WHY DISRUPTIVE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS ARE TRENDING

Recent trends suggest that disruptive advertising campaigns are now becoming the new normal in the advertising industry globally. The case is not different in Nigeria, where advertisers are combining both technological innovations and experiential marketing alongside conventional/digital media platforms to not only advertise their products but to engage their audiences on personal levels.

Perhaps, advertisers have realised that reliance on conventional media and regular media messaging techniques can only go so far in driving brand expectations, which includes market penetration and gaining market share. They do not want to wait for audiences to return from a 9-5 job, then tune in to their favourite TV or Radio  program, before catching the advert messages. Chances are that these audience might be tired and miss the show entirely or even skip the advert, as technology has made it easy to do so.

Now advertisers are going the way of innovative, penetrative and experience oriented marketing. These in many cases needs a fusion of conventional media and technology to make it quite disruptive and attention grabbing.

In an audacious move, Johnnie Walker, a leading Whisky brand, during its #ISeeYouLagos campaign, in commemoration of Lagos at 50, did the unusual with a disruptive activation at the Admiralty Lekki tollgate.

The Popularity of Disruptive Advertising Campaigns

They flipped the script on Out of Home (OOH) adverting. Where a billboard advertising Johnnie Walker’s Lagos at 50 message is necessary and still effective, it is also likely to be ignored or missed by the millions of people who ply the toll gate, but paying for toll fees for drivers which allowed free flow of traffic has done much more for Johnnie Walker’s brand visibility. By way of innovation what Johnnie Walker has done was unusual and created a more memorable marketing experience for existing and new audience.

The campaign went viral; a priceless commodity in marketing communications. Many that experienced it could not stop talking about the “nice gesture” from Johnnie walker.

Posterscope, the OOH agency, that conceived, planned and executed it, described it as “an integrated out-of-home media campaign that showcased how a combination of digital out-of-home with experiential, mobile and social media can deliver earned reach many times the worth of paid media.”

Naturally, other brands will emulate this trend and this is one way to gauge its effectiveness. Pepsi has done the same with its #NoShakinCarryGo hour! From the early morning of August 11, to 6pm, it was a Zero toll at the Lekki Tollgate.

Digitally, advertisers are exploring highly targeted and effective Geo fencing technology. This is arguably the most disruptive tool for advertisers at the moment. This location-based mobile phone advertising technology targets users based on specific geographic areas and demography.

Using a filter, it tags all the smart phones in the area to acquire the required demography. Advertisers can now customize messages to specific audiences with high impact.

Bottomline

In Nigeria, Strata Media Limited is pioneering a Geo fenced ad campaign for Mall for Africa. This campaign is running at Mbolaji Anthony and Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos. It is seeing people around that area at scheduled times receive ad notifications. So, that they can persuade them to do their shopping at Mall for Africa. What this means is that anyone within these areas have to view these messages. As intrusive as this method is, it is gaining popularity fast due to its accuracy in targeting the right audience. As per the expectations, other brands will latch on to this soon.

For advertisers, these innovations are just ways to counter the clutter of messages. That they are competing for the attention of audiences from different sources every day.

While Brands will continue to utilize traditional media. However, the race is on for strategies that are innovative and capable of making audiences stop and query. They make audiences ask questions about what they are seeing and to go a step further by participating.