It is without doubt that we live in an increasingly consumer-driven society. This, coupled with a tech-savvy, product-aware and fickle public, means that advertisers are having to conjure ever more inventive and innovative ways to sell their products.
The internet has enabled ever greater possibilities for creative viral marketing, which encourage potential customers to jump on the meme bandwagon and fuel the dissemination of commercial messages with their own enthusiasm. However, as with most things on the internet, the lifespan of this approach is generally short lived.
A new approach that seems to be gaining popularity is embedding your product within a short film that, on face value, is documenting something entirely different.
Enter the new Hi-Tec ad for its waterproof running shoes. Mirroring the internet’s ever popular extreme sports clips, the shoe company has subtly dropped its product into a short film of adventurers attempting to do the impossible.
Subtle and inadvertent advertising is nothing new, but the medium of the internet and the technology now available to advertisers means that they can employ this technique in new and immediately available new ways.
Can you spot the product shot?