Out-of-the-Box German Advertising

In Europe, it seems the bathroom is an ideal location for advertising. I was drying my hands with paper towels at a local restaurant in Prague, and I got hit with an ad. I paused drying my hands, and took out another sheet of paper to see what it had said before I had used the previous sheet of paper towel. It seemed to have been ads for upcoming events in Prague for the weekend. I thought it was a Czech thing, when I saw the same non-traditional advertising strategy in a bathroom at a public viewing site in Berlin near the Haupbahnhauf. Despite the ingenuity yet simplicity of the medium, I felt it was a great way to draw awareness, but not to get the message across. It seems the only color they can print on paper towels is blue which hadn't really drawn my attention. Additionally, it's not like I saw people analyzing the paper towels before they trashed it. Regardless of the effectiveness of this strategy, I'm assuming it is a cost-effective way of getting a companies name seen.

Because Berlin is such a bike friendly city, there are also ads on the bikes. I believe the bikes that carry ads are those available for renting. During the IMK German Friday presentation that we listened to, there was a company trying to do just that – bicycle advertising. It's a great way of literally mobilizing your campaign. It moves slower so people have more time to analyze it.

Bikes and paper towels weren't all, stairs are also a canvas for ads. As mentioned in my previous blog, I had seen an Oakly campaign on one of the staircases exiting Alexnder Platz. Recently, I saw a similar ad in the Friedrich Strasse station. Quite frankly, I can't really remember the company (although I passed by it various times.) All I remember is a kind of super hero character in a blue suite with a red cape I believe. Regardless, the medium was definitely eye catching.

At the Tegel airport I also so TV positioned around the terminal with ads. Usually, TV screens in the airports air around-the-clock news with the occasional ad. These smaller TV screens were ONLY repeating ads. Other than the above mentioned mediums, everything else seems pretty much standard.