BILLBOARDS ARE GREAT, but there’s a lot of outdoors to cover beyond the major thoroughfares in your locale. There are countless ways to promote your business outside, and you can often get a little more creative and interesting than is the case with traditional media. There’s not necessarily a set of rules — in some cases, you need to be clear (your mobile billboard should feature a big piece of jewelry); in others, you can be a bit more mysterious (passersby might have ignored Steve Quick’s stickers if they’d looked like ads, but they were intriguing enough to warrant a closer look). And these barely scratch the surface! How about skywriting? Flash mobs? Fireworks?
Stick It to ’Em
Steve Quick Jeweler, Chicago, IL
Passionate advocates for same-sex marriage for years, Steve Quick Jeweler printed stickers featuring a rainbow of people and the slogan “Love Is Love” along with the store’s information. By piggybacking on a popular cause they cared about, the store got a lot of free guerrilla marketing.
Time to Make Your Mark
Nancy and David Fine Jewels, Millburn, NJ
Effective advertising doesn’t have to be all about you, and it doesn’t have to be a short-term investment, either. Nancy and David donated this clock to their town’s downtown — further beautifying the area, as well as embedding their store in the mind of curious passersby.
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Pedaling Your Wares
Levy Jewelers, Savannah, GA
And there’s certainly no reason to limit your advertising to motor vehicles. Levy Jewelers smartly outfitted a virtual fleet of pedicabs with its logo and messaging for a mini-blitz shoppers in Savannah were certain to notice.
Mobile Service
Glenn Bradford Fine Jewelry, Port Washington, NY
Typical billboards catch a lot of eyeballs, but they can be expensive, and depending on your location, there may be a limited number of prime open spaces on high-traffic roads. A mobile billboard will also appear on those roads — and other places, too.
Give ’Em a Taste
Brinker’s Jewelers, Evansville, IN
And Brinker’s — whose strong efforts have landed them in this section before — takes it to a whole new level: The store also operates Cafe 111, open for breakfast and lunch, and connected to the store by French doors. (There’s a home boutique, too, Brinker’s Etc.) It’s a perfect way to draw diners who didn’t realize they wanted jewelry, too, and to keep customers coming back.
REMINDER: All of the ads shown here, whether created by the stores themselves or by an outside firm, are copyrighted. So use them for inspiration only. Don’t copy them; make them your own!