If you had a brainstorm to take one of your products, make a really really big fabricated replica of it, maybe even with a slogan on it, and then set that up on display and call it sponsorship, rethink that idea. Big is not a strategy.
If you drove through Philadelphia during the holidays, you'd likely have seen this:
(It says, "You know you love it.") Yes, it's a giant noodle at a park in a prime location adjacent to an outdoor Christmas market. As far as I can tell, no sampling, no couponing, no interaction with the noodle makers. Just a big noodle.
In case you couldn't tell, this is a replica of a Kraft Macaroni & Cheese noodle. But a giant noodle replica does not make a successful sponsorship activation.
Apparently big is Kraft's strategy. Here is a photo I shot in 2006 when I was the managing director of the Essence Music Festival. Kraft was a sponsor and parked its Oscar Mayer Weiner Mobile in the festival.
Again, no sampling, no tour of the Mobile, no staff, just a big hot dog. [UPDATE: To be clear, Kraft did have a display area on the other side of the exhibition hall from the Mobile. The Big Hot Dog, however, was on its own.]
Yes, big gets noticed, but in our everyday bombardment of information, it's fleeting.
Have you seen other examples of big?
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