Ads on Pool Tables Newest Addition to Product Lineup - Media Life Magazine

Feb 21, 2006

Bars are a great place to reach a young audience. The challenge is cutting through the noise, the darkness and all the other distractions that make saloons fun places to hang out. Here's one way to cut through: Place your message where even the most beer-goggle-eyed patrons will have cause to see it. And where might that be? The pool table. It's the one place in a saloon where folks are focusing their attention on something besides babes and getting the next brewskie. They stare intently, whether playing or watching, and what they see in the very center of the table is an ad. Pool table ads have long been available in the U.S. through Encompass Outdoor Media of New York.

Now Canadian advertisers will be able to reach young bar patrons through a new program being launched by MangoMoose Media of Ontario. Called simply its Ads on Pool Table program, it will be available across Canada and offer full-color ads printed directly on a table’s felt. The felt will be provided and installed free to the bar. “If you’re looking to reach [the 19-35 demo] in a non-conventional way, this would be the way to do it,” says MangoMoose’s Ray Wali. “It’s uncluttered. You have your target audience’s attention for an hour or so.” As with so many other forms of alternative media, the idea is to keep the message simple, which is to say a logo, perhaps a pithy tagline, but not much more. MangoMoose is now out signing up its network of bars, and Wali says it's focusing primarily on on-campus pubs. Advertisers will also be able to put messages on the table’s rail.

Stretch Your Ad Dollars with Ads on Stretch Limos

Nov 25, 2005

MangoMoose Media contiues to innovate with their latest advertising product that puts advertising on stretch limousines.

These rolling billboards, which average 25' and longer in length, will drive a dedicated route and will be available in Canada and the United States.

Madonna's recent album launch "Confessions on a dance floor" incorporated a wrapped limousine which took to Toronto streets for 10 days from November 9-19.

Guerrilla games Round Table- Strategy Magazine

by Lisa D'Innocenzo

Mar 11, 2005

Moderator:

(A) Joan McArthur, consultant Black Bag Creative Recruitment, Toronto Panel:

(B) Max Lenderman, president, Gearwerx, Montreal

(C) Raymond Wali, managing director, Mango Moose Media, Mississauga, Ont.

(D) Muriel Solomon, director of marketing, dramatic networks, Alliance Atlantis, Toronto

(E) Andrew Simon, VP/CD, DDB Canada, Toronto

McArthur: How do you define guerrilla?

Simon: The definition changes and it just becomes about being smarter, more tactical, and really thinking about your objectives. I don't think any marketer, no matter how big, can afford not to do it. In Vancouver, one of our clients, ICBC, has this program called Bait Car. Car theft is a big problem in Vancouver, and they wanted to address that. They said "do two radio spots." We said we wouldn't be able to achieve their objective with two spots. We went back to them with everything. We built a 13-foot mousetrap to put in parking lots. We went to the worst neighbourhoods and spray-painted messages that were targeted to the thieves. Then there was a radio spot which sounded like you were in a bait car. It went "pssst, we know you're there." A guy actually pulled over, because he thought it was the cops. That's the power of messaging.

Wali: Also, it was used in conjunction with traditional media. Guerrilla marketing should be used as a support.

Simon: But it's interesting. I was thinking about TBWA\ in Japan [for Adidas] doing the live billboard - with guys on bungee cords playing soccer. You almost don't even have to tell me anything else about the brand.

Lenderman: Daimler-Chrysler in the U.S. took a chapter from that campaign. They created a parking spot on the side of 3 Penn Plaza and hoisted a Jeep Cherokee up there. And you know that spot where people walk around with mud on their faces, because they're looking inside the Jeeps? They positioned muddied-up cars all over NYC. There's an underlying sensibility that cuts through the hoopla - you're like, "yeah, Jeep can put me anywhere." A fundamental of guerrilla warfare is you continue the attack, and with [brands like] Mini, they keep on going. Burger King keeps on going. If it's a one-off, I'd call it terrorist marketing because it's meant to get a rise out of people.

Simon: You need the client commitment. A lot of marketers are scared because it feels like they're not doing anything big. "I'm not doing a commercial which I can test."

Wali: Also with guerrilla, a lot of marketers try to measure it by impressions. You have to measure it by impact. On an ongoing basis, the impact is cumulative. It's just like you wouldn't run a one-second TV spot.

Lenderman: That's the million-dollar question - how do you measure guerrilla marketing? There's ROE, or return on experience. [But it's] not immediately - not in two months or three months - but really a year, two years, 10 years down the line.

Solomon: When we do guerrilla marketing, it's usually to increase our target audience for a specific show. What we try to do is identify other targets we can go after so we get maximum value for our initiative. For example, when we launched Six Feet Under on Showcase, we had a large, integrated campaign and one component was a Six Feet Under truck. We took it around town in Toronto to areas that we identified as high-traffic, and the right target. But we also took it to agencies, and that showed a real commitment on our part to promote the show. As well, we took it to our distributors and our call centres, so that the property became top of mind among people taking orders for the channel. We got a ton of mileage out of it, and a lot of press coverage.

McArthur: I remember hearing Peter Stringham give a talk, when he was president of BBDO. He said: "We need to get consumers to participate in their own persuasion." This was back in 1993. It was about ripping up the notion that humour is a bad thing in advertising, that, in fact, it's pretty mandatory. If you don't entertain the consumer, they won't care. Now it's even more personal.

Solomon: The focus is now to emotionally connect with the audience. And I think you are better able to connect when you have the one-on-one interaction.

Lenderman: I've always thought guerrilla marketing is the tip of the spear of what's now becoming experiential marketing. My influence for guerrilla marketing is P. Diddy. He's an experience provider. That's the progression: guerrilla marketing in the next 10 years is going to be an anachronism.

Wali: But if you compare how the Canadian marketplace attacks guerrilla advertising against American, it's more timid and laid-back. In America, if Adidas is sponsoring a marathon, Nike will send 50 of their reps to that marathon. Why not? That's your competitor and 15,000 to 20,000 of your target market is right there. The standard Canadian attitude is wait and see. In the U.S., they just go for it, and if there are problems, they deal with it later.

Simon: One area that's really interesting is the area of influencers. I'm curious what everyone thinks of that. Is it crossing a line?

Lenderman: We've done a number of roach campaigns. We have stopped doing them. Especially when you're on chat rooms and just dropping product names constantly - and you know that it's [being read] by 12-year-old kids - I find that's unethical. The bottom line: it's going to backfire. Unless you're James Bond, you will be found out, and the backlash will outweigh any advantages. A person may really respect you and want your opinion, but if every single time you're talking smack, they'll never believe you. Roach is like when Nike opened the Presto space. There was so much backlash and all they had to do was slap a swoosh on it.

McArthur: Back to true guerrilla, Alliance Atlantis shows are natural for buzz marketing.

Solomon: It's on Showcase that we've done the most guerrilla marketing, and it's the perfect channel for it, because the positioning is to be boundary-pushing. Our current campaign has fictional viewers provide testimonials about their Showcase experience, and how it's helped them push their own personal boundaries. So you have a business man saying, "I got spanked last night, thanks Showcase." We also had audio ads in the washroom of bars. So when you moved towards the vanity, you would hear, "I'm wearing my wife's panties." One night when one of our colleagues was at the Bier Market, someone came out of the washroom and said, "You have to see what's in the washroom, it's so funny." Everybody in the restaurant, one after the other, went to check it out. And then we got press in the National Post

Simon: That's guerrilla marketing gone right. Because it was the right personality - it can be extended in the urinal, that's okay, as long as it's true to the brand personality and true to the campaign. [But] you even have to be careful about the media because, for instance, say the audio tape went off every time somebody walked by. After a while, you're going to smack somebody. I guess that's the risk.

Solomon: We were really careful and, at one point, we thought about using that guy's voice in the women's washroom. But we thought it might be uncomfortable if a man suddenly said to them, "I'm wearing my wife's panties." You have to think through it very carefully - you don't want it to backfire

Lenderman: That's a key point. Let's say you're in the business of media planning and media buying. There are a lot of stats and it's: "This is where the 23-year-old single mother watches her shows." For guerrilla marketing, you have to go deeper. You have to think: What is the environment we're doing this in? What are their expectations? What are they thinking? What are they feeling? And if anywhere along that line, you're taking away from that, get out. You can't afford that mistake. You have to do a lot more planning, tactically and psychologically.

Simon: You have to know your consumer well. ICBC was a big success for us. The follow-up is stolencarshow.ca, because people self-select to go and experience this, and it becomes a medium unto itself. The site is a parody on car shows. There's a host, an attractive woman, who takes you through, and she's talking in her own voice. You can send e-mails to friends with photos of her saying: "I don't want to get busted anymore." There's a trophy room, different T-shirt options, etc. It's very interactive and fun. I'm sure everybody was thinking: "Let's do something bigger." But no, sometimes it's smarter to do something smaller.

Lenderman: Talking about really understanding your target market, we did a campaign for Adidas' men's skin-care line. Not only did we do men's facials in parks, outside office buildings and on street corners, we even went into nightclubs. Everyone we talked to said "you're crazy." But then we really thought about it and we realized that if you're a guy who's comfortable enough with your masculinity to sit down and get a facial in a club, you'll look hot to girls you're trying to attract. So we cornered off a section of the club. Not only did we brand it, we brought in our own furniture, and had attractive brand ambassadors. We were capitalizing on the instinctual drive of someone in a nightclub trying to look secure and cool, and that's an experience. If you can have them break that inhibition in front of all their friends, it becomes a memorable thing. That's a good example of how the guerrilla approach can transcend into something experiential

Solomon: We're launching Angels in America, and we have a trade campaign planned to build awareness among the media community. But we want it to go a little further. The agency [FCB] pitched beautiful ideas. One was to distribute white feathers in the reception area of agencies, with a card saying: "Angels in America coming to Showcase." The second idea was to put decals of wings on mirrors in agency washrooms, so you look like an angel when you stand in front of it. Very nice idea, and fairly cheap to do.

Simon: Rethink does a lot of good stuff in Vancouver. The thing they did with 3M and the bus shelters - they were made of glass that was unbreakable, and they supposedly filled it with a million bucks. It was really only $600 and play money, but it looked real. It got so much PR coverage.

Lenderman: I think Nike's doing great stuff. The Battleground tournaments are experiential, yet still underground. I like Inventa's Nike pop-up stores and the test runs in Vancouver, where at five in the morning they got those hardcore joggers. That type of stuff is great. And Starbucks did a great campaign, and it's the most simple, beautiful thing I've heard in about six months. They had cups of coffee and fixed a magnet on the bottom, and put them on top of cabs. So it was as if someone forgot their coffee. People on the street were yelling: "Your Starbucks coffee!"

Wali: It's finding marketers willing to try it. It's about convincing them that you're putting some thought into it. There are campaigns that have gone terribly wrong. MSN did a campaign - The Butterflies - where they did sidewalk stenciling and used permanent spray-painting. It doesn't have to be totally in-your-face; it could be a little bit more planned-out. Another good Canadian example is 1-800-Got-Junk. They do all PR and guerrilla. They have street posters. They take their trucks and park them off the 401. They sent 50 people in wigs to the Vancouver Canucks game just promoting 1-800-Got-Junk. Just very low-cost stuff that generates buzz.

McArthur: The thing about guerrilla is you don't have a guaranteed result. You're out there taking a chance. And it's big risk - and big rewards - and a client has to buy into that.

Ralph Culp & Associates hires MangoMoose Media

January 1, 2005

Ralph Culp & Associates Trustee in Bankruptcy has hired MangoMoose Media to handle all of its media and advertising planning. MangoMoose will plan both traditional media and alternative media for RCA. Advertising is set to launch on local TV stations and in laundry mats on January 27, 2005.

TOILET PAPER -Financial Post

Susan Heinrich

Monday, November 01, 2004

Just when you thought advertising couldn't get any more intrusive, you were wrong.

Mango Moose Media, a guerrilla-marketing agency, will begin today to offer clients advertisements to be found hanging beside a toilet near you. Yes, the agency is printing ads on toilet paper. Raymond Wali, the managing director of the small Toronto-based shop, says the first client for the TP ads is his own agency, which will be blitzing traditional ad agencies with toilet paper promoting Mango Moose's guerrilla-marketing services.

"It's unique and fun," says Mr. Wali of the TP. "The idea is to support traditional advertising (with guerrilla marketing) and get people talking about a brand. An ad on toilet paper will get people talking."

The agency previously focused on car wraps and mobile ads mounted on trucks. It was named CarWraps Outdoor Advertising until January when it relaunched with a new name and broader focus. And if branded toilet paper isn't your thing, how about coffee cups? The company also supplies paper cups printed with ads, to coffee shops which distribute them in exchange for the free cups. "It's great because it puts the message in the consumers hands for at least 15 minutes," Mr. Wali says.

Another guerrilla strategy proving very popular with clients: the event ambush. It works like this: Mango Moose sends a branded vehicle and a promotional team to an event staged by a competitor of the Mango Moose client. The team hands out freebies, flyers, coupons and product thereby benefiting from having its target market assembled at the event and stealing its competitors thunder in the process. Now that's dirty pool! Some of their stunts are so wacky that Mr. Wali says he could tell us, but he'd have to ... well, you know. "I can't really say what we did for Nike. Some of the stuff we do borders on edgy."

Other strategies include sidewalk chalk ads, temporary painted ads, urinal ads, PR stunts, lawn signs and wild postings. They also continue to do carwraps and ads on trucks.

Guerilla Marketing for high-impact results (Partial Article)

Mississauga Business Times

Marketing Lisa Kember Oct 30, 2004

Street warfare comes to advertising

While the advertising payoff is high, being this ingenious takes time, energy and creativity. That's where Mississauga-based Mango Moose comes in. The company works with organizations that need to develop non-traditional forms of advertising.

"Guerilla marketing is any low-cost, non-traditional form of advertising - from doing something unique with your business cards, to using fax forms as mini advertisements, to sending street teams into your target market area," says Ray Wali, Managing Director of Mango Moose Media.

"Guerilla marketing requires some guts. Sometimes guerilla marketing includes anything that is different for your business - such as Labatt targeting men and sending street teams to create a grassroots-style competition on the street."

"The key is to be aggressive, not abrasive," Wali says. What's the difference? According to Ray Wali, "abrasive marketing is pushing flyers on people as they walk by; aggressive marketing is going at street level and doing a mini contest - providing the winner with a coupon or gift certificate."

When asked for other examples of guerilla advertising, Ray Wali rattles off a whole list: "It could be a vehicle wrap, truck ad(vertising) or postcards in ATM machines. It could be advertisements on coffee lids, which the advertiser buys and gets a coffee shop to use. It could be sending a media kit to an editor in a unique packaging - we recently sent a kit for a client in a rubber fish."

Wali is not new to aggressive-style business moves. He launched a vehicle wraps company three years ago before he saw the opportunity in guerilla marketing and relaunched the company to offer a variety of high profile promotional products and services. I asked Ray what advice he would have for a growing company.

"Any company should have a guerilla approach to marketing that complements their traditional advertising - even if your total budget for marketing is $15,000, you should spend a portion of it on non-traditional, high impact approaches." This sort of marketing is more playful.

"Your advertising should be fun," Wali says. "If you are taking your marketing too seriously, you are doing something wrong." Wali doesn't claim that guerilla marketing can replace more traditional marketing or PR efforts.

"It works best if it supports a traditional campaign, but if a company has a really tight budget, more emphasis on guerilla campaigns can work well."

But what does it cost? It sounds like some ideas are pretty inexpensive. "An ad on the rear window of your car, for example, costs about $300 - that's only $10-15 per month." Given that a National Post ad could run you $30,000, you could do a lot of guerilla marketing for the same budget.

Advertising Going Down The Toilet?

November 2, 2004

MangoMoose Media launched their latest advertising product today; Ads on Toilet Paper. This innovative media option prints ads on regular 2-ply toilet paper and distributes them to targeted venues. It is the first time this product will be available as a media option in Canada.

Nike, Stop 'N Cash, Think Film, Cargo Magazine, Mirvish Productions Launch MangoMoose Guerrilla Campaigns

August 29, 2004

MangoMoose Media recently launched a slew of campaigns for their ever growing client roster. The Guerrilla based media campaigns included a range of alternative mediums from wrapping vehicles, poster sniping, to placing ads in laundry mats and phone booths.

The company is expected to unleash its own advertising campaign targeting main stream advertisers and their agencies. The campaign will follow the launch of a stream of new Guerrilla Media Products management is planning to unveil this fall.

Guerrilla Marketing Goes Mainstream: AMA Conference

By Lorin Cipolla Feb 17, 2004

Guerilla marketing will spread beyond jaded young adults as marketers target Baby Boomers, African-Americans and other audiences this year. That's one conclusion of the American Marketing Association's Guerrilla Marketing Goes Mainstream conference held last week in New York City. Guerilla marketing "breaks through the crowded landscape and reaches the consumer in an unobtrusive, yet effective way," said Brian Bolain, national sales promotion manager for Toyota Scion. The tactic that has worked well to reach youth can influence older consumers as well. "You create a cultural connection by aligning brand values with a culture's values," said Ashley McEvoy, VP-marketing for McNeil consumer pharmaceuticals. For example, McNeil's St. Joseph's Aspirin, previously marketed as a children's medicine, has been repositioned in the marketplace as a heart attack preventative. "We are nurturing the cult following that has begun with St. Joseph's," said McEvoy. "We are targeting men, women and African-American Baby Boomers by educating church communities in the south about heart disease; we've seen double-digit growth in those markets." McNeil launched a similar guerrilla campaign with Imodium AD by positioning branded port-a-potties at state fairs and other outdoor events. "All brands are fair game, depending on how creative and innovative you are," McEvoy said.

CarWraps Changes Name- Launches A Dozen New Products.

February 10, 2004

CarWraps Outdoor Advertising recently changed its name to reflects the new direction in which the company is heading. In addition to over a dozen new media products the company will be known as Mango Moose Inc. The company expects to fill a gap in the media marketplace by offering a range of customized products to reach a vast array of target groups.

Adidas Takes To The Streets To Support Marathon.

April 3, 2003

Adidas Canada launched a Mobile Street Tour with CarWraps to support it's upcoming annual marathon. The Tour will see Street Teams take a fully-wrapped Mercedes SUV to fitness centres, retail locations, and running clubs in the Vancouver area over the next 4 weeks.

CarWraps Launches Truck Advertising Campaign for Pointts

January 15, 2003 –

CarWraps Outdoor Advertising, a Canadian based mobile advertising company, has launched a Truck Side Advertising campaign for Pointts Advisory Limited. The 25 vehicle campaign will see ads placed on Trucks driving in the GTA area for the next year.

CarWraps Launches Labatt Campaign

Gail Chiasson, Pubzone.com Magazine,May 1, 2002

CarWraps Outdoor Advertising, Mississauga, Ont., has launched a 20-vehicle mobile advertising campaign on behalf of Labatt Breweries' 'Labatt 50' brand across Ontario. The vehicles are equipped with Global Positioning System tracking units which will allow the ads to be tracked over the Internet. The creative message, 'Refuse to be Labelled, is by Mosaïc Group, Toronto. The campaign runs to Sept. 1/02. CarWraps, which was launched in Ontario in Jan./01, specializes in ad placement on private vehicles, trucks and buses, as well as offering street sampling campaigns. It recently announced that its services are now available in B.C. and Quebec markets as well, through alliances with owner-operators. "We're now able to offer campaigns in Canada's three largest markets so can handle national campaigns," says Raymond Wali, CarWraps president. The company can now offer about 1,000 vehicles in total.

CRUISING FOR CLIENTS--THE PRICE FOR ADS ON WHEELS

Deena Waisberg, Profit Magazine Dec. , 2002

Few things turn more heads than a one-of-a-kind automobile. So if you want to cut through the marketing clutter, consider dressing a car as an eye-catching ad. A handful of North American marketing firms specialize in car wraps, full-colour vinyl banners pasted on the bodies of cars, trucks or buses. In theory, a wrapped vehicle should spread your message all over town. Does it work? A study by the New York-based Traffic Audit Bureau (TAB) found that more than 40,000 people saw a wrapped truck on a day-long drive around Chicago

A DIFFERENT WAY TO DRIVE AD SALES

By John Cotter, Toronto Business Journal. March 25, 2002

The way Ray Wali makes it sound, he has the future of outdoor advertising all wrapped up. About a year ago, the 23-year-old Mississauga entrepreneur discovered it was possible to convert almost any vehicle on the road into a rolling billboard – at reasonable cost – using the new generation of sticky plastic films that can be stripped off easily without damaging the vehicle's paint once the job is done. The idea appealed to him right off the bat.