Chalking Up A Viral Experience

We wrote about this simple idea last fall, and it appears to be catching on; as we live in a heads down texting and tweeting world, the use of sidewalks for quick viral campaigns, especially in high traffic areas where milennials gather, appears to be growing. Latest case in point was around New York’s Central Park this week, where every few feet around Columbus Circle were colorful calls to action for people to run and stay healthy with a hashtag attached. Whether they were placed there by ardent runners or members of the New York Roadrunners Club was not clear, but was clear was that people were stopping and noticing, especially those tying sneakers and heading into the park to run.

The messages were in chalk, they were gone within a few hours and they certainly weren’t messy or obtrusive or overly commercial. What they were, were a good test for a quick viral campaign to see if people would not only take a look but would join in the conversation. Could the same be done in other viral spots like people waiting in traffic or at bus stops> How about quick and easy in train stations or on long bathroom lines? Fact is while businesses own walls and air space only municipalities right now own sidewalks, and as we keep our heads down and not up, there is great potential for some work to be done.

Here is again what we saw last fall in College Park, Md.

A few weeks ago we were visiting the University of Maryland, College Park and we noticed something unusual…a pretty clean slate of real estate that is readily available but never used. It is not the space above urinals or under the top half of bunk beds…it is literally the ground we walk on.

We live, for better or worse, in a tweet and mobile friendly world that constantly has us looking down as we go along. Message boards meant to post announcements in public places can easily go unnoticed. But a creative use of the ground we are looking at more often than not, especially for the text-happy younger generation? Now there’s engagement space. The campus had zones where clubs could post flyers on the ground vs. n a wall, all taped down with invites in the hopes that those wandering by and engaged on their phones would stop and notice. They were brightly colored, creatively designed and caught your attention, even if one was not looking down.

Now these were just fliers, made of paper, which would disintegrate in a rain storm or been run ragged by foot traffic after a period of time. However what if promotions, signs, calls to action were done more efficiently, in plastic or Velcro that could last through weather. Or what if they were creatively painted on, ala railroad crossing signs. Such things have been tried with chalk from time to time, but they were never the focus of a campaign. What is a team or league, leased the ground space for in-arena engagement like they do wall signage. Could it be done in a way not to slow traffic? Could it be done as a hologram even, meant to engage the down looking generation? What is it was an instant win contest designed just for those tweeting, with a message that rotated?

Yes foot traffic would dull the ad over a period of time, but at the end of the day it is where we look these days, and could catch more attention than things that we blow by at eye level or above. The real estate is there, the heads are down, so not it’s time for the entrepreneurial to grab the space and go. Head’s up marketers, a new engagement spot is evolving, albeit with heads down.