Creative promotional product marketing campaigns

If you are trying to market a business or brand, you have undoubtedly heard that promotional products are a marketing tool you cannot skip out on. But as the marketing industry becomes savvier to its consumers, it is more important to have a quality promotional product that has an extremely creative marketing campaign behind it to stand out from the crowd. Here are six brands that did it right:

Novocortex (a Dutch marketing company) made up promotional cling “stickers” for their car insurance client which looked like massive scratches to stick on cars in parking lots, fooling car owners into thinking they had been side-swiped. A closer look shows a fine print ad for the insurance company and an accompanying relief that their car was okay. These stickers were also given away for people to play pranks on their friends.

Iams (Australia) used promotional Frisbees shaped like barbell weights to show their dog food helps your dog become stronger. Who doesn’t want a clever Frisbee to play fetch with Fido?

Sometimes a squeamish response proves an effective promotional product campaign. D.D. Drin Insect Elimination decided to take a spin on the door-to-door flier technique, but instead of slipping a piece of paper under the door, they slipped a plastic roach with a message on the underbelly reading, “See how easy it is to get in your house?”

We all know the damaging effects of the sun on our skin, but we often choose to push it out of our minds when it’s a beautiful day at the beach. Friends of Cancer Patients took advantage of such a day and passed out black, coffin-shaped towels with a reminder of the link of sun exposure to skin cancer. They also passed out bottles of personal sunscreen and fliers with more information as the ominous warning slowly spread itself across the beach.

Alzheimer’s New Zealand distributed a useful promotional product to create a creative message. They took a hollowed eraser and put a USB memory stick inside to pass out at conferences and create awareness. It’s a simple technique, but useful enough that it won’t be immediately thrown away.

Blue Soda Promo, a promotional products marketing company, sent a mailer to some of the top marketing directors in the United States filled with 12 rubber ducks each with the Blue Soda Promo logo along with a note that read, “Read to get your ducks in a row?” This was a great way to grab the attention of new clients and stand out from everyone else.


Outdoor advertising has been an effective medium for marketers for quite some time. However, due to technological advancements and social changes the advertising industry is one that is always shifting and evolving. Like all other mediums, outdoor advertising has had to change and evolve along with the industry as a whole. As marketers battle for the attention of an increasingly distracted audience we are seeing them turn to some rather unconventional forms of outdoor advertising.

Although traditional billboard advertising remains an effective tool for outdoor advertising, many marketers have been turning to more unusual methods to gain attention and exposure.

Integrate with the Surrounding Environment

One unconventional tactic advertisers have been using in regards to outdoor advertising is an idea of integrating the surrounding environment with their message or ad. This is done seamlessly and cleverly in the above picture. In this picture, Mr. Clean took advantage of the existing crosswalk lines to create a bold alternative advertisement that is both simple and eye-catching. The ad reinforces their message of cleanliness wonderfully and captures the audience’s attention quickly.

The opportunities for these types of ads are virtually endless and are only limited by the creativity of those creating them. Here is another great example of this idea.

The reason these ads are so attention-grabbing is because they reach the audience in places they are not used to seeing ads. The ads stand out in these places because they are unusual and out of the ordinary. Another reason many of these ads are effective is because they are interactive with not only the surrounding environment, but the people who view them as well. For instance, the above Kit Kat ad is a bench that people can actually sit on. Below is one of the more clever examples of this I’ve ever seen, where people are actually used as part of the advertisement.

Unique Twists on Traditional Billboards

As mentioned before, the classic billboard is still a useful from of outdoor advertising. By applying some unique twists to this outdoor advertising mainstay, marketers are creating some rather interesting and original new types of billboards. The standard billboard has been, and continues to be an effective advertising medium because it allows for large, bold, and simple messaging. This can be taken even further by implementing some creative tweaks. Here is an example of this, where the company has taken a very simple billboard and added a unique creative element.

The idea of integrating the ad into the surrounding environment can be applied here with billboards as well. This can be seen from this wonderful example where McDonald’s implemented the light of the sun into their billboard.

Once again, the options here are nearly limitless and advertisers are only restrained by their own imaginations.

Whether it be unique ad placements that integrate seamlessly with their surrounding environments or clever twists on the traditional billboard, it is clear that more and more marketers are pursuing unconventional means of outdoor advertising. The reason for this trend in unconventional outdoor advertising is in response to the ever-increasing amount of competition for the audience’s attention. As this competition continues to grow and technological advancements continue to change the advertising landscape, marketers must adapt and evolve to express their messages effectively.

By: Creative Guerrilla Marketing