Buzzzzz. Is that
a fly trailing an ad? Yes.
Publisher at a book fair lets loose a fleet of flies
By Toni Fitzgerald
Apr 22, 2010
You're browsing at a book fair, checking out the description of a particularly scintillating hardback, when you hear the familiar buzz of a fly.
The fly lands on your book, and that's when you notice this is no ordinary fly.
Behind him he tows a wee little banner no bigger than your thumb. The banner, red with a white logo on it, says simply, "The publisher with the fly" and gives the number of a nearby exhibition stand.
Call it flyvertising. The unique medium made its debut at the Frankfurter Buchrnesse, the largest book fair in the world, held in Frankfurt, Germany, last year, and it generated quite a bit of buzz, if you'll excuse the expression.
"The goal was to promote the exhibition stand of the publisher Eichborn, positioned as 'The publisher with the fly,'" explains Daniel Adolph, CEO of Jung von Matt/Neckar, Eichborn's German agency, fly being something like cachet in slang.
"As Eichborn is a rather small publisher we tried to find an extraordinary way to promote it. Therefore we developed a new media: flyvertising."
Jung von Matt approached a local biology professor, who specially bred 200 flies for the stunt. The flies were medically etherized, and then a tiny pipe was applied to their backs with a dab of natural wax.
A short thread attached to the banner, which was made out of tissue, was then stuck into the pipe, turning the flies into tiny billboards.
The agency brought all 200 flies to the book fair last October and let them loose. They buzzed about the exhibition area, attracting lots of attention wherever they went, as a video posted on YouTube attests.
The whole stunt didn't hurt a fly.
"After a short time the banner dropped off the fly by itself without causing any harm to the flies," notes Adolph.
The stunt worked because it was so creative and unique. You certainly don't expect to see flies buzzing about with tiny messages on their backs, and it's the sort of unexpected sight spectators tell their friends and family about later.
It generated a huge amount of free publicity for Eichborn. Adolph says that more than 300 blogs around the world ran items on the stunt, and the video clip has been shown on television in Japan, Canada and the UK.
"Even more important, Eichborn had more visitors than ever before on the exhibition stand," Adolph says.
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