I spent a difficult day in the Sea-Tac airport as a result of someone pulling a fire alarm in the downtown bus tunnel. The alarm and subsequent shutdown of the bus station made me miss a plane, have to go through security twice, and resulted in a 3-hour stay in the airport.
I decided I would make use of this time by considering something I don’t normally think about in the airport - who is marketing to me? I found a strange and exciting discovery. There are Zappos ads in the trays that I am required to put my shoes. Look at your shoes. Mine are pretty new, but I saw quite a few pairs in line (both times) that could stand to be put out to pasture.
Looking at my Adidas Sambas next to the name Zappos I began to picture tens of thousands of people per day looking at the Zappos ad as they think, “I need new shoes.” As I pick up my Sambas I see two little shoe prints, the Zappos logo. Someone at Zappos.com made a very bold and creative move for the brand.
The effectiveness of this type of branding is that it has a captive audience and it creates a physical association with the major product offering. I have to take off my shoes, I have to look at my shoes, and so I end up seeing the advertisement in conjunction with shoes. The image is consistent Zappos relates to shoes. Many websites make an assumption that people already know what the site is about. Most of the time this isn’t true.
One of the first steps of an effective online marketing campaign is making sure that you offer consistent message and a clear path to fulfillment.
You need new shoes, Zappos has shoes.
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Thanks for mentioning our post on your blog Carlos. It is a very creative move on the part of Zappos.com and other security bin advertisers.
eCopt