Outdoor advertising and tourist towns: There is no open market niche

If you travel south in Florida, eventually you hit the type of tourist towns in the Keys where guys named Randy from Honduras have opened rum bars and street performers take to the walks on Saturday nights. Marketers with keen eyes also note that outdoor advertising becomes extremely creative -- as small businesses vying for tourist dollars compete to catch the eye.

Beach hotels carefully stage hammocks between palm trees. Bars hire bands and professional dancers. Every image is a message to stop, relax ... and spend your money here.


The smallest businesses are typically one-man shows, with a bench by the street and an unusual hook -- an iguana in a vest, a man with a missing leg dressed up as a peg-legged pirate. This is the outdoor equivalent of a cheesy local TV spot with an auto dealer shouting. Yet, it works.


Even religion makes a mark on the street. Whether by inspiration or design, the churches grab the eye, pulling you in. But the real story begins in the evening, as women juggling fire or ballroom dancers showcasing Cuban moves try to part visitors from their tips.


What's intriguing is how staged, and yet subtle, all this aggressive outdoor imagery is. There are no billboards, and street signs are small. But the marketing message of bright colors and unusual acts does the same job as a 14 by 48 panel. You don't need signs if your store mannequins are R-rated, or if your umbrellas and tables are painted fluorescent colors.


It's not easy for marketers in the broader U.S. to orchestrate such unusual impressions, but it is possible. Outdoor formats can be pushed. Events, PR and guerilla marketing can startle or spread. The lesson, perhaps, is to rethink flat panels and shouting headlines, and look for a more human element to break through the clutter. There is something easy to miss about the cacophony of competing messages in advertising. If you can interrupt people in a new way, a human way, a way that shows how other people are experiencing life, you may just break through. (Update: for ideas on how to make outdoor unusual, visit Advergirl's guide on avoiding purple gorillas. Tx Brandflakes.)