|
|
| Out of Home | |
|
|
|
| Out of Home | |
wee cats tell the story Call it cat-vertising. Store full of cats opens. Sep 24, 2009
So it follows that if you're marketing a product for cats, cats are going to make your best sales people as folksconnect with them at play. That's the idea behind a new pop-up store in Los Angeles, where cute kitties frolic in a windowfront display to promote an eco-conscious, litter-free cat box. Think of it ascat-vertising. The cats draw in passersby, who then see an in-store demonstration of the product, the CatGenie. "Cats tend to mesmerize people," says Chris Beauchamp, CEO of interactive and storefront display specialist Monster Media, which worked on the pop-up store with CatGenie and marketing agency Suite Partners. "I have no idea why that is, but it's been that way for a long time. This is a cat product, and cats do have a connection with consumers in households across the nation. So why not use them as a vehicle for advertising?" The CatGenie looks like a kid's training potty. It's got a small circular bowl attached to a rectangular base. It works like this: The circular, toilet-shaped part of the CatGenie is filled with what the company calls Washable Granules, a reusable, litter-like substance. The cat does his business in the Washable Granules. When the cat is done, an automatic scoop clears the granules of the waste, which is liquefied for later removal. It's a difficult process to envision, and even harder to describe, and that was the challenge the makers ofCatGenie faced in introducing it to the pubic. Out of the brainstorming came the idea ofa pop-up store full of cats. The store went up on Sept. 5 and will remain until Oct. 7. It's located in a mall on the corner of Hollywood and Highland, near the famed Kodak Theatre. There's a three-story, wrap-around sign on a circular building on the street corner directing passersby inside. The sign says "Curiosity killed the cat," and it shows a picture of a cat eyeing the entrance to a CatGenie. Once inside, mall walkers see the cats playing in a 30-feet-high by 70-feet-wide window display, equipped with CatGenies, of course. A video screen on a nearby wall also demonstrates how the CatGenie works, emphasizing its green benefits (no litter = eco-friendly). Perhaps the most original ingredient in the display is that you can actually take home the cats. All the kitties are available for adoption by Precious Paws, which brings the pets to the store each morning and takes them away at night. So far the exhibit has been drawing big crowds, most of whom huddle outside the store to watch the cats play and, catsbeing cats, sleep. Beauchamp says there's even been a celebrity sighting. Susan Olsen, who played Cindy on "The Brady Bunch," came by to check it out earlier this month. The stunt worked on two levels. It got people's attention, as cute, cuddly animals have a tendency to do -- that's why we see so many monkey commercials on TV. Secondly, it was the perfect way to actually show how the product works. For something as abstract as an eco-friendly litter box, that's a huge plus. "It looks like it cost millions of dollars, but it was a lot more cost effective, and it allowed the client to show the product in action," Beauchamp says. This was merely the latest iteration of a pop-up store, which have become popular ways for advertisers to introduce new products or entice customers without the expense of an actual retail outlet. For example Illy, the high-end Italian coffee, opened a popup several years ago in a fashionable section of Manhattan where consumers were invited to taste the coffee.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
© 2010 Media Life Privacy Statement |
