I just wanted to share with you all this fantastic guerrilla marketing campaign that Sweden's Absolut Vodka ran at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam in early 2005. It is clever, cheeky, and very in-line with the company's quirky, 'think-outside-the-box' marketing techniques. It also would have been very inexpensive. This brand certainly likes to get people talking, and I love the simplicity of the idea.
People have to wait around to collect their luggage at airports, and everyone has their eyes trained to the conveyor belt to ensure they don't miss their bags sailing past. Absolut therefore would have everybody's undivided attention- a very difficult thing for marketers to obtain these days! Plus there is an interesting undercurrent running through this ad- the people who are intrigued by the bottle of vodka going past are forced to question whether they should take the lonesome bottle out of the battered box. You can almost see them questioning whether it would be wrong to take it. By teasing all the people watching the bottle of vodka go past, Absolut is no doubt leaving a strong impression in many of their minds that would be hard to shake...they may well go home, regret not grabbing the bottle and go out and buy one instead!
What do you think about this stunt? Worthwhile? Do you think many of the people at the airport realised it was a stunt? And does it matter if they did or not?
Very clever, but not particularly high reach. Also, it's a little too late, as people have already passed the duty-free shops by the time they get to the baggage carousel.
ReplyDeleteWhat do others think?
Have they passed duty free though? Don't you only go through there after you get your bags but before you clear customs? Not sure. Great campaign. I agree the reach isn't high, but if you take on cost to impact ratio, I would suggest this is great. Wouldn't have costed them much, and as Natalie said, got their undivided attention to a point where they are so taken by this phenomenon that can't help but shake the feeling of Absolut vodka. And what's more, thank you SM, this impact is now much more than what it would have been without SM.
ReplyDeleteRoss
Really good brand reinforcement I reckon. You see everyone laughing as their minds make sense of the words with the visual picture.
ReplyDeleteI love it! Definately not high reach but cheap and effective for those that do see it!
ReplyDeleteI think it's great! Reach isn't probably too high but this would've most likely created a lot of WOM ('you'll never guess what I saw at the airport today...'). I don't think many realised that it was a stunt because it's something out of the ordinary. At least the first reaction of everyone would've been confusion and definitely temptation.
ReplyDeleteAbsolut tempetation... to steal? I dunno, I'd be eyeing-off whoever actually took it! Interesting idea that really integrates the Abolut brand image onto the social media sphere well
ReplyDeleteGreat comments thanks guys. Its true that this would not be high reach, but as Ross said for the low cost involved I think its a pretty cool stunt that gets people thinking about the product/brand without being just another conventional ad. How many ads would these people have seen on their way out of the airport that they didn't even register, for example? The fact that this is something different and engaging would be much more high impact and likely to result in a possible purchase rather than just another billboard ad on the drive home...
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