Sally Durcan

We’ve been watching the hype surrounding the new Batman film with a great deal of interest and, as you can imagine, all the while we’ve been plotting our own launch campaign. With something as large and widely anticipated as Batman it’s a safe bet to suggest that promotional activity should start a long way in advance in order to keep the anticipatory fires burning ever brighter (to speak rather prosaically). There’s absolutely nothing to be gained from sitting back and letting the excitement that surrounds a film like Batman carry the entire promotional effort – even if it is tempting to let the huge world fanbase already in existence do the work. So, where would we start? How would we go about it all? And, most importantly, what would mark out our campaign from others?

Britvic and PepsiCo’s launching of a £5 million Gatorade advertising campaign recently didn’t pass us by – in case you were wondering. No, we were playing our usual game of “what if?” So, lets get to it…here’s what we’d have planned if PepsiCo had chosen us to handle the Gatorade campaign. Sports drinks formed £154 million of the UK drinks market in 2007 (up 16% on the previous year) and we would seek to capitalise on this burgeoning popularity with involvement in high-profile sporting activities as a cornerstone of our campaign.

Here are our seven top tips for reaching and retaining your audience using non-traditional alternative marketing tactics.

There is a time and a place in any industry where going it alone is not the best option (and sometimes it’s downright foolish), which is why we thought we’d broach the subject of partnerships.  To further clarify this – potentially complicated – subject; we refer specifically to agency partnerships whilst working on individual accounts. The first question that has to be addressed in relation to any kind of partnership idea is – why bother having one? We believe specialist skills can add significant value to brands...find out more! 

Traditional advertising has a major drawback. Whilst any amount of cajoling and persuasion can be delivered through the mediums of television, radio and print it always lacks several hugely important factors. Firstly, and most importantly, potential customers cannot test the products advertised. Initially this may not seem to be much of a problem, but when you start to consider the average consumer’s reason for purchase it starts to become a great deal more problematic. How can the power of targeted non-traditional activity add credibility to your brand and increase your customer base?

It may not be something we like to admit, but we live in a world where a demand for immediate satisfaction is the norm. No longer can companies spend generations building a reputation based on quality, customer service and longevity. Nope, in the current climate (and it’s one that’s unlikely to change if we’re honest) a company marketing anything – even itself – has to hit the ground running…so, how do you make your potential consumers become loyal to your brand? How do you make them love you? Find out

There is a misconception about product marketing (and, indeed, most forms of marketing) that in order to be successful – or effective – it must have vast reach. Enormous numbers of people must see/hear/be in some way aware of the campaign otherwise it is seen as a failure…but, frankly, this is completely wrong. Why does the "Sell to Everyone" tag line rarely work?