9 truly genius advertising examples

Incrível.club has put together some examples of how a little advertising gimmick can promote a product and make a brand famous. It’s great!

When the drink was first introduced to the market, its main rivals were Coca Cola and Pepsi. The concept of all of them was similar: they had an energetic and stimulating effect.

So Dietrich Matezchitz applied a risky idea: He raised the price to twice the competition for no apparent reason (just as a strategy), reduced the size of the cans, which started to look like stacks, and started positioning them in different places in the area. of drinks in stores.

An interesting example of simple and effective advertising is the Canadian taxi network, Taxi Mike. Instead of publishing brochures about the company itself, Taxi Mike publishes guides about cafes, bars and other establishments in the city. In other words, all the interesting places where Taxi Mike can reach.

HBO’s advertising campaign before the release of the third season of Game of Thrones was well-crafted and scaled up. The main theme was a huge shadow of a dragon that was often present in the characters’ daily lives. At first, they published it on magazine covers, then on newspaper pages, and they even projected the shadow on buildings, creating a real sensation. In this way, not thinking about this dragon and not waiting for the new season was simply impossible!

The thick paper boxes with a lid on top, which are now standardized, were created by Marlboro. They weren’t made with the intention of creating something new or demonstrating the creativity of their designers, but with an advertising objective: to get Marlboro smokers themselves to promote the brand.

Back in the days when flexible packaging was used, consumers got used to taking cigarettes out of their boxes without taking them out of their pockets, which means that people around them didn’t see the brand.

Flip top boxes (that’s the official name) had to be taken out of pockets to get a cigarette. It was a novelty, and as we know, any innovation draws attention. It was a very successful publicity stunt.

The advertising specialists at the IKEA company designed their stores in a very peculiar way: each establishment has curved paths that force you to walk through the entire store. And this, in turn, has an explanation: By traversing these paths, the consumer can see all products from at least three different angles. Unconsciously, this increases the probabilities of the individual wanting to buy some object, even if they are necessary.

The most famous motorcycle manufacturer in the world for several decades has maintained its lead in the amount of “brand tattoos”. It all started when Harley offered some considerable discounts to those who were going to buy the bike with a tattoo of the brand logo on any part of the body.

In the 60’s, to double its sales, Alka-Seltzer used a basic idea: In an advertising video, they started to throw two pills into the water instead of one. And it worked!

There is another example of the same idea: a shampoo manufacturer began to include in the instructions, that the product had to be applied twice before drying the hair. This attitude also doubled the sales of the product. Besides, in the candy and chewing gum commercials, in general, the actors never get just one to chew, there are always many.

Procter & Gamble chemical engineer Victor Mills, while helping his daughter care for their babies, had to change cloth diapers on several occasions. As he couldn’t bear to wash and dry those diapers, he came up with an idea to make everything easier: create disposable diapers. After some experimentation with various materials, Mills developed a new product for P&G, which began production under the Pampers brand. The rest of the story you already know.

Some time ago in the United States a chain of coffee shops called Seattle’s Best appeared, which wanted to compete with Starbucks. They started promoting themselves as “Starbucks Different”. Doing everything in reverse: different coffee, furniture, music, atmosphere and service, everything in reverse. The coffee shop attracted all the people who for some reason didn’t frequent Starbucks.

Starbucks reacted to this very simply: they bought Seattle’s Best. In fact, it was a pretty predictable step. However, after the purchase, Starbucks did not close Seattle’s Best coffee shops. On the contrary, he worked even harder to make everything more different so that the brand didn’t look anything like Starbucks, making the competition even stronger between the two brands.

As a result, people who liked Starbucks went to Starbucks and left their money there. And people who didn’t like it would go to Seattle’s Best and leave their money at… Starbucks! In this way, the company not only solved the competitor’s customer flow problem, but also caught the attention of all those who hate Starbucks.

Source: A. Levites
translation and adaptation: Incredible.club