Thinking WAY Outside the Box – Using Nontraditional Media

July 3rd, 2008 at 09:19am Carrie Skogsberg

We saw an article recently in the Los Angeles Times about the company Parrot using an ad campaign that goes entirely against the norm of most campaigns, but is now becoming an industry trend. Creating marketing campaigns with nontraditional advertising, which means not using the established forms of media such as TV and print, but using viral marketing tools such as YouTube and “fake” campaigns to generate awareness. Parrot is a company that sells hands-free headsets for cell phone users. In California a law recently went into effect that drivers are not allowed to use a cell phone while driving without a hands-free headset. So while most marketers would try to sell the headsets to consumers through the normal media channels, Parrot decided to do something completely different and creative. They created a campaign to change the California state bird from the quail to the parrot. What does this have to do with selling headsets? Nothing and everything all at the same time. Parrot decided to use viral videos and a mock campaign that used tickets for coupons for headsets and even a petition and letter to the Governor to change the state bird. The best part about this campaign is that it costs much less to do than traditional advertising because it relies on a viral message.

So how can you run a successful nontraditional campaign? Be as catchy and creative as possible. Most of the videos and messages getting passed around through sites like YouTube have that certain something that everyone HAS to see. And Parrot did it right by using the bird campaign to continually get their brand name out into the public. Another way to be successful is to constantly monitor the progress of the word being spread. The internet is an instant gratification medium, and the people passing on this message are going to need to see new, updated content to continue spreading the word around.

We think the Parrot won.

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