Ever wondered how to show your brand in situations where others can market you?
I remember in the build-up to the women’s Euro final, and in the warm-up for the men’s Euro final back in 2021, they showed highlights of crowds around the UK reacting to goals that couldn’t get to the actual games.
The one that tends to get shown is clips from Boxpark venues around the UK. But they are smart…
They position cameras and do live streams (and send those clips to the news agencies) that capture the crowd in its entirety but also usually the screen, so you can see the moment a goal goes in. But, right in the middle of that, they have in huge letters BOXPARK CROYDON for example.
Lots of places miss this trick, they don’t show what venue they are in, but most football fans know that Boxpark venues have a great atmosphere for watching these games, which means that they sell big events out immediately and far in advance.
You can do this in your business
Simply branding your packaging is a form of incidental marketing. If there are vehicles you have in your fleet, make sure they look good and are branded well. The most obvious one is if you have a place where people will take pictures at your venue, put your branding it somewhere.
The Universal Studios globe outside all their theme parks isn’t there for decoration, it is there so that you stand in front of it, take a photo, and publish that photo everywhere.
I listened to the CEO of Ashville Holdings talk about why he sponsored the team I love, QPR, and he said one of the reasons is that you can have your branding in the background when a once-in-a-lifetime goal goes in, you then have that replayed over and over.
And it can be really simple…
If you’re a restaurant, you will know the importance of the presentation of your food, knowing that plenty of people will take photos of the food when it arrives. Get plates that have your restaurant name around the edges, so you are in that photo.
One ridiculous example was the company I used to work for, which runs a rave bingo event among other events. They had the tagline, #DoingLines, on their t-shirts, and they gave those t-shirts to all the workers in the resort for free, so they would wear them in the resort promoting the night. The funniest thing I saw was when one of the workers was arrested for drug-related reasons, and the picture they used in the paper was her wearing that t-shirt. Imagine the viral potential of that t-shirt being worn while getting taken away on drug charges… Not the promo they intended, but it was noticeable!
One of our clients even ran a successful campaign where they gave away a free box of their product with any order in a set period of time, but they also gave a tin box to have in people’s kitchens. It added to the promotion, so helped it sell better, but also means their customers now have their branding on the side in their kitchen. What better way to stay in someone’s mind?
Just make sure you do it right…
It can go wrong, and the other example I have personally seen of it going wrong is Ninja air fryers. We bought one recently, around the time of the Queen’s jubilee. And they ran a promo, that with every order you got a free apron with a massive Union Jack design on the front. Now, I live in Northern Ireland, and there are plenty of people here that would react badly if you sent it to them. But they didn’t give you the option to remove it from your basket, because no one had thought about it being unwanted.
For many, now in Northern Ireland, that has put them off buying. My advice is that you should get a lot of incidental marketing, but make sure you get it right!