Hunt where the game is

You know the Chiquita banana sticker. Well, I noticed this morning that mine was gone. In its place...advertising. There was a Weight Watchers sticker endorsing the banana as a healthy choice.

The Weight Watchers sticker is a great example of a trend that is really taken hold of the marketing realm - talking to the audience in their natural habitat. Much of this shift can be attributed to the information overload society we live in today. With TiVo, DVRs, pop up ad blockers and all the rest - we've become brilliant at constructing barriers.

People are becoming more adept at tuning out messages that they didn't ask for. So, marketers are getting smarter about putting themselves and their products out there in unconventional ways. Like product placement in a video game. Or post-it notes on the front page of a newspaper. How about creating a persona to send Instant Messages? Or putting a sticker on a banana.

Many of the social networking tools (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc.) offer opportunities for you to hunt where the game is. Go where your audience is already hanging out and become a part of the action. How can you weave yourself into the action and become relevant?

These efforts don't replace the golden oldies. They enhance them by reaching out and surprising your audience. It's about showing up where they live. It's an element of surprise and juxtaposing your product/service within their world. Look at your marketing plan. Does any tactic take you out into the wild? If not - you'd better get out there. Your competitors sure are.

Please note: I did possess enough restraint from commenting that the banana sticker was a form of "guerilla" marketing. (Well, perhaps I did not after all!)

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