These marketing campaigns trigger emotional responses such as surprise, delight, intrigue, amazement or even scepticism, as well as they encourage interactivity with the audience.
Here we have put together 3 unconventional advertising campaigns we came across you can explore and get inspired by:
1. The “Don’t buy” campaign
The “Don’t buy” campaign is a clever way to attract the right audience to your brand while communicating a strong message of your values. For example, Patagonia, the activist outdoor brand, created a “Don’t Buy This Jacket” advert for The New York Times specifically for Black Friday. As the antidote to Black Friday’s frantic and unethical shopping practices, the brand wanted to address the issue of unnecessary and wasteful consumerism head on. Patagonia’s customers were encouraged to ignore aggressive marketing tactics and buy less, not more, on Black Friday.
TIP: Think about your brand values, your brand story and product offering, and see if you can create a social media campaign, it doesn’t have to be a full blown advert in national newspapers, which is the antidote to your industry’s messaging or practices.
2. The “Yearbook” campaign
An independent denim company, Hiut, releases their “Yearbook” every spring. This year they launched a book called “I try. I fail. I learn“, taking a deep dive into experiments, it encourages customers to rethink their life’s learning journey. From creativity, productivity to business, the book is full of thought-provoking articles and illustrations to help people find fulfilment in life through experiments – trying new things, learning and failing.
Customers can buy the book on its own or they can get it for free when they buy a pair of jeans or shorts, if they are the lucky ones who spot this promotional campaign early. What the brand cleverly does is sharing its values through a book medium, a completely unrelated product to their core product offering, connecting with their audiences and engaging customers in an innovative and unexpected way.
TIP: Think about what content you can potentially put together, which focuses on your brand values. The aim is to connect with your audience through a medium different from your core product offering. From e-books to helpful and inspiring downloadable guides, you can use these content platforms as lead magnets while sharing your expertise and knowledge without coming across too salesy. If the project needs some outside help, don’t be afraid to bring in other industry partners, collaborators, suppliers or brands who can contribute with their expertise. Bringing them onboard will also help you with marketing activities, the more people share it and shout about it, the better it is for everyone involved.
3. The “Artistic” campaign
Another way you can create unconventional adverts is by partnering with another business for a collaboration. For example, for the duration of the Czech Design Week, the Czech glassware brand, KLIMCHI, created an artistic photoshoot campaign in collaboration with the French DS Automobiles. Featuring the DS 7 Crossback Louvre limited edition car as the main hero of the photoshoot, KLIMCHI’s products were showcased in a new, imaginative way. The unusual pairing of the brands, coming from two completely different markets, brought them together through shared values, design aesthetic, ethos and vision.
A lingerie brand, Lucy Jones, did something similar in collaboration with an artist and photographer Sophia Schorr-Kon. They created a sensual campaign playing with light and shadows in a creative way to bring the Lucy Jones products to life with an artistic twist.
TIP: If you want to do something similar, first start with an in-depth market research. Ask yourself: What do my customers what to see? What emotions can we trigger by using the unconventional advertising method? Look how your competitors design their adverts or campaigns and what messages they are sending into the market. Based on your market research then you can start putting a potential collaborators list together and forming creative ideas for the collaborative campaign. Remember: creativity is one of your biggest assets of your business, so utilise it well for these campaigns, too.
In conclusion, unconventional advertising can be created and implemented by any brand of any size. The key to unlocking its full potential is by applying creative ideas that turn heads and trigger emotional responses in your audiences. By thinking outside the box and taking risks, with unconventional campaigns you can achieve greater impact and engagement than by using traditional advertising and marketing strategies.
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