wet marketing

All too often rain has an inordinately detrimental effect on your marketing events…black clouds blot out the sunlight, it gets perceptibly colder and, before you know it, fat drops of rain are bombarding your public – who are, in turn, fleeing for cover and that is often just about that for an outdoor event. Sometimes you don’t even get the chance to get that far as overnight rain makes it impossible to launch whatever it was you were planning the next day.

It’s strange really that in this day and age we can still have our plans wrecked by a little bit of precipitation (okay, sometimes it’s a lot) but there doesn’t seem much that can be done about it…or is there?

Perhaps the majority of marketeers have been failing to look at things the right way. Instead of changing the weather, why don’t we make it work for us? Or, rather, why don’t we stop seeing water as a hindrance to our work and start thinking about it as a useful tool?

Imagine the impact a summer water party would have in Leicester Square – on a hot day an oasis complete with water slides and a poolside bar would have a massive effect. Now imagine if that were branded…can you see where we’re going with this?

Take it one step further and turn your static water park into a travelling affair, logistically difficult but certainly possible. But, however difficult it is, the massive effect it will have will outweigh the effort put it.

Similarly the awful British weather can be used to highlight the magnificence of your brand or product. Say, for instance, that you’re promoting a travel firm – the sight of people dressed as if it were summer in bikinis and the like trying to sunbathe on deckchairs in the open as the rain pounds down will be amusing…but if there is also someone glumly holding a banner stating “We Should Have Booked A Holiday With XXXX” it moves from simply being an amusing visual image to being an excellent living advert.

You can also use rain as a physical tool to wash away something you have been hiding – performing the reveal as it were (we use the word reveal here as it is used in relation to magic tricks as we feel a similar impact can be made…never let it be said that we don’t choose our words carefully). Meticulously thought out marketing slogans slowly appearing through the murk of a dirty wall (and if the rain is not enough judicious use of a sprinkler can help…) can have an impressive impact – at the very least they make a far more interesting advert than a billboard!

Then there’s the chance water gives you to create something truly breathtaking – and installation art and marketing, as we all know, can sell your brand like nothing else. Imagine then fountains, with powerful beams of light shining through them onto a wall…at night. The amazing patterns of reflection and refraction will create a visually stunning effect – so when your brand name every now and again appears you know people will be watching. A subtle campaign but one rooted in solid graphic ideas and sure to cause a stir.

As with much marketing activity – you’re only limited by your imagination and how you can bend the everyday to create the extraordinary…but if you can’t then we will!

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