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Outdoor Media Success – Cavalia

Posted on March 9, 2012 // 8 Comments

Sorry the camera sometimes focuses on my mouth instead of my face. Terrible camera guy. 🙂

Drive around St. Louis, and you’ll find these Cavalia billboards EVERYWHERE. It’s horses on billboards absolutely everywhere you look. There are instances where two billboards are stacked one on top of each other, and Cavalia bought both of them (see below). They must have spent a fortune. But what are they getting for it?

I’m not a huge proponent of outdoor media, but I have to admit – they’re successfully increasing awareness and visibility for their upcoming run of shows. They have some pretty robust social media channels, but they’re not talking to St. Louisans too much yet. The show is still in Seattle, so they’re spending time on social media talking to Seattle. The billboards list their website address, but it’s very small (just Google it, right?). It’s possible they’re doing radio or TV, but I haven’t seen it. So how are they supposed to sell tickets? They’re a one-trick pony (killer pun yo) – it’s 200+ billboards all over the metro area.

And I think it’s working. My wife bought $400 in tickets for her family. I will be stuck at home babysitting, so I will miss the equine extravaganza. Funny, now I want to see what all the fuss is about.

Cavalia travels around the country, so their marketing campaign here in St. Louis is not something new or experimental for them. It’s not their first rodeo (I’ll be here all week!). The remarkable thing here is the sheer number of billboards they are using. I like doing remarkable things, because when you’re trying to increase awareness and visibility, it’s a good idea to 1.) have an awesome product, and 2.) do something to stand out. From what I understand, they have the former. And their “Shock and Awe” billboard bombing campaign is standing out to me. Job well done.

Greg Edwards’ article on Cavalia in the St. Louis Business Journal.

RATHER AWESOME POSTSCRIPT:

 

Cavalia billboards

Cavalia billboard

Example from CA, courtesy of jasoninhollywood.blogspot.com

Cavalia

Note the first and third billboard. I'm sure they wanted the second one.

Cavalia advertising

And they're online!

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I Am Done Talking About “Marketing”

Posted on June 28, 2011 // 9 Comments

I am done talking about “marketing.” From now on, I’m going to ask you about your “awareness and visibility” strategy.

Companies need to stop treating social media like:

  • a campaign (with an end date)
  • a way to let everyone know about their products
  • a way to treat the world to the awesomeness of their organization

That sounds like marketing to me. I want to know about your awareness and visibility strategy. Remember, as we learned in my Waterfall of Goals blog post, neither your traditional advertising nor your social media activities move product off the shelves. They increase awareness and visibility, creating leads. Those leads then need to be converted into sales by good salespeople, a good waiter, an airtight product seamlessly delivered. Marketing is not your sales machine, but rather your leads machine. And leads can be generated by both traditional and social methods. And social is not marketing in the traditional sense. Therefore, I am going to start making this distinction with semantics.

So, what is your awareness and visibility strategy?

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