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March 27, 2006

SXSW Canvasser Without Grasp of Marketing

If you've viewed some of the videos by the Austin American-Statesman staff, you may have noticed the short "Canvassing SXSW," where the video crew follows a wayward poster artist shilling for his band by flyering downtown locales with an image of an alien. His first wild move in front of the cameras involves taping a flyer to the back of a short woman's navy blue sweatshirt, proclaiming, "You're saving the world." But the guy is so guerilla, he doesn't believe in putting the name of the band on his flyers: "Not even the name of the band – just an image," he declares proudly. For his final postering stunt, he says, "We need a new idea. We need something spectacular – we need a big finish, like that woman." He then tapes a poster on the side of a white loading truck. While you have to admire the guy's likeability and spunk, you can't help but wonder if it's dawned on him that seeing an image of an alien on the back of some woman's sweatshirt is going to engender brand recognition or just make them wonder if there's yet another sequel of "Alien" coming out. Though a band with a recognizable symbol like the Red Hot Chili Peppers might be able to pull such a feat off, this guy might need to brush up on his Marketing 101.

Posted by timothompson at March 27, 2006 05:41 PM