Titus Cycles of Tempe, Ariz., took the challenge to its agency, TDA Advertising & Design in Boulder, Colo.

Here's what they came up with: a series of contests in which the winners receive Titus bikes by doing something wacky.

In one, the winning couple gets married wearing Titus jerseys, in another a Titus bike goes to the person willing to get a Titus tattoo, and in the third the winner gets his or her name changed to Rockstar 29’er, a Titus bike.

Call it "oddvertising."

Call it not very expensive, essentially the manufacturing cost of the bikes and the expense of running the contest and a small budget to advertise the contests in bike magazines.

"It is a good fit for the advertiser because they have a limited budget so it was a mandatory that we do something that people would talk about and want to know more about, if not participate," says Jonathan Schoenberg, creative director at TDA.

Here's how it works: The contest is divided into three parts. The first, called Tat, began earlier this month.

Bikers were invited to submit a tattoo design as well as the size and place on their body where they are interested in having it inked. Titus fans will vote online for the winner, who will be filmed getting the tattoo.

The second contest is called Altar and begins in April. A couple promising to wear his and hers racing jerseys will get a video of their ceremony as well as his and hers bikes.

The final contest, called I.D. and starting in July, invites Titus users to officially change their name to Rockstar 29’er. The first to submit evidence of the new name will receive a 2010 Titus Rockstar 29’er, a racing bike being launched this spring.

The odds of rational people doing those things would seem to be fairly low, but then hard-core cyclists aren't always rational people.

A quick glance at Titus's Facebook page confirms that, indeed, there are at least a dozen people contemplating entering the first contest and offering to get body parts ranging from their necks to their, ahem, nether regions inked.

"So far response to the first ad has been great," Schoenberg says. "We talked to people about whether they would get the tattoo before we did the ad, and it became clear people were more than willing to do it."

Titus is hardly the first company to attempt so-called human billboard advertising. Golden Palace has done variations on the tattoo idea, and a man sold the space on his forehead to an advertiser via eBay earlier this decade.

What makes this campaign different, and why it works as an effective alternative media stunt, is that the winners of the Titus contest won't just be walking billboards.

They will be more like televangelists. They are actually devoted to the bikes and likely to sing their praises long after the ink has dried, giving Titus not just brand exposure but positive publicity.

The idea is receiving a lot of attention.

TDA hyped the contests via spreads in bike-centric print magazines. Titus is also posting frequent reminders about the Tat contest on its Facebook page, where it has 1,865 fans.

And already dozens of blogs, including ones focused on bikes, advertising and odd news, have printed the details of the contests.