Customers interact with countless brands, whether walking down the street or scrolling social media. The problem is they forget about most of those interactions. This is where out-of-the-box marketing ideas come into play.
Getting brave with your marketing can help you stand out. Don’t be afraid to try something new or unconventional – it’s exactly what customers want. According to a HubSpot survey, 49% of consumers say funny content is the most memorable, indicating the growing importance of creative approaches.
Being unique ensures customers don’t forget about your business when they pass your billboard or scroll past your social media posts. Eye-catching displays, personalized sales videos and games in marketing are some of the creative marketing ideas you can explore.
In this article, we’ll recommend marketing ideas to make any business stand out
7 of-the-box marketing ideas to try
You can promote holiday campaigns, events or launches in a fun way. Forget about conventional marketing strategies and try these seven creative marketing ideas.
1. Gamification marketing - Questionnaires and Trivia games
Gamification marketing is the practice of incorporating gaming elements into marketing campaigns to engage and motivate customers. It uses points, leaderboards and rewards to create a game-like setting.
The best way to pull it off is with a gamification platform like Adact. The tool specializes in gamified marketing. It’s easy to use and you don’t need to write a line of code to launch a trivia game, Wheel of Fortune or a personality quiz.
Creating great content is easy with Adact. You can launch a Jeopardy marketing campaign to quiz existing and potential customers about your business. Atomic Wallet relied on Adact to run a Jeopardy-style campaign about Polygon, attracting 246k unique players.
Your next marketing campaign with Adact can incorporate a personality quiz. You can use our questions and answers or create your own. Customize the quiz by changing the background and adding your brand colors. EKSL increased awareness about life insurance, making quizzes suitable for any campaign.
Trivia Game Examples for marketing
- Create a Tinder like Swipe poll for audience to vote on their favourite products. The most liked product receives a discount for the next month!
- Create a daily Wordle challenge where each day participants guess what product are you asking today!
- Create a prediction game on the stock market and award the most clairvoyant people!
At Adact we will come up with your own personal ideas and even build the entire campaign for you during a short demo call.
Read here how to increase the number of active users by 10%, as A1 Slovenia did, by launching a trivia game with prizes.
2. Game Based Marketing
We have written thoroughly in the amazing benefits of gamification marketing here but in short it is the highest engagement generating marketing activity possible to create!
Game Based Marketing allows for true out-of-the-box thinking because games can convey your product and your message in creative ways.
For example if you wish to focus on the durability of your product then you could create a game where you use your object to hit things and score points.
If you wish to illustrate the how much time your service saves, you can create a game that is very relaxing to play – like candy crusth or Match 3 and include the message which indicates that “By using your service you will have time to play a game or two”
We have seen amazingly creative games – Super Mario but turned into collecting money for your bank account, Drop game where you have to collect bugs to communicate server security and Memory games to make users remember the new brand design!
3. Holiday lotteries, raffles and digital advent calendars
With Adact, you can leverage consumers’ familiarity with Wheel of Fortune. Use it to give your target audience free stuff like coupon codes or products. Tele2 used Wheel of Fortune and collected 10,069 leads, five times more than they achieved with traditional marketing methods.
Adact can improve your brand image during the holiday season with digital advent calendars. You can choose the number of doors and prizes that hide behind them. This would be a great example of using gamification in sales as well. Swedbank generated 100x more engagement with a digital advent calendar.
Your target customers crave fun content. Whether you want to offer free samples, generate excitement around a new product or increase conversions, use the extensive list of games Adact offers. Creating and launching your branded game takes only a few minutes – no developer team required!
4. Eye-catching displays
You can promote events, products or services in public locations. Businesses use billboards, street furniture or street art to attract customers. They mostly include QR codes to encourage customer interactions.
You must create an eye-catching display for these out-of-the-box marketing ideas to work.
Companies like KitKat relied on street furniture. The business has a famous tagline – “Have a Break, Have a KitKat.” They placed a branded bench to encourage people to take that KitKat break.
Another example comes from Orphea. Its outdoor marketing campaign included a billboard that features an insect trap. The billboard had transparent glue, and, over time, insects got stuck in that glue. It was a creative way to show customers what Orphea’s product could do for them.
5. Collaborative product design
Customers leave online reviews in hopes that their feedback will make a change. To ensure their voices are actually heard, businesses can invite them to collaborate on product design. This helps you leverage the creativity of your audience.
Here’s how you can implement this idea:
- Launch a design contest – Ask customers to submit their ideas for a specific product on social media. They can share their concepts in return for cash prizes, exclusive events or product discounts.
- Host design workshops – Select some customers to join a virtual design workshop. You can collect real-time feedback and suggestions.
- Use co-creation platforms – Provide tools for customers to customize features or choose materials. They can discuss their choices with your design team.
IKEA launched co-createIKEA, a platform that encourages customers to develop new products. Its focus is on product idea suggestions, collaboration with university students and boot camps for entrepreneurs. If the business accepts a customer’s product design idea, it will invest in it.
See also: Interactive marketing examples
6. Customer community
A customer community is a space where people who like your business can interact with brand representatives and other fans. From sharing tips and learning how to use your products more effectively, this community improves your customers’ lives and makes them feel connected. It also brings these benefits to the table:
- Increased customer loyalty – Consumers want to see that your business cares about them. When you give them a platform where they can publish their feedback and interact with you, you draw them closer to your brand.
- Enhanced brand awareness – Being a community member might encourage customers to spread the word about your brand. You get brand advocates who attract new audience groups through a referral program.
- Improved customer experience – Businesses can connect more with their audience through customer communities. You are there to answer their questions or give advice.
The customer community is one of the most popular out-of-the-box marketing ideas used by big companies like LEGO that launched LEGO Ideas. This community invites customers to share user-generated content, vote for consumers’ models or propose new LEGO sets.
7. Personalized sales video
Personalized sales video content ensures businesses deliver relevant content to their audience. You should collect information about each customer’s needs and preferences to promote your products effectively. These insights will shape the content of your sales video.
One example is from Syntesia, a video creation platform. The company showed how a brand could target a customer while they’re on the website. You could analyze their behavior and create a video recommending products or services based on their search history.
8. Scavanger hunt
A scavenger hunt is a fun and engaging addition to your marketing strategy. The game invites participants to find miscellaneous objects that an organizer had previously prepared. To run your own scavenger hunt, you should:
- Create a list of miscellaneous objects, e.g., pictures of your products
- Hide those items with their clues in different locations
- Send instructions to participants and explain which items they should find
- Pick the prize
Other brands have used this idea both outdoors and online to increase sales. For instance, Starbucks launched a scavenger hunt in collaboration with Lady Gaga. Customers would scan QR codes in stores to find clues. Winners received Lady Gaga-related rewards.
9. Cause marketing
Cause marketing is a strategy where brands support charitable causes or nonprofit organizations. It mutually benefits all parties because brands improve their image and customer loyalty while organizations raise awareness.
Offering free samples or having a loyalty program isn’t enough. You need to step up and showcase your brand values. Supporting a nonprofit organization proves you care about the community your customers are part of.
A few years ago, Ben and Jerry’s released the Empower Mint ice cream in support of the Voting Rights Act. It was available for a specific period.
The campaign included content marketing materials that informed customers about voting inequality and suppression laws. It was popular on social media platforms and, most importantly, raised awareness about the issue.
Conclusion
Out-of-the-box marketing ideas ensure brands stand out and captivate their audience. By embracing innovative marketing strategies, you can differentiate your brand from countless others. These ideas open doors to increased social media engagement, loyalty and awareness.
If you want to create unique customer experiences, leverage gamification and Adact. Our tool is easy to use and offers a wide range of games. Try trivia games, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune or other games and watch your metrics improve.
Out-of-the-box marketing ideas: FAQs
What is an out-of-the-box marketing strategy?
An out-of-the-box marketing strategy relies on an innovative approach to engage consumers. A brand creates creative campaigns by exploring new tactics like gamification and eye-catching displays.
What are the top marketing ideas?
The top marketing ideas are the ones that get your consumers to pay attention. As many companies compete for attention, consumers are more likely to pay attention to these ideas:
– Gamified marketing
– Personalized videos
– Cause marketing
– Customer communities
What is the meaning of guerilla marketing?
Guerilla marketing is a strategy that uses unconventional methods to generate interest in a brand. An example would be the KitKat bench.
