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into the big game Here's some alternative media stunts of recent years Oct 2, 2009
But they're less eager to pay the huge premiums for in-stadium or on-camera advertising. That's where alternative media comes in. With a bit ofimagination, and lots of chutzpah, there are ways tograb exposure withinthe stadiumwithout having to pay those big dollars. Here's a rundown on a few of the more clever alternative media ideas employed at sporting events in recent years. * Putting a new spin on an old standard is always smart. Two years ago in Seattle, KFC handed out fan cards, small signs held up by fans at the stadium, that said "Go Mariners!" on one side. On the other side was a coupon offer from the fast food restaurant that people in the stadium and on television saw every time the cards were held up. "Anyone can hand out coupons, but incorporating the coupon into a product that not only will be used but lends itself to a stage of thousands of eyeballs for hours during the course of the game as well as before and after is truly experiential," says Chris Schuler, president of GoMobile, which executed the campaign. "This gave KFC on-premise exposure at a venue where they were not a sponsor." * Packaging can be everything. Beer maker Topvar sent street teams to hockey games in Slovakia, where they handed out trumpets--plastic megaphones fans used to cheer on their teams--that looked like bottles of Topvar beer. When TV viewers tuned into the game, they saw rows of fans lifting what looked like bottles of Topvar to their mouths. Similarly, last summer Pringles sent street teams to Wimbledon, where they handed out samples of potato chips in their distinctive tubes, which were colored green to look like tennis ball containers. Spectators brought the tubes into the All-England Club, where TV cameras picked them up in the stands. * Showing a little skin never hurts. Two years ago, during a Rugby World Cup match, French TV cameras kept returning to a group of scantily clad young ladies cheering wildly in the stands. Turns out these women, wearing only bras and panties, were actually representatives of Dim, an underwear maker. Officials were so steamed at the ambush marketing tactic that the International Rugby Board promised swift punishment to any advertisers using such ambush tactics in the future. * Sometimes brands have to get downright sneaky. At the 2006 World Cup,Dutch brewer Bavaria outfitted fans in orange lederhosen with giant beer-size pockets, a fuzzy lion’s tail, and the beer logo across the chest, down the legs and on the tail. Then they sent the fans to a game. German authorities ended up forcing the fans to doff their knickers, because the World Cup already had a sponsorship deal with Budweiser and soccer's governing body didn't want to tick off Bud. But Bavaria got a ton of publicity for the stunt. Same goes for Heineken, which tried to sneak fans with hats shaped like megaphones and bearing the Heineken logo into games at the European Championships five years ago in Portugal. The hats were confiscated but the stunt drew lots of online publicity.
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