October 15, 2007
Going guerrilla | Whether you call it alternative marketing or guerrilla marketing, more Maine companies are finding new ways to stand out from the crowd
By Taylor Smith
Earlier this year, Glenn Angell had a problem. His Portland company, New England Protective Coatings, was losing sales and needed a jolt. So Angell approached Yana Farrally-Plourde, president and creative director of Ateso Marketing in Portland, for a bit of help.
Farrally-Plourde quickly conjured up a new company name, Angell Armor Coating, and a new slogan, "Tougher than Hell." He also had an idea to market the company's line of truck-bed liners. But rather than putting together TV or radio ads, Farrally-Plourde wanted to target exactly the kinds of clients that would be interested in a company that coats truck beds. So, he threw a tailgate party in September at Angell's Fore Street location. He sent out 1,000 cards to businesses that likely included truck owners, from construction crews to lobstermen. Then, Farrally-Plourde fired up a six-foot grill, threw a few kegs into the back of one of Angell's trucks and spread out examples of truck beds Angell's company had worked on. "We really made it a tailgate party," he says. "We even raffled off a package to the Patriots game."
The event drew just around 60 people ˆ many of whom already knew about the company, says Angell. Still, he's hopeful that the campaign will have a positive effect on the business. "I thought with the new branding of the name, it was a good idea," says Angell. "Has it paid for itself? No, not yet, but I think it will."
Farrally-Plourde's strategy isn't unique to Ateso Design. Marketing companies for decades have been using alternative marketing ˆ sometimes known as guerrilla marketing ˆ to capture customers and spread the word about a company or product. But more companies these days are embracing such non-traditional marketing. For one, some companies worry that their message won't reach the target audience through the clutter of a crowded advertising landscape. Two, it can be considerably cheaper than a traditional marketing campaign.
Spreading the viral
With the splintering of the media world ˆ whether from sources like the Internet or TiVo ˆ Farrally-Plourde says it's more difficult for companies to rely on traditional media to get their message across. "There's just not that many cost-effective ways to reach mass America anymore," he says.
Plenty of marketing professionals would agree. Carol Meerschaert, marketing director of lobster company Catch a Piece of Maine in Portland, says this kind of marketing can be a great way to reach an audience that's become sensitized to traditional advertising ˆ and to save a few bucks while doing so. "It's definitely cheaper, and it's more effective," she says. "You want things that are going to be viral ˆ are people going to see it over and over again?"
In Maine, this kind of non-traditional marketing has found favor among relatively small marketing firms like Farrally-Plourde's Ateso Design, which aims to appeal to potential customers with advertising strategies that work on a more personal level than, say, television or newspaper ads.
Plenty of companies in Maine also are embracing alternative forms of marketing. During the baseball season, Scarborough-based Maine Indoor Karting hosts nightly video races on the Portland Sea Dogs scoreboard, offering fans who picked the right animated racecar free tickets to its go-cart track. And Maine State Music Theater made waves this summer by calling on different local hair salons for each night of the performance of "Hairspray." The salons, including Bath Hair Inc., chose audience members to give an "updo" hairstyle like that worn by the play's main character, Tracy Turnblad. "It was so cool," says Meerschaert, who attended an MSMT performance. "It was fun; we're all so stressed out that if you do something fun, it makes people's day."
(Still, not every alternative marketing plan is guaranteed success. For the good and bad of guerrilla marketing, see "Ads gone wrong," on page 38.)
The theory behind these stunts is that creativity can mean the difference between reaching that audience and having a marketing message fall on deaf ears. It's what led Glenn Angell to change the name of his business from the relatively staid New England Protective Coatings to the more sexy Angell Armor Coating. "I tell them, 'Let's create an identity that feels like you,'" says Farrally-Plourde.
But Farrally-Plourde says that marketing is just one piece of the puzzle. All the marketing in the world, he says, won't help a company if it's trying to push a product or service that's boring or useless. "If you don't make what you do remarkable, you can spend a million dollars on marketing and no one will care," he says.
Farrally-Plourde quickly conjured up a new company name, Angell Armor Coating, and a new slogan, "Tougher than Hell." He also had an idea to market the company's line of truck-bed liners. But rather than putting together TV or radio ads, Farrally-Plourde wanted to target exactly the kinds of clients that would be interested in a company that coats truck beds. So, he threw a tailgate party in September at Angell's Fore Street location. He sent out 1,000 cards to businesses that likely included truck owners, from construction crews to lobstermen. Then, Farrally-Plourde fired up a six-foot grill, threw a few kegs into the back of one of Angell's trucks and spread out examples of truck beds Angell's company had worked on. "We really made it a tailgate party," he says. "We even raffled off a package to the Patriots game."
The event drew just around 60 people ˆ many of whom already knew about the company, says Angell. Still, he's hopeful that the campaign will have a positive effect on the business. "I thought with the new branding of the name, it was a good idea," says Angell. "Has it paid for itself? No, not yet, but I think it will."
Farrally-Plourde's strategy isn't unique to Ateso Design. Marketing companies for decades have been using alternative marketing ˆ sometimes known as guerrilla marketing ˆ to capture customers and spread the word about a company or product. But more companies these days are embracing such non-traditional marketing. For one, some companies worry that their message won't reach the target audience through the clutter of a crowded advertising landscape. Two, it can be considerably cheaper than a traditional marketing campaign.
Spreading the viral
With the splintering of the media world ˆ whether from sources like the Internet or TiVo ˆ Farrally-Plourde says it's more difficult for companies to rely on traditional media to get their message across. "There's just not that many cost-effective ways to reach mass America anymore," he says.
Plenty of marketing professionals would agree. Carol Meerschaert, marketing director of lobster company Catch a Piece of Maine in Portland, says this kind of marketing can be a great way to reach an audience that's become sensitized to traditional advertising ˆ and to save a few bucks while doing so. "It's definitely cheaper, and it's more effective," she says. "You want things that are going to be viral ˆ are people going to see it over and over again?"
In Maine, this kind of non-traditional marketing has found favor among relatively small marketing firms like Farrally-Plourde's Ateso Design, which aims to appeal to potential customers with advertising strategies that work on a more personal level than, say, television or newspaper ads.
Plenty of companies in Maine also are embracing alternative forms of marketing. During the baseball season, Scarborough-based Maine Indoor Karting hosts nightly video races on the Portland Sea Dogs scoreboard, offering fans who picked the right animated racecar free tickets to its go-cart track. And Maine State Music Theater made waves this summer by calling on different local hair salons for each night of the performance of "Hairspray." The salons, including Bath Hair Inc., chose audience members to give an "updo" hairstyle like that worn by the play's main character, Tracy Turnblad. "It was so cool," says Meerschaert, who attended an MSMT performance. "It was fun; we're all so stressed out that if you do something fun, it makes people's day."
(Still, not every alternative marketing plan is guaranteed success. For the good and bad of guerrilla marketing, see "Ads gone wrong," on page 38.)
The theory behind these stunts is that creativity can mean the difference between reaching that audience and having a marketing message fall on deaf ears. It's what led Glenn Angell to change the name of his business from the relatively staid New England Protective Coatings to the more sexy Angell Armor Coating. "I tell them, 'Let's create an identity that feels like you,'" says Farrally-Plourde.
But Farrally-Plourde says that marketing is just one piece of the puzzle. All the marketing in the world, he says, won't help a company if it's trying to push a product or service that's boring or useless. "If you don't make what you do remarkable, you can spend a million dollars on marketing and no one will care," he says.
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