Innovative methods of marketing - Wild Posting Campaigns, Alternative marketing, Undercover marketing, Astroturfing

Wild Posting Campaigns: Posters are put up at construction site barricades, building facades, in alleyways. In short any place that is available at construction sites. Although cost is relatively low when compared to other out of home advertising forms, wild posting is largely ineffective because the ad size is small and placement is only available on temporary construction site. Sites are not location specific and message is very hard to view unless the consumer is only feet away from poster. 

  

Alternative marketing: The Street Marketing is one of the oldest ways to advertise. Street marketing is handing out flyers when the prospect walking in the street.

It is a always better to be closer of the customer to launch a new product/service. To make it successful, the companies have to choose the best places, and have support material like stickers, free goodies etc. The low price of this type of advertising is an advantage. 

Undercover marketing also called stealth marketing:  An undercover campaign aims to generate buzz, is economical, and once sufficient buzz has been generated, is almost free, as consumers "market" the product to others, through a network of referrals which grows and grows.

An ideal consumer will not only begin using that product themselves, but will also tell their friends about it. Financial risk here is relatively small because such marketing approach requires fewer expenses and is usually more cost-effective as well. Undercover marketing is used when traditional marketing techniques have been exhausted.

It is the consumer's sense that this recommendation was spontaneous and unsolicited, and the resulting feeling that "one good turn deserves another", that drives the buzz. So, the "bought and paid for" aspect of the transaction must remain hidden.

Overall, the person doing the undercover marketing must look and sound like a peer of their target audience without any ulterior motive for endorsing the product—employees of the company cannot do undercover marketing, nor can celebrities (except possibly to other celebrities).

Sony Ericsson used stealth marketing when they hired 60 actors in 10 major cities, and had them walk up to total strangers and ask them: “Would you mind taking my picture?" The actor then handed the stranger a brand new picture cell phone while talking about how cool the new device was.

Astroturfing — disguising company messaging as an authentic grassroots mass movement. Astroturfing is a form of advocacy for a corporate agenda designed to give the appearance of a "grassroots" movement.. The term is a taken from AstroTurf a brand of synthetic carpeting designed to look like natural grass.

Astroturfers attempt to orchestrate the actions of apparently diverse and geographically distributed individuals. Astroturfing may be undertaken by an individual promoting a personal agenda, or highly organized professional groups with money from large corporations, unions, non-profits, or activist organizations.