The proliferation of blogs, video and photo-sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr let marketers get a lot of digital mileage out of low-cost stunts. For example, a McDonald's billboard in Chicago--a
specially engineered sundial to highlight different breakfast items with a golden arches shadow--has garnered worldwide attention after a photo was posted on Chicagobusiness.com. For a few hours last
March, Folgers placed a vinyl cover over a steam-spewing manhole in New York City, making it look as if there were a piping-hot cup of coffee embedded in the street. Photos ricocheted around the
Internet, and eventually ran in the
New York Post. These stunts are "like dressing yourself up in a clown outfit, handing out cameras and then saying comment on me," says Rishad Tobaccowala,
chief executive of Denuo, the media buying unit of Publicis Groupe specializing in new media.
advertisement
advertisement
Read the whole story at BusinessWeek »
