Aaron Shapiro, CEO of digital agency HUGE, has released Users Not Customers a book aimed to help businesses transition into the digital marketplace. To promote it, he bought the billboard pictured above (purchased through our pals at Adstruc, incidently) which capitalizes on Borders’ inability to adapt to digital platforms and their ultimate closing of all 399 stores. A very powerful message for business owners. Content-wise this board is too full of information though. What exactly do you want me to do, Aaron? Understand what your book is about? Remember the title? Buy it at Amazon? Follow the Twitter hashtag at the bottom? It breaks at least Commandment #1. But I’ll digress because this next part is freakin’ superb.
Not only did Shapiro utilize traditional outdoor advertising, but he performed this clever guerrilla stunt. He hired former Borders employees to operate a mobile bookstore selling his book. Sick burn!
Conceptually, this is a great use of a cautionary current event. And the addition of a billboard to the marketing mix legitimizes the author’s expertise and the book’s message. The whole campaign transforms a billboard into an event beautifully.
[via AdFreak]
