Today's savviest marketers are thinking like graffiti artists

For the sake of discussion, overlook the vandalism issues and slip into the skin of your favorite graffiti artist to see the world through their rebel eyes. This for sure is not the usual white-collar perspective. Rather, it forces you to look beyond the confines or your office and the Excel spread sheet the media buyer has thrust under your nose. As a marketer, this altered street-smart vantage can help reach your audiences when they're least expecting it. And that unexpected splash of marketing can be the difference between latching your company's brand and messaging onto your target's noodle or losing them in a sea of traditional media.

We humans are conditioned to travel the most convenient path. Not that there is anything wrong with that. A freeway's directness gets us from here to there faster, and malls make it easier to wrap up the holiday shopping. Marketing is really no different. The traditional media buying model, for example, has remained relatively unchanged for the past 75 years or so: Find the media that reaches the broadest audiences, secure the best price and place the buy. Repeat until budget is allotted. Simple, easy, convenient.

The only problem is that your market-share-stealing, customer-snatching competition is traveling the same trodden path.

Your customer is exposed to both messages, yours and that of the competition. Definitively distinguishing your brand and clearly stating your value propositions becomes more difficult. Takes more time. And costs more.

But step into Mr. Spray Paint's world. Graffiti Guy/Gal sees every square inch of the landscape as a blank canvas for his or her art. And because graffiti artists boldly splash their art where our unsuspecting eyes are unaccustomed to seeing anything other than a cityscape or a passing rail car, we notice it. (Whether we approve or not is outside the scope of this debate.)

Take this approach as a marketer and suddenly you've stripped away the myopic marketing rut we fall into over time. Suddenly, the side of a building presents potential for your brand. A stretch of sidewalk takes on a certain allure for speaking out to pedestrians. The rooftop that's seen from the commuter jet that passes overhead is an available slate for typically stodgy B2B marketing.

There are the obvious legal and moral parameters to heed. So let me be clear here: I am not proposing you break the law or selfishly impose your message at the expense of offending the very audiences you are trying to communicate with. There are many ways to place ambient marketing that won't put you crosswise with the law.

But I am encouraging you and your marketing agency to step out of the regular media-buying/planning model, excuse yourself of the "rules," and view the world through a different lens. It's an opportunity to communicate in a fresh way with your customer, rather than strictly abiding by the standard.

As an example, we took a client's brilliant suggestion and built upon a regular outdoor board. We hung a mannequin upside down by his heels in a string of holiday lights. The display attracted a lot of laughs and attention. And our client received several calls from drivers who said they flipped a u-turn to go back and study the board and make sure the poor guy didn't need help. Not many forms of outdoor advertising receive that kind of repeat reading. It didn't cost our client more, either. But the results had far greater impact. For more examples of great ambient advertising, visit AdsOfTheWorld.com and look for the Ambient section. A lot of great stuff from bold companies and their ad agencies.

Truth is, you may never be able to pull off a great ambient marketing campaign because of corporate culture or other constraints. But simply going through the exercise dusts off synapses that may be going dormant. Plus, when you permit your mind to wander and you practice painting with a new brush, you'll be pleasantly surprised at the ways you can conjure up a means to communicate with your audience that goes beyond the Internet, television, magazines and other traditional media.

Market like you are a graffiti artist. And see what happens when the paint dries.

Greg Fine is a principal and creative director at Ding Communications, a marketing and advertising firm in Reno. Contact him through www.DingThinking.com