Are you sick of force feeding advertising? Maybe your CUs' pool of possible members is tired of it too.
I've been looking into some of the new advertising methods that step outside the box and engage passersby. The focus of these new, high-tech methods is to advertise without the target market even knowing they are looking at an advertisement or, if they do know, to be so intrigued they don't look away.
Young & Free Alberta has been using highly mobile wall projections as part of it
s campaign, the benefits being that the projectors are something new and highly visible, let you readily change the ad image, and let you move the ads to a new place every night.
This means the projector can be set up along commuter routes during the week and then moved to an area of entertainment during the weekend.
"You can do radio and TV [advertising], but Gen Ys are into different stuff," says Tim McAlpine, president/chief strategist at Currency Marketing, the marketing firm behind the Young and Free Alberta campaign.
The new ideas McAlpine comes up with may be targeted at Gen Y, but it isn't just members of Gen Y appreciating new forms of advertising. Grabbing attention in new and unique ways will get people of all ages to buy into the advertisements.
Wall projections are becoming more and more popular. I saw the local Barack Obama office was using them in Madison, Wis., just prior to voting day.
Here is a company offering such flat-wall ads your CU may be interested in.
What is the next step after flat wall projections? This article points skyward for the future of advertising. Projecting on the clouds? I guess the sky is the limit ... literally.
If the sky is the limit, the ground must also hold some answers. Dpar, Inc. thinks so. The company is looking to the floor for these answers. Dpar, Inc.'s highly interactive ads try to get people involved in games projected on the floor.
Want to take a look at the cutting edge of projector advertising? Look at this company, Obscura Digital. Its focus is to push the limits on multiple projector technology using several projectors to allow 3-D projections on uneven surfaces without looking funny.
"We're not just doing cool things for cool things' sake; we're using our technology to make extensions of a brand," says Patrick Connolly, CEO of Obscura Digital. "We're trying to pull these companies out of the Stone Age."
Obscura must be doing something right, because it has advertising contracts with some of the biggest companies in the United States. Check out what Obscura did for AOL. Click "watch video."
Also watch this one.
What does all this mean? It means your CU may need to take a fresh look at its advertising strategies to open new avenues to attract members. Don't stand still while your competition captures attention in cutting-edge ways.
Jon Cook is a CUES editorial intern.
