The recent release of the Steven King movie "It" has sparked interest across the board both from fans of the horror genre and from the legion of Mr. King's fans who have long admired his gritty take on the hidden menaces which live amongst us in the suburbs. However the movie and the prerelease marketing activity has caused many of us in the world of promotion and advertising to take notice of the cost effective yet ultimately successful promotional campaign used to build awareness before the launch of the movie in Australia.
Without a large promotional budget or mass media advertising to launch the new movie, by using red promotional balloons in numerous locations around the major population centres of Australia the distributors of "It" were able top generate interest and traffic to the movie premier. Surely this must be one of the most successful public uses of promotional merchandise in living memory. By simply tying a red helium filled balloon to storm water drains and gutters around the country people instantly became aware of the launch of the movies. But even better, the ballon was able to generate some of the sense of fear and mystery which is inherent in anything offered by Mr. King.
The use of these red balloons as a means of promoting the release of a feature film offers a clue to the rest of the marketing fraternity as to the best way to employ promotional items in putting together a highly visible yet cost effective marketing program. As has often been mentioned in this groundbreaking blog promotional balloons have the quadruple advantages of being cheap, highly visible, fun and having a large branding area. There aren't many other marketing option available which carry all of these positives about them, though to be sure it isn't just promotional balloons which offer these opportunities to the canny marketer.
So next time your company is looking to take advantage of the opportunities which promotional marketing offers understand it's not just the product or the quality of the logo printed on it, success in promotional marketing is all about creative ideas and their effective use. This is a lesson many marketers need to understand that rather than obsessing about the position of the logo and the exact colour match of the outer coating of the product, an idea has impact and effectiveness when it emotionally engages with the client.