The vicious cycle

With the current economic situation, every dollar counts in your company's marketing effort. Every company is stressing their media agencies to give them the best mileage with the least budget, in turn media agencies are squeezing the hell out of media owners. Media owners also try to be creative during the crunch to squeeze out every last drip companies have out there.

This vicious cycle seems to have left the creative agency out of the picture, where have they gone?
A high percentage of individuals deem them as unnecessary, a want, or a luxury during a period like this, or perhaps what is most important now is bringing in direct sales through tactical ads, or is it not?

What many do not realize is that, through a little more investment or a little more time in brainstorming and a touch of creativity in any medium, be it Outdoor, Press, TV, radio or BTL, would bring you much more than you expect. The talk-about, word of mouth, incidental press coverage and even mentions for awards, will bring you much more mileage.















The Singapore Institute of Management did so with just a little more creativity and a little less budget. Cleverly blending into the ambient, this guerrilla advertising tactic caught a lot of curious eyes and bewildered attention.

Cleverly placed in areas of where their target audience most likely appears. One would most likely not bother about it initially, but when you realize it, can't help but think how ingenious this ad is.

I would take a mental note of the website and probably a snapshot of this to show my friends. This Outdoor advertisement named 'Stay Current' has won SIM a Silver Award in Singapore Outdoor Advertising Awards.

Spending and branding during the low periods is actually the way to go, contrary to what most companies are doing, i.e. cutting budgets. The smarter competitor who continues his branding retains higher recall right after the recession, and gains new crowd during the recession.

Think, the extra mileage...