Flash Mobs: The Next Evolution in Advertising

“flash mob (FLASH mawb) n. A large group of people who gather in a predetermined location, perform some brief action, and then quickly disperse.”

Imagine the scene; you’re walking down the street, it is a quite and serine sunny afternoon, then all of a sudden music is blasted from some unknown source and 200 seemingly strangers break out into a perfectly choreographed song and dance. When the song ends, the crowd disperses just as quickly as they appeared. First thought that comes to mind – they (or you) must be crazy. . .something very weird is going on right? Wrong. In fact, you’ve just become witness to a flash mob.

Flash mobs are taking the world by storm. They’re leaving people everywhere inspired, stunned and amused by the wonderful randomness of them. You may recall me mentioning previously on my blog that marketers have to find new ways to attract consumers’ attention, well what better way than this?

Companies like Coca-Cola, T-Mobile, Sky and Samsung have all jumped on the bandwagon, and why not? Flash mobs are the perfect marketing tool for those looking to advertise big on a small budget. They engage consumers and draw a lot of attention to a brand. Check out a few examples from companies (and their fans) who have done it right below.

T Mobile

Coca-Cola

TNT

Nivea

Sky

Stickers In Advertising

Back in the 90's, as a kid, it seemed stickers were one of mankind’s greatest inventions. Kids today may have iPads, iPhones, iPods, well iEverything, but I remember a time not so long ago when the entire class was getting way too overly stoked over anything with an adhesive backing. Post-its, name labels, and especially, stickers! 

Stickers were a hot commodity and big business back when I was a kid. Like some twisted form of black market trade, they were exchanged during playground recess away from the watchful eyes of the teachers. Some were worth more in value if they had some extra function like a texture, a holographic, googly eyes or the highly coveted scratch and sniff. With such fond nostalgic memories it's hard to let the excitement about such simple ephemera go so luckily advertisers have come up with an excuse to use them in the industry!

Stickers do much more than appeal to our inner child however, they are a creative way to catch attention, they are extremely cost-effective and they are easily customized. Below are (what I feel) some of the most creative and effective uses of stickers in ad campaigns.

Lays

Apple

Batman

Road Safety Campaign

Seoul Subway Ad

Ikea

Maxwell House

Mini Launches Location Based iPhone Game

Mini Getaway Stockholm 2010

Mini is one of those companies that has always been at the forefront of mobile marketing but in this campaign they took it one step further. To launch the new Mini Countryman they created one of the worlds biggest reality games on the iPhone with some staggering results. As well as racking up numerous awards, the campaign also created an astonishing interaction with the Mini brand. Check out the campaign in the video below.