All goods or services get a chance to be bought only when potential buyers have an idea about them. Advertising is used to inform people. Her task is sometimes much broader than it seems at first glance. It is versatile and multifunctional. There are also many ways to advertise. In a world where the number of advertisements and posters is simply impossible to count, it is necessary to come up with more and more interesting solutions to get certain products or services to be seen.
What is advertising?
Advertising is an informational impact on a potential buyer in order to interest him in a particular service or product. It can be presented in various forms:
- radio commercial;
- television;
- newspaper and magazine ads;
- booklets;
- mailing list;
- product samples;
- tastings, etc.
Advertising can be used to achieve various tactical and strategic goals:
- increasing brand awareness;
- presentation of a new product or a novelty in the line of already produced products;
- new service;
- increasing loy alty;
- alert about discounts and sales, etc.
From a functional point of view, advertising is one of the most actively used marketing tools. It can be combined with others or used as the only way to increase awareness of a product or service.
Advertising is different
To understand the phenomenon of custom advertising, it is important to first understand what is called standard advertising. The classic advertisement is distributed through the usual channels: radio, newspapers and magazines, television. Such advertising is called ATL (literally above-the-line or "above the line"). Non-standard advertising is already BTL (below-the-line or "below the line"). It can be a whole complex of different techniques and communications that aims to achieve the same goals as ATL advertising, but through less traditional channels. It is generally accepted that such marketing communications achieve their goals more effectively.
Due to the increase in the number of people who prefer the Internet to newspapers and television, SMM, that is, social media marketing or marketing in social networks, is becoming more and more popular. It can be either ATL or BTL oriented. For example, placing promotional articles in an online publication will still be traditional communications, but viral advertising in the form of unusualcommercials or even videos with product placement elements (product placement) will already be an example of BTL technologies.
Methods of non-standard advertising
What are BTL technologies and how can they be used? Most often, non-standard advertising refers to advertising placed in unusual places, distributed through unexpected channels, or distinguished by its unusual form. A little less often, this term is used to promote standard products.
As a rule, such advertising is developed individually for each need. When creating, all the nuances are taken into account: from size to placement. Although the price of such advertising may be higher than the traditional one (just because of the complete exclusivity), but taking into account the possibility of reaching a larger audience, the price for a single advertising contact can be several times lower.
The advantage of this approach is the ability to distinguish an advertisement from a stream of others, and in some cases save money due to screening out unwanted audiences or, conversely, from attracting additional attention to the ad of those who were not included in the target group, but for some reason, has similar characteristics to her.
Example of non-standard advertising
Where you can advertise so that it is seen by a very large number of people. In a big city, this can be done in the subway. The number of people visiting this place every day is huge. Very often they have to stand and wait for the train, so they often look around to kill time. Many ofthey will pay attention to the colorful and unusual advertising on the wall, ceiling or floor at the station.
You can also use travel documents, the interior of the cars and even the cars themselves for advertising. In addition, inside you can install a scoreboard with a running line or plasma, which will broadcast videos, advertise something through a loudspeaker, and so on.
The complexity of placing such advertising (apart from the cost of installing the necessary equipment directly) lies in the problems with determining the target audience. As you know, not all products can be advertised in the same way. More expensive goods and services, so-called luxury products, are not suitable for placement in this way. Therefore, before choosing such a method of communication, you need to conduct advertising research.
Where can I place such ads
There are many places to place BTL ads. It can be advertising in the subway, on a car, air advertising, promotions in certain places, advertising on envelopes, checks, receipts, etc. Even pavement ads fall into this category.
The choice of place and method of placing non-standard solutions in advertising directly depends on the goals set by the organizers of communication. So, it depends on the target audience, its socio-economic, cultural and intellectual characteristics.
For example, you can advertise on a park bench or playground if youadvertising is aimed at children and their parents.
No matter how strange it may sound, partisan advertising will also be a non-standard marketing solution. Taxi service announcements painted on the pavement in the waiting area for public transport. This, of course, is not the most ethical, but one hundred percent effective move.
The effectiveness of such advertising
The results of surveys and tests speak in favor of non-standard methods of promotion. Some data suggests that this delivery can be up to 85% more effective than a classic magazine or TV ad. Even ads shown during prime time (the most popular time to watch TV) may be less successful than non-standard ads such as subway ads.
Such advertising often provides an opportunity to see a product or service from a new angle, show its unusual side, attract a new target audience and even better understand the advertised product.
