The most brilliant outdoor campaign ever

The rules for outdoor advertising are very simple.

• Never use more than 7 words
• Always use an attention getting visual
• Include the company logo
• Leave the boards up for a minimum of 30 days to achieve frequency goals
• Buy several locations to increase reach

The most brilliant outdoor campaign broke every one of these rules.  Every single one.  I use this campaign as an example in many of my presentations and wanted to share it with you too.

Let me tell you the story. 

This campaign broke in 1989 in Buffalo, New York.  There was (and still is - my mistake, I found it on the web's yellow pages and assumed it was current) an Irish Pub called Garcia's in downtown Buffalo that needed to drive not only name awareness but traffic.  Their agency, Crowley Webb, devised this campaign, which not only won them a National Obie (Oscars for outdoor boards) but made Garcia's a household name in Buffalo.  The campaign also showed up in the New York Times, USA Today and naturally, all of Buffalo's local media.

No ordinary billboard series, eh?

The agency bought a single board location (this I am recalling from memory so I may be wrong) and every Monday for 9 weeks....a new board went up.  This is story-telling at it's best.  Enjoy the campaign and be sure to catch my questions at the end.

Can't you see all of Buffalo being completely caught up in this story?  Can you imagine how many people showed up at Garcia's on Fridays to see if Angel made an appearance.  I don't know if the agency took it to that level (I wouldn't be surprised) but I would have hired actors to play William, Angel, Candi and Frankie and put on a floor show.

What do you think of this campaign?  Notice the boards didn't push the daily soup special or promise us the same cliches that all restaurants promise.  Instead, they invited us into a story.  A story where we could play a part.

How could you use this kind of a technique?  Or, where else have you seen this sort of creativity played out?

Update:  Here's the back story to this campaign.  Now I'm even more impressed.

Comments

[Patrick Byers]

Nice post, Drew.

Really enjoyed this -- great engagement with this campaign. Creatively, they left some room for improvement, but the concept is so strong, it doesn't matter much.

Keep up the good work.

Patrick Byers

[Karin H.]

Hi Drew

I had a chuckle with the title, thought it read:
The most brilliant outdoor camping ever ;-)

(Tells you more about how to make sure your outdoor text shouldn't be confusing) Great 'billboard' story though.

Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

[Toby Getsch]

Stories absorb attention. Anything that needs/wants attention can gain from good story telling. Any message that needs/wants to get out can gain from good story telling.

Downside: It costs more to tell a story in advertising, and it may not work because people often have to stay to the punch line or keep paying attention longer to get the message. Regular adds most often feature immediate action required... "Buy now!" or have a price to guide users to make a quick decision if they'll do more to follow-up. Stories require involvement.

Hence: Branding works well with stories.

When someone tells a good story, do people say, "I liked that story." or do they say, "I like her. She's a good story teller."???

[BIG Kahuna]

Proof is in the pudding. What was the ROI? Did the campaign make a difference long term? Do many people recall the name of the restaurant or just the saga?

Personally I think billboards are a big waste of money, especially when budgets are tight.

Do you know how this did as far as sales go?

[Cory Garrison]

This definitely goes on my long list of "why didn't I think of that"! Thanks Drew!

-Cory

[Jim Kukral]

Great stuff Drew. Thanks for sharing.

[Bill Kennedy - United Church of Canada]

This campaign reminds me of a series of billboards all signed "God", with tags like "Let's Meet At My House Sunday Before The Game." Also brilliant.

Nice post.

Thanks,

Bill

[Josh Klein]

Absolutely brilliant. This demonstrates the power of telling a story over the dreadful monotony of another carefully manicured collection of sales copy.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Drew.

[Mike Ward]

What's brilliant about this campaign is that they got the client to sit tight for 9 weeks while the boards did their work. Hospitality folks are notoriously fidgety when it comes to message and cost. Most owners would have killed the campaign by week #3 (when the pub's name was shortened from 3 words to one).

[Drew McLellan]

Patrick,

I'm curious -- what would you have done to up the creativity on this campaign?

For me, the simplicity is part of why it works. Using th fonts to give us a subtle clue about the author is just enough for me. But, I'd love to hear what you would have done with it.

Drew

[Scott Fox, E-Commerce Success Blog]

Great post. That campaign is also an example of excellent copywriting for anyone using a microblogging platform like Twitter.
No one could have predicted that back in 1989!

[Drew McLellan]

Karin,

Sounds like someone needs a long weekend in the great outdoors!

Drew

[Drew McLellan]

Toby,

Your question is a good reminder -- we should be careful that the storyteller does not outshine the story.

On the flip side, having a master storyteller means you can get attention (like Steve Jobs) even if sometimes your stories don't pack a wallop.

Drew

[Drew McLellan]

Scott,

Sorry -- I could not disagree with you more.

There is no medium that is always a waste of money. Every medium is the perfect fit for some messages or product/service offerings.

Equally true, every medium is absolutely the wrong fit for some messages or product/service offerings.

Drew

[Paula Thornton]

In music and theatre it's known as improvisation. Good improvisation is an art. But as I learned from a wise music professor -- you first have to learn the rules to know how to successfully break them.

Truth: Random breaking of rules doesn't work. Rules have to be embraced, honored and then trampled.

[Drew McLellan]

Cory --

I know. It's one of those "I could have had a V-8" moments.

Even us guys who can't draw could have done this one!

Drew

[Frank Martin]

Drew, thanks for the terrific marketing story, and for reminding us that it is the most brilliant among us who break the "rules" in a creative and effective way.

Put another way, not following the rules because you are ignorant of them is one thing - deliberately and intelligently breaking them is quite another!

Best,

Frank

[Casey Hibbard]

Fun post! I've never seen these billboards before.

You need very little space and few words to accomplish some storytelling. One of my favorites is for Rosetta Stone language software:

"He was a hardworking farm boy.

She was an Italian supermodel.

He knew he would have just one chance to impress her."

You want to know what happens next! I can't find it online or I would link, but I'm sure many readers have seen it. I'm certainly a fan of breaking rules if it truly works, and sometimes it's just a risk you need to take.

Casey

[Kristin Gorski (KG)]

Great post and compelling billboard story! Talk about effective: it's almost 20 years past this launch, and a whole new group of people are talking about Garcia's. While I'm not in Buffalo, this campaign made me wonder if Garcia's were still there; if I were ever in Buffalo, I'd check it out, too.

Nothing like a short, well-written story. Web banner ads could use this technique, and some companies probably have, but I can't remember any...

[Bill Kennedy]

Hi Drew,

I tried using the trackback url above when referring to your entry in mine (http://energizedaccounting.blogspot.com/2008/08/less-numbers-more-story.html), but it didn't work.

Bill

[Drew McLellan]

Bill,

I agree -- the God billboards reminded me of this campaign when they first appeared. Like the Garcia's campaign, I thought the concept and the writing were brilliant.

Goes to show, smart strategy opens up new doors in terms of creative.

Drew

[Drew McLellan]

Mike,

I thought about that as well. The trust between the agency and client had to be very strong. Imagine -- not putting in your full name AND not showing your logo?

Smart, brave clients indeed.

Drew

[Drew McLellan]

Scott,

Clearly this agency was ahead of its time -- already thinking in Tweets!

Drew

[Drew McLellan]

Paula,

"Truth: Random breaking of rules doesn't work. Rules have to be embraced, honored and then trampled."

That's an excellent point. I am sure they carefully considered the fact that they were going against the grain.

And especially in this execution, it worked. Had they looked like traditional billboards, no one would have bought that there really was a William and Angel.

Drew

[Drew McLellan]

Frank,

As Paula said -- to break the rules right, you need to be smart about it. It wasn't breaking the rules because you could. It was breaking the rules because in this case, you should.

Drew

[Drew McLellan]

Casey,

You're right -- there's nothing as compelling as human interaction and relationships. We love being engrossed in a good story!

Drew

[Drew McLellan]

KG,

The message and the "brand feel" is timeless, isn't it? It really does give you a sense of what an experience at Garcia's would be like.

Drew

[BIG Kahuna]

Drew, given that this restaurant only does about 1-2 million/year there was obviously not an unlimited budget. That said, although the campaign is truly creative and won awards the only thing that matters is ROI. Getting people talking about you has to lead to further brand development and sales. If 6 months later people couldn't recall the name of the restaurant but could recall the billboards it was a royal waste of cash.

Billboards like direct marketing are very easy to track. Do you know what the results were?

It looks like they're not even in business anymore? I tried calling their number and its been disconnected and I couldn't find a website?

If that's the case, then all that wonderful creativity wasn't so wonderful. I'm a hard nosed ROI guy, after all people hire us in most cases to make them money, not win awards.

But it really is very creative!

[John Rosen]

Drew:

Two comments: 1. Good storytelling is good for bloggers as well as advertisers -- just look how many comments you've received so quickly on this one post!
2. Under the "seven words only" rule, my favorite was from the Dairy Council in England many years ago: "Have A Pint A Milk A Day."

[Drew McLellan]

Scott,

Actually, I do know the rest of the story and will tell it tomorrow.

The campaign had huge ROI, exceeded expectations and had nothing to do with winning awards. Oh and was done on a impressively small budget.

Thanks for doing all that leg work. But as you and I both know...there's always quite a bit under the surface.

I'll share more tomorrow.

Drew

[Drew McLellan]

John,

Agreed -- we are all, as humans, drawn to a story. And we love to talk about stories that capture our imagination. Gotta love the word of mouth added bonus!

Drew

[Paul Dowd]

Hi Drew,

In New Zealand we have a beer called Tui that always has these "Yeah Right" billboards up. They regularly run controversial ones that reference current news items that stir up controversy. (they have had to pull a couple of them)

Here is a google image search on "tui yeah right" so you can see them. http://images.google.com/images?q=tui%20yeah%20right

People even rip them off and make fake ones to send to mates or place on websites so they win with a viral aspect as well.

Cheers

Paul

[Drew McLellan]

Paul,

Boy, you can feel the brand and the attitude in that campaign! Love it!

Drew

[Karl Staib - Your Work Happiness Matters]

Wow! That is brilliant. They hook you in with a story that's compelling. The billboards are easy to read.

It's the type of advertising I hope to use promoting my blog.

[Drew McLellan]

Karl,

Agreed -- it is the story itself that hooks us from the beginning. It really does deserve all the attention and awards that it won.

Drew

[getnoticedfirst.com]

Very effective and generates a buzz. Fantastic campaign!

[Rob]

Burma Shave!

[Drew McLellan]

Get Noticed --

The buzz is what takes this from a very clever campaign to brilliant, in my opinion.

Drew

[Drew McLellan]

Rob,

True -- but with a twist!

Drew

[Finishing Schools]

What is great campaign. Success is written all over it. There is no way such campaigns fail. Think of word to mouth publicity which this ad must have received. It's massive.

[Drew McLellan]

Finishing Schools --

The word of mouth generated was huge. They got media coverage, incredible buzz and of course, a huge bump in business.

Drew

[Marsadie]

That billboard campaign was genius!

[Kevin Young]

Very nice campaign. Here's the business results from the back-story:

The net result beyond the media exposure and buzz around town? When the new waterfront club opened, every restaurant in town took a double digit drop in revenue. Garcia's business went up. They maintained that competitive advantage for some time and never felt the impact of the waterfront club.

Im impressed with the campaign and the results.

[Time Tracker]

interesting. This ad campaign looks and feels like an IM and/or SMS conversation, about 10 years before either medium became popular. Obviously, outstanding work!

[seven words]

Just busting your balls:

* First point: "Never use more than 7 words"
* First billboard has 13 words.
"The most brilliant outdoor campaign ever"?

[Drew McLellan]

Kevin,

You and me both -- it's so impressive that I read about it almost 20 years ago and still recall and talk about it to this day.

Drew

[Drew McLellan]

Time Tracker --

Yes...someone else compared it to the old Burma Shave signs. A good reminder to all of us that simplicity is powerful.

Drew

[Drew McLellan]

Seven,

Actually that was my point. They BROKE every rule and it was a huge success.

Drew

[Ned Carey]

My partners and I have created a PowerPoint presentation. i told them it was boring, we need to tell a story to make it interesting. I'll direct them to this post.

by the way I found you via stumbleupon and I stumbled this post.

Ned Carey

[Drew McLellan]

Ned,

Well, this outdoor series tells a remarkable and engaging story, doesn't it?

Glad you found us. I hope you stick around and keep adding your thoughts.

Drew