Imagine taking a stroll in the park and then seeing astronauts. Now I don’t know about you, but it’d certainly catch my attention.
As Drew McLellan talks about in his blog, this is exactly what Axe did (in addition to a TV ad) to promote its new product, Apollo. Axe brought marketing to life. McLellan gives three pieces of advice for anyone to bring their marketing campaign to life. And its interesting because in essence its just AIDA.
Axe Astronauts in Madison Square Park (NY)
He recommends that one has to first “go where your customers go – and stand out”, standing out is most important here, because this is essentially the awareness in AIDA, this is what makes people stop and stare; as you and I would if we saw an astronaut anywhere.
Then “extend the campaign into your prospect’s lives” is the interest and desire aspect. Essentially this is going and to actually “come alive” so take that spacesuit and walk around in Times Square. This then really sparks interest in what Apollo is.
Lastly, “knowing your audience”, this is actually the action aspect. Because Axe’s target audience is young males they gave out a chance to win a trip to space through their astronauts. Something they would all be interested in. Consumers could sign up online to enter the contest. So this was the action that Axe wanted consumers to have, go to their website and know more about their product and ultimately buy it.
What was interesting to me in this blog was that despite the methods of marketing, the principles such as AIDA are still clearly seen shared. Now ultimately I don’t know how effective this type of marketing would be, but I think what I would deem most important to market “off the page”, would be to capture awareness and intrigue, and this usually means doing something extremely eye-catching or out of place.