A lot of the effect of an alternative media campaign comes from capturing in a dramatic way how the consumer might envision the product in use. When that consumer is a child, imagination is all that much more important.
For the Italian makers of Micro Machines, the toy cars, that meant recreating the car experience in the context of a real city, Milan.
The idea the toymaker's agency, DDB Milan, came up with was to stencil the company's logo on the ground with white spray paint around the city, along with mini roadways and parking spaces.
The ads were placed in multiple locations throughout the city, usually near pedestrian crosswalks, public school playgrounds and parking lots.
"We tried to look at the street with the eyes of a little kid," says Sebastian Valenzuela, a copywriter at the agency. "The Micro world invites children and people to play with Micro Machines in any point of the city."
It seems some kids took up the invitation. At some locations in parks they were seen playing on the ads with their cars.
Cost was a side benefit: "The idea came out as a way of repositioning the classical miniature model Micro Machines with a very low budget," he says.
The current run of stencils will remain on the street until they fade in the sun and rain, and then another round will go down.
It's too early to say whether the campaign is boosting sales--the stencils only went down last month--but Valenzuela says it's gotten a lot of buzz.
Says Valenzuela: "People’s and kids’ responses have been fabulous and spontaneous."
