the use of such advertising media.
Email has become a powerful component in the arsenal of direct marketing. As a direct marketing tool, email is faster, cheaper and "more measurable" than many other forms of direct marketing.
A recent survey of 1000 consumers, sponsored by the U.S.-based DoubleClick, indicates that 68 percent of consumers were found to have purchased online as a result of receiving permission-based email.
How about advertising via cell phone? Many marketing experts believe that SMS ads will become another important form of non- conventional advertising media. Many companies in developed countries have used this type of advertising to build up their brands.
In Indonesia, many companies have approached existing cell phone operators to advertise their products and services through their SMS services. But due to "technical matters", operators are still reluctant to tap into this promising business.
"The cell phone could be a very effective tool in advertising, because the message reaches target consumers very quickly," said Andir Tambunan, the vice president of public relations of telecommunications operator, Indosat, which is also involved in cell phone services, in addition to its international calls.
Tambunan acknowledged that many companies had approached Indosat to use its cell phone services for advertising purposes. "But we have yet to take up the opportunity, because we fear that such advertising could inconvenience our customers. Besides, such marketing strategies could also cause "traffic jams" in our SMS services," he added.
In the United States, long distance calls have become an important alternative in advertising. BroadPoint Communications and Cortex Telecom are among those that have been involved in the business by offering a free long-distance call to customers who agree to listen to recorded ads on the phone.
The two companies differ in how they present the ads to callers. BroadPoint frontloads its ads. After calling an 800- number the service lets consumers determine in advance how many ads they want to listen to. Each 10- to 15-second message translates into two minutes of free long-distance calling time.
Callers using Cortex hear a 15-second spot at the beginning of each call and every three minutes thereafter. The person at the other end of the line also hears advertising appropriate to that region.
Commenting on the prospect of unconventional advertising media in Indonesia, Indra Abidin, the president of publicly listed media agency PT Fortune Indonesia TBK, said that traditional media, such as TV, newspapers, magazines and billboards would continue to dominate the advertising market within the next few years, although many companies had started to use unconventional forms of advertising to reach their target customers.
He, however, believes that IT-related media, such as email and cellular technology will become another important alternative for advertising in the future.
Indra said that using email as a media to advertise products in Indonesia was not yet effective, given the low penetration of Internet technology in the country. --- Hendarsyah Tarmizi/The Jakarta Post