I keep seeing Sarah Marshal advertisements that don’t look like advertisements - instead their making people ask, “what the fuck is Sarah Marshal?”  It’s a movie from the creator of Superbad, Knocked Up, 40-yr old virgin, etc…  Below is a MySpace skin and is an example of cutting edge marketing (millions of people are going to see this movie because of this skin):

In addition to the skin there was a flash based movie that previewed the movie.  The first time I saw a Sarah Marshal advertisements was when I was at the airport and I saw it being displayed on the top of a Taxi.  Next thing I know, I see it on a billboard, now MySpace, and probably television next (if I watched it).  I can only imagine what the marketing budget for this movie must be.  This has been one of the smartest and best executed mass movie marketing campaigns I have seen in a while.  So it begs the questions, are the movies good, or is the marketing good?

I frequently visit the website CollegeHumor.com to view funny videos and read up on pop-culture.  College Humor regularly utilizes skins to help their clients advertise their products/services.  Below are screen shots:

This form of marketing is not cheap, but it is very effective, especially for larger scale product launches.  Skin marketing and advertising breaks through banner blindness, but not in every situation.  The above example is probably not as effective as a rich media campaign might be - as college humor regularly posts videos and articles about Super Mario, so users might overlook this skin as it could be considered part of the sites content.  When creating a skin marketing campaign its important to consider the following:

• Develop a skin that is contrary to the site you are “skinning”.  If the content of your skin blends in with the site, it looks like its part of the site, and users become “banner blind”.
• The skin should include an attractive female(s).
• The skin should have a strong call to action: “Click here now, click here, try for free, free trial, limited time offer”
• Take into consideration demographic and age targeting.  Super Mario Smahs brothers appearing on College Humor is appropriate, but the skin is not effective.

If your business is interested in advertising on highly trafficked websites and you would like to create a skin to break through “banner blindness”.  Please call us at 843-425-3566 or email support@bannerblindness.com to learn more.