As people of all ages gear up to spend less time consuming traditional media and more time \’on the streets\’ – the time for planning how to engage them is now.
So how does a fresh medium to get your brand in front of this audience and convert advertising into sales as a talking point sound?
Sally Durcan – an industry expert who has worked in marketing and communication departments at MTV Networks International, Harvey Goldsmith and Universal Pictures – says her unique branded ‘walking adverts’, or Hot Cows, are the answer you are looking for.
Her new company Hot Cow (www.hotcow.co.uk) offers flamboyant, outlandish or even visually shocking fashion designs on models to incorporate your brand and/or advertising messages to the brief of your requirements.
Hot Cows are sent out among people in the street, at a live event or festival or anywhere else where a client would seek to raise their brand awareness and are guaranteed to get people talking about the product they are promoting.
They can reach places that are often inaccessible by other mediums, from a ‘standing room only’ crowd in a park or city centre to a competitor’s doorstep, with the flexibility to move around and keep moving.
“Hot Cow creates awareness and recognition that provokes consumer interest,” Durcan says. “That interest is then converted into sales. For retailers this can mean turning passing traffic into footfall and footfall into sales,” she explains.
While people won’t read a leaflet thrust at them in a tube station in the morning, they will remember 30 baked beans tins jumping around in Trafalgar Square.
“And if they’re branded with the words ‘Heinz: Available at your local Tesco’s supermarket’, eating the beans and handing them out, people are even more than likely to remember it,” Durcan adds.
“You suddenly add a whole new level of awareness that becomes extremely memorable to potential consumers.”
Durcan says the beauty of her approach is that the promotional platform she is offering to clients is “extremely powerful and memorable” as it “can’t be fast-forwarded, rewound, turned off, ignored or flicked through.”
While there is still room for traditional advertising on the marketing agenda, which still reaches up to around 50% of its target audience, marketers just can’t be sure which 50% of people that is, Durcan explains.
“Where Hot Cow does better is that it reaches 100% of its intended audience and in a more targeted way.”
A launch party thrown by Hot Cow recently attracted a number of large companies including T-Mobile, Lastminute.com, Fox International, BSKYB, Piaggio, Homechoice, Vodafone, Yahoo and Virgin holidays.
Representatives of Fast Moving Consumer Goods brands, including Bacardi, also expressed an interest in the unconventional concept … it also attracted agencies that represent major brands across the country.
And the marketing industry itself is keen on being involved.
Field Marketing magazine publisher Frank Wainwright has asked Hot Cow to develop some concepts for its forthcoming awards night, which will be hosting the country’s leading field marketing personnel.
Durcan is looking primarily for brands who want to target the summer sports and music crowds and retailers who want to capitalise on passing footfall.
“Most of us have a relatively short attention span and we wanted to create a medium that would entertain people, get them excited, inspired and most importantly talking about what they have seen,” Durcan says.
“If we can do that, we can then create word of mouth epidemics for our clients and help them to increase their sales.”
Some suggested uses for a Hot Cow this summer:
1/. Outside of a supermarket: 75% of consumer brand decisions are made at the place of purchase, according to Point of Purchase Advertising International;
2/. In a shopping centre: The majority of UK shoppers prefer shopping centres to the high street and believe you can have a good day out at them, research shows;
3/. For the release of a new movie – reaching cinema audiences on-the-street;
4/. Reach the student market through Hot Cow by going to night clubs, music venues and universities.
Hot Cow is a completely new slant on an existing method of outdoor advertising commonly known as ‘ambient media’, which, in itself, is growing in popularity by 18.8% annually.
For more information on how Hot Cow works, see the presentation online at:
http://hotcow.co.uk/How%20it%20works.html
Or contact Sally Durcan directly on:
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7503 0442
Email: [email protected]
Press Release by Presswire Limited
www.presswire.com
