• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer, May 25, 2005

Online auctioneer eBay is the new breeding ground for myriad emerging media - most unwarranted and unnecessary. It seems there are actually people with body parts to sell and eBay is more than willing to oblige. Adding fuel to this trend is GoldenPalace.com. The online casino has an eye for the unconventional, having purchased ad space on women's cleavage and even people's foreheads. So when a press release touting an ad medium dubbed "voicevertising" came through the wire, we immediately thought, "Oh, no. What has GoldenPalace.com bought now?"

It turns out our speculations were wrong; it wasn't a GoldenPalace stunt. Floyd Hayes of Brooklyn, N.Y. offered to shout out a brand name every 15 minutes for a week regardless of where he was, hence the term voicevertising. Three companies bid on his services, but ultimately, Halls Fruit Breezers placed the $750 winning bid.

How does a marketer locate a voicevertiser, let alone purchase his or her services? "A friend of the Halls Fruit Breezers' team saw the advertisement on eBay and shared it with us," says Tom Byrczek, brand manager for the throat drops product. "We thought it was a hysterical, creative idea and a great way to promote Halls Fruit Breezers."

The idea of becoming a modern-day town crier allowed Hayes to sell off a bodily action (complete with authentic British accent), and talk about his job. He works for an ad agency. But, the plot thickens.

"I work as a creative director for Cunning Communications, an agency that specializes in all things unusual. We invented "dogvertising" in the U.K. [a practice where a dog's coat is dyed with an ad, or it's given an article of branded clothing]. I'd seen pieces recently in the media of individuals auctioning their pregnant bellies and even permanent tattoos on their arms on eBay. I wondered, 'What could possibly be left?' [Since] people are generally intrigued by Cunning's work, this activity gives me another chance to talk about it," Hayes says. Once Hayes completed the stunt, what better thing to soothe his ailing throat than the very product he shouted out for seven days?

"Voicevertising" was apparently successful, as Cadbury Adams USA integrated it into its marketing mix to promote Halls Fruit Breezers. Now that's something to shout about.