Last but not least: outrageously effective
To convince marketing executives of the effectiveness of JCDecaux’s outdoor advertising, a Belgian agency took a rather bold—but successful—approach.
JCDecaux is one of the world's largest outdoor advertising companies. One of its core business models is this: The French company builds and maintains bus shelters, self-cleaning restroom facilities, and glass recycling bins for cities or transit agencies, and in return receives revenue from the advertising space displayed on them.
In Belgium, JCDecaux holds annual presentations highlighting how important and effective outdoor advertising still is today—and will continue to be in the future. The problem: Belgium’s top marketing executives are, unfortunately, always busy and never have time to attend the meetings.
BBDO Belgium took a rather bold, yet extremely creative approach to shake up the marketing executives. Without asking for permission, the agency printed a single poster for each marketing leader—to be displayed on a single billboard—featuring their name, title, and a JCDecaux email address. Unsurprisingly, the people featured soon became aware of the campaign due to the many reactions they received from people asking about the reason for the posters, and they—some of them annoyed—inquired about what the posters were all about.
The executives were briefed on the background: Just look at how effective even a single poster can be—imagine what a large-scale poster campaign could achieve. Speaking of effective: that’s exactly what the campaign was. Every single one of the marketers shown signed up for a JCDecaux presentation after receiving the informational email. (hae)
