There’s been much said, written, and posted about Koala – if you’re into marketing campaigns
(which you’d think you would be to be reading this) you’ve probably heard of the brand for their viral videos, relentless retargeting or their playful tone.
And if you’ve visited their website or clicked on their ads, you’ll certainly be aware of their thorough strategic follow-through and complete understanding of the user journey.
I want to focus on something totally out of my wheelhouse. The billboards.
Why?
As a digital marketer I didn’t really get why people still booked billboards. I’ve made the smug quip “What’s your CTR?” when people have talked about out of home advertising (I know, funny, right?)
But I think I get it now – it’s not out of home advertising that sucks, it’s brands lack of strategic
thinking and the resulting billboard creative.
I was prompted to write this piece by the latest billboard you’ve most likely not seen irl. It was an additional billboard near one they had booked already.
This one:
To highlight how easy the Koala product is to assemble, the original billboard (close to an IKEA store) poked fun at IKEA and their complicated construction instructions. I mean we’ve all failed at putting together an IKEA piece, right?
The NOFNIDEA billboard was pretty clever in itself. This campaign was also featured on their social media channels and quickly gained traction with users who could relate to the sentiment.
To push this point home, a second billboard “apologised” for the joke at IKEA’s expense was
produced (made to look like it was handwritten) with more witty banter and a discount code.
You can read more about the entire campaign from the Creative Director himself in this detailed piece, but the part I want to draw your attention to is that they used humble old out of home to launch what’s essentially a PR piece.
AND it’s also content they knew would perform on their social media platforms.
Creating billboards to be used as viral social media posts? Yeah, you don’t see that much.
In fact you generally don’t see brands invest nearly enough in creating good social content, let alone using traditional marketing methods to feed it.
It’s absolute genius, and the reason I chose to feature it here on The Marketer.