Show-and-tell moves into living rooms

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When creating advertising, the longtime industry executive John O’Toole once advised, “it’s best to think of yourself as an uninvited guest in the living room of a prospect who has the magical power to make you disappear instantly.”

Those words may have guided executives at Ford Motor Co as they developed a marketing event intended to stimulate interest in products like the Ford Edge and Ford Focus. The event, called the “Ford Big Drive House Party”, is recruiting Ford owners to invite friends, relatives, neighbours and co-workers into their homes and talk up their cars.

The event, to be conducted by a marketing services company named House Party, suggests the growing interest among major advertisers in nontraditional methods of reaching consumers—particularly if they bring brands to life in tangible forms.

The interest in that technique, known as experiential marketing, is especially strong when the goal of a campaign is to generate buzz, the catchword du jour for positive word of mouth.

Examples of branded experiences include pop-up stores, which are temporary retail outlets that promote products like Meow Mix cat food, and Sports competitions like the Teva Mountain Games, sponsored by Teva footwear. Another is Camp Jeep rallies, where Chrysler plays host to Jeep owners. Ford has become interested enough in such approaches that the Ford division now has an executive whose title is experiential marketing manager.