In a world increasingly focused on digital promotion, many brands underestimate the power of physical marketing techniques. Instead of getting tunnel vision with your digital presence, also look for ways to create audience interaction through their physical environment. Here are some ideas and examples to get you started.

1. Re-purpose your audience’s environment to get their attention. 

The Good: In 2010, Bounty Paper Towels launched a campaign in New York with installations of “messes” spread about the city, accompanied by the message : “Bounty: Makes Small Work of BIG Spills.”

Source: Adforum

The Funny: In observance of World Egg Day on October 11 (yes, apparently that is a thing), Liberty Mutual brought giant cartons of real emu eggs to grocery stores. To be honest, their last few shots at incorporating this whole LiMu Emu element have felt rather contrived, and in comparison this was quite amusing. (On that note more generally, the LiMu Emu seems like a desperate attempt to copy Geico’s cute animal mascot strategy – twenty years too late.)

The Ugly: In an advertising stunt for the release of the movie Carrie, marketers set up a complex operation in a coffee shop to gain attention. With trained actors, a stuntman, and live special effects, unsuspecting customers were duped into believing they were witnessing paranormal activity. While the stunt is impressive, it seems to border on psychological abuse.

2. Give your audience a challenge

Here’s a more recent example: in a nod to an iconic Breaking Bad clip, Dominoes in Brazil just launched an interactive “Pizza on the Roof” campaign to kickoff the release of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. In various spots around the country, Dominoes is putting pizzas on the roofs of their shops, and fans who are the first to find the boxes can win a year of free pizza by posting photos of the boxes to Instagram with the hashtag #saymyname and tagging @dominospizzabrasil.

Source: Giphy

3. Partner with other businesses to facilitate opportunities for engagement

For 24 hours on “Maisel Day,” Amazon Prime partnered with businesses in Los Angeles to give residents the deals of a lifetime – making all goods and services at participating businesses the same price they would have been in 1959 caused quite a stir, and astonishingly low gas prices at one participating location caused a traffic jam and got the police involved.

Source: the Drum

Analog isn’t dead; it’s simply evolving. Creative usage of physical mediums for marketing can be an effective component of any overall strategy. We hope you’ve enjoyed these examples of interactive marketing campaigns, and find them helpful as you brainstorm for your own promotional campaigns.