Sometimes the advertising campaigns cheaper and simpler, they are the most successful. Like the the bus stop with three million dollars, and an invitation to break the glass. Was a guerrilla marketing highly successful for 3M. Did anyone get it?
A couple of years ago, at a bus stop in Vancouver, Canada, the company 3M put 3 million Canadian dollars (2.27 million euros) in the advertising space, with a message: if you break the glass you keep it. It’s what experts call guerrilla marketing.
The glass was reinforced with a transparent film of a material called Scotch Shieldwhich reinforces the resistance of the glass.
Faced with the prospect of becoming an instant millionaire, it is easy to imagine people armed with a hammer, or even shooting at the glass, or crashing a car into it.
To avoid misfortunes, 3M put a single rule: you could only use your legs to break the glass. And he placed several sworn vigilantes, to enforce it.
The advertising campaign lasted only one day. At that time hundreds of people tried to break the glass of the bus stop with the 3 million dollars. Five local television stations recorded the entire day live.
What 3M had calculated, no one could break the glass. Then it turned out that there was no 3 million dollars at the bus stop. It was only 500 real dollars, and the rest was fake. Although 3M was really willing to give the 3 million to whoever broke the glass.
Pure guerrilla marketing
It is a perfect example of an impeccably executed advertising campaign. 3M barely spent any money: He only had to rent the bus stop advertising space for one day, and pay the security guards.
In exchange, he created several ads with the footage of people kicking the bus stop with the 3 million dollars, and it went viral on networks and on television. Your protective film Scotch Shield he came to accumulate a waiting list of 3 months in Canada, and it is estimated that he earned more than a million dollars thanks to this guerrilla marketing.