Edgy Ads Help Small Businesses Stand Out from the Crowd

There's nothing new about edgy and unconventional advertising. For small businesses, though, the decision to adopt an off-kilter ad campaign represents a calculated risk.

Given a tough business climate and stiff competition, however, it's a risk that more small business owners appear to be willing to take.

Tacky Ads Drive Sales

Wodka Vodka was a low-priced new product trying to break in to the hypercompetitive U.S. spirits industry last year. With no corporate parent, its North America distributor Panache Imports had high hopes -- but a small marketing budget.

To make a strong impression quickly, Panache decided to take a big risk with the brand's advertising.

Rather than mimic existing liquor ads that featured movie stars, glamorous party people, or elegant photos of the bottle, Wodka went in another direction. It ran billboard ads in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles that looked intentionally tacky, and it used headlines that made fun of the fledgling brand.

One such ad showed a goat wearing a hat with the headline "Escort Quality, Hooker Pricing." Crafted by the Miami Marketing Group, the ads were meant to convey that while the vodka tastes as good as more expensive brands, it's a more hip -- and less expensive -- choice.

For Wodka, the risk paid off. The cheap-looking ads hit the right note with both the media and the nightclub crowd. News reports called the brand a sign of the recession; clubbers liked its indie, anti-establishment identity.

"We think our irreverent, free-spirited campaign struck a chord with the masses because, frankly, everyone's sick of pretentious branding," says James Dale, president of Panache.

"Call it cheap chic, rough luxury; it got across the point the quality is there without the markup."

As a result the company has grown quickly; in the past year it has expanded into 20 states. And deliberately tacky advertising is still Wodka's calling card: New billboards debuted this summer in Chicago, New York, Miami, and Los Angeles sporting the headline "Movie Star Quality, Reality Star Pricing" with a photo of Jonathan Cheban, a regular on reality series Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

A New Approach to "Selling" Shelter Pets

Another organization in a very different line of work has also turned its back on conventional wisdom for its advertising.

In 2009 the Austin Humane Society was in a rut. Like many other animal shelters, the group traditionally relied on ads that tugged at people's heartstrings with pictures of sad puppies in cages and stories of animal abuse.

During a two- to three-month strategic planning process, held with Austin ad agency Door Number 3, Humane Society executives reached a surprising conclusion. They learned that people cared more about the transformation in the lives of shelter dogs -- and their new owners -- than they did about the fate of abandoned puppies.

That insight prompted the shelter to jump in to uncharted territory and use its website, display ads, and direct mail to focus on the relationships that people have with their dogs, says Amanda Ryan-Smith, director of development for the Austin Humane Society. The new ad campaign followed shelter pets and their new owners over several months, stressing the growing bond between the pets and their adopters.

The tone of the organization's marketing efforts changed from sad and downbeat to funny and uplifting. As a result, donations and adoption rates increased.

In 2010 when the new ads were introduced, fundraising revenue increased 13 percent over the year before, Ryan-Smith says. Visits to the organization's Facebook page grew from 25,000 a month to 50,000 a month, and other Web traffic grew "substantially" in 2010.

Ryan-Smith says the group minimized the risk of disrupting the status quo by talking to its supporters before making the change. But that doesn't mean the process was easy. Staff members had to accept, for example, that the stories themselves were more important to the campaign than the professional quality of an ad or video.

"We've been surprised by the tremendous response from some low-quality video, which told a dramatic story," she explains.

Another challenge was the long-term commitment required to sustain the ad campaign. "We had to build a connection to the adopters and stay in touch with them over months. It takes time," Ryan-Smith says.

Light-Hearted Marketing, Upscale Selling

Sometimes, however, the biggest risk comes from having to convey a message quickly.

The H2Hotel in Healdsburg, Calif., needed to establish its youthful appeal when it opened in July 2010 -- during an unprecedented economic downturn. While elegant, luxury-laden ads are the norm for most upscale hotels in northern California wine country, H2 decided to take a different tack in order to distinguish itself, looking for light-hearted marketing projects to attract hotel visitors and locals alike, says Circe Sher, H2's marketing director.

One unusual campaign took place last spring when H2 invited its neighbors to help supply the hotel's kitchen with local fruit. Citrus trees, a common addition to homeowners' landscaping, were laden with fruit at that time, so the hotel used word-of-mouth, the company blog, and its Facebook page to ask local residents to bring in excess fruit from their trees.

In return, the staff paid market price for the fruit -- in dining credits at the hotel's Spoonbar.

The fruit was then used in cocktails, restaurant dishes, and the hotel breakfast buffet, with online posts and on-premise signs alerting customers that the lemons, limes, and oranges were grown in nearby yards.

The response to the campaign was so positive that the hotel is considering another exchange, with garden tomatoes, in the early fall, Sher says. "We attracted a wide demographic of local customers -- from people who rode their bikes for miles with crates of fruit on their backs to an elderly lady who brought in a basket with 10 pomelos."

The upshot: The fruit-pickers and their circle of friends became part of the Spoonbar's customer base and potential ambassadors for the hotel.

Sher says one challenge in pulling off unconventional ads and promotions is the need to conserve the staff energy required to execute novel (and potentially complicated) efforts. It's also important, she notes, to manage campaigns to keep consumers from getting overloaded or burned out.

"We are learning that we need to pace ourselves and to be careful of time-consuming one-offs," she says.

Repeating effective promotions takes advantage of the learning curve. "Our ideas are fun, but we don't want to overwhelm our audience," Sher adds.

Tips for Tackling Risky Marketing Ideas

• Don't overload your consumers with more than one idea at a time. The more novel the idea, the more time it takes for people to understand and share it.
• Does the idea have legs? Once you refine the new ad or marketing concept, make sure you can use it again in modified ways. Not only does it save money, but it can also become part of your brand.
• If you are funny, stay funny. Like Wodka Vodka, keep on the lookout for new pop culture references for your joke.
• To reduce the risk, make sure your new approach is what your customers care about.