Redbird Heist? Or Good Guerilla Marketing?
Location: Blogs Cuong Dang |
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| Posted by: Cuong Dang |
2/22/2006 3:10 PM |
Who is to say that one of the giants in sport business does not need more brand attention? A local advertising agency, Schupp Co in St. Louis has helped Cardinals with a great caper kicking off the 2006 Season – Redbird heist.
A person calling himself the Bird Napper stole two Birds on the Bat from a local billboard in downtown St. Louis and carried the large Cardinals cutouts Redbird across St. Louis downtown. He finally showed up at St. Louis Post-Dispatch at 4:30 on Wednesday. The local TV media and St. Louis Post Dispatch all picked up the story. Here is a quote from the stltoday.com:
Then, a break in the case. Bird Napper had the birds, and he would prove it on Tucker Boulevard downtown in front of the Post-Dispatch at 4:30, he e-mailed.
Right on the dot, two people ran down the street carrying large Cardinal cutouts. They waved, hopped into a sport utility vehicle - with view of the license plate obstructed - and took off.
By the afternoon, Dan Farrell, the Cardinals senior vice president of sales and marketing, conceded - a bit. He said that the missing Cardinals "were not acts of theft or vandalism, as far as we know."
Schupp finally confessed.
"Our goal was to create an advertising campaign outside the norm for our client," he said. "We did not approach the media with this story and frankly wanted to avoid the media until the campaign had unfolded."
That, by the way, won't happen until Wednesday. Or so he said.
Today, (Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006) more news out of the Cardinals camp about stolen birds. This time the birds that were stolen were from the uniforms of several players.
Guerilla Marketing is all about doing things differently and trying to generate a buzz. This campaign did it. Kudos to Schupp and the Cardinals for trying something different.
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Re: Redbird Heist? Or Good Guerilla Marketing? |
By Anonymous on
3/10/2006 10:48 AM |
Shame on Schupp for favoring their own publicity, flaunting how adorably clever they are, and applauding their own efforts before first doing their client a favor and building the campaign to bloomin' crescendo.
If this * is* a successful Cards campaign, should we really be shouting "Yaay Schupp" at all? Except perhaps among industry peers, agencies should be a silent force operating on behelf of their clients. To impose their own presence mid-campaign diminishes the finite attention consumers have to devote to anything, let alone their particular client. |
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Re: Redbird Heist? Or Good Guerilla Marketing? |
By bschwartz on
3/10/2006 10:48 AM |
Good point about allowing the campaign to build up before making it or themselves known. Although, this had to be part of the plan, otherwise, the Cardinals would have to be upset with Schupp. It wasn't like the gig was up yet, the heist still had traction, but they gave it up.
Personally, I'd like to know the exact motive for the heist. Was it the cards moving buildings? Moving radio stations? Just trying to generate some buzzzzz?
Also, I think agencies aren't always as behind the scenes as clients would like them to be and often get discussed, even outside of industry circles, when something unique or different happens. Think BK and Crispin Porter + Bogusky... Macintosh + Chiat / Day, etc. Maybe injecting themselves into the story is crossing the line, but the comments above were from Cards Brass, not Schupp's, and Schupp employee giving quotes to the St. Louis Post Dispatch had to be part of the plan... They really could have run with this even more than they did.
Also it turns out the missing birds are for sale on ebay and the proceeds are going to Cardinals care. |
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