Mobile billboard near the Finish Line of the 2008 Boston Marathon course.

A great article in today’s Boston Globe highlighting efforts by New Balance to promote its products to the many runners expected in the Boston area over the next few weeks:

New Balance – Picking up its pace

Call it Guerrilla Marketing, Ambush Advertising, it sounds like the New Balance marketing team will be doing a great job of welcoming runners and spectators to Boston, while highlighting its brand among runners, and those of us who wish we could.

One of the mobile billboards from Guerrilla Billboards touring Boston in support of the Text Haiti to 90999 American Red Cross fundraising campaign.

Combining the flexibility of a mobile billboard truck to present a bold visual message when and where an audience is located, and the incredibly simple and easy to execute text messaging feature of cell phones, Guerrilla Billboards has launched an ad campaign in Boston to remind passerby to support the efforts of the American Red Cross. 

Featuring the call to action Text HAITI to 90999 and the iconic American Red Cross logo, the billboard truck is reminding people that their financial donations, in this case $10 per text, are needed to help support the organization’s herculean earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.

A mobile billboard from Guerrilla Billboards visiting Datamonitor's competitor offices in Boston, MA

When two business competitors merge, jobs at one or both companies are often cut.  However, occasionally another competitor is quick to spot the opportunity to add highly qualified staff, and the case of Guerrilla Mobile Billboards’ client, research firm Datamonitor Group, a mobile billboard truck cruising past its competitor’s offices in Boston’s Financial District and Stamford, CT  was a cost effective way to reach their target audience. 

During the mobile billboard truck’s first day out on the ad campaign, a passerby in downtown Boston photographed the truck and sent the shot to the well regarded blog Sage Circle where the truck’s visits to Boston and Stamford became part of the on-line discussion.

Local 103 IBEW Guerrilla Billboards Ad Campaign in Washington, DC

During the first phase of the campaign, the mobile billboard spent the week of November 16^th in Washington, DC, where it repeatedly passed various Senate office buildings, historic monuments and other points of interest, as well as the K Street corridor – home base for many lobbyists.  During subsequent phases of the campaign, the mobile billboard truck is expected to visit the greater Boston area, and communities throughout the Congresswoman’s home district.

HomeCareCrisis.org New York State Awareness Initiative

During the course of the campaign, the billboard truck looped around downtown Albany, past the hotel where the conference was being held, as well as the nearby state office buildings.  The billboard truck also supported the efforts of 1199SEIU staffers who were on location to help promote the informational website HomeCareCrisis

Six Flags New England Fright Fest Promotion in Massachusetts and Connecticut

During the promotion, the mobile billboard was deployed for the opening weekend of The Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield MA, to enhance awareness of Fright Fest among the thousands of families heading into the annual event, commonly referred to as The Big E.  This tactic proved so successful, the truck returned for an encore the following weekend.  While in the region, the billboard truck also took the message into Connecticut, and up to the Amherst campus of UMASS.  Finally, the truck spent a day cruising along Route 1 past the more than 60,000 fans heading into a New England Patriots game at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA

Omni Nursing Home Crisis - Family Day Rally in Jersey City

Whether leading 200 participants in the annual Scituate, MA St. Patrick’s Day Parade, or several thousand 1199 SEIU marchers rallying for better pay in Jersey City, NJ, Guerrilla Billboards has been there to help.

During the recent Family Day Rally in Jersey City, NJ, one of our mobile billboard trucks led a very large contingent of marchers who came from all over the New York City region to support their colleagues seeking better pay at a chain of local nursing homes.  For several days previous, the billboard truck had been driving throughout the local area helping to create community awareness of the upcoming rally, and directed interested passerby to a dedicated website page for more details.  On the morning of the rally, the billboard truck took up a position behind two Jersey City Police Department cruisers escorting the rally, and led several thousand marchers through historic Journal Square to the National Guard Armory where the Family Day festivities were held.

Partners Home Care mobile billboard truck visiting Quincy Medical Center

A bright spot amid the disappointment over the thousands of jobs that have been lost in Massachusetts, Partners Home Care needs more Rehab Therapists.  To effectively reach its target audience, the organization has included a mobile billboard truck from Guerrilla Billboards in its media mix.

While supporting messages from Partners’ radio and print ads, the truck was also tasked with visiting the neighborhoods around numerous competitors’ hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities in the greater Boston area, in order to closely target its coveted professionals, highly skilled Rehab Therapists.

Get a jump on pumping up your Q4 sales, with a mobile billboard truck ad promotion.  Whether cruising around the trade areas of a select few stores, visiting numerous markets throughout the chain, or driving consumers to its website and Facebook Page, Guerrilla Mobile Billboards will help create the timely customer awareness that a progressive retailer demands.

Given the increasing fragmentation of radio, and its multitude of formats, a billboard truck will add a dynamic visual element supporting the call to action in your various radio spots.  By getting a jump on its competitors, a savvy retailer will capture more than its fair share of the consumers’ wallets early in the all important holiday sales season.

I recently spotted this local billboard, in at best a 3^rd rate location, nearly obscured by brush: 

Can you see my ad now?

After looping back and determining the identity of the advertiser, I remembered that we had recently attempted to pitch the firm, a local car dealer, with the attached mock-up (see photo #3) of a prospective ad showing one of our mobile billboard trucks in downtown Boston.  We suggested that this was one of the many high visibility spots around Eastern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire that our mobile billboard trucks could visit on his behalf.  Unfortunately, the dealer’s representative felt otherwise.  

In the current economic climate, I would certainly want my media buyer finding the highest visibility billboard spots possible.  Mobile billboards can absolutely achieve that critical requirement.