Saturday, May 22, 2010

A New Way to Market?

This has got to be one of the more fun ideas that has come around in a while: Yarn Bombing.

Yarn Bombing is the act of creating something -- usually something artistic -- out of yarn and then leaving it or placing it or wrapping it around something in a public place. A scarf around the neck of a statue. A blanket over a park bench. A cover over lamp posts. And here's a photo from a site called yarnbombing.com that is almost the epitome of yarn bombing:

Seems like a lot of work. OK, the example above has got to be a lot of work! But there is definitely a way we marketers could utilize the yarn bombing phenomenon to promote our clients. We all have clients that are, how should I say this, a bit out there and willing to try different avenues to get their name etched in the public's collective mind. Imagine a client's name stitched and stretched around a lamp post, or stitched pocket squares left willy-nilly around town in bus stops or on park benches that prominently display a client's logo. How many would be picked up? How many discarded? Even if just a handful of people responded because of a promotion like this, it would probably be worth the effort. If you take this yarn bombing idea, start small by picking a targeted area in which to test its effectiveness, the cost per impression ratio could be easily plotted.

Legal issues aside, and we all know there would be legalities that have to be explored before attempting to do some of the more extreme versions of yarn bombing, we could easily have a new medium for physical social marketing staring us in the face.

1 comment:

  1. If you ever decide that you want to take this route, I will be available to help knit these tags.

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