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Does Covert Advertising Get Your Attention?

Covert advertising is a type of promotion that uses undercover tactics to raise the image of a brand or name and helps it to become both recognizable and memorable to the target audience. Covert advertising is presently a hot trend in the promotion of goods and services. The American business world presently pays between $900-$1100 per year per person on covert advertising. As a consumer, your brain is being taught to pay attention to certain messages by brilliant advertising strategists.

Covert Advertising in the Real World

We see many examples of covert advertising on television. One example that comes to mind are the judges on American Idol. You see Randy, Paula, and Simon all sitting at their large desk drinking out of a large red cup that clearly says Coca-Cola. I know seeing those cups makes me want a large glass of Coca-Cola with ice in it. We have no idea what is actually in their cups but the Coca-Cola advertisers have achieved successful covert advertising by making me want to drink that Coca-Cola. Now after watching American Idol, I am more likely to purchase Coca-Cola as I’m strolling down the grocery store aisles.

How about the movie “13 Going on 30″, where the main characters eat Razzles throughout the movie. I can only imagine how much the sales of Razzles increased after the release of that movie. I recall that I sent my spouse out to a local convenience store to pick them up. My kids still ask for Razzles to this day. Tell me that wasn’t a successful covert advertising technique.

Many companies now pay film producers to have their products featured in films. Believe it or not, covert advertising is an established part of the financing of Hollywood films. There are even certain companies whose sole responsibility is to guarantee product placement in films for particular brands.

Why Businesses Need Covert Advertising

Businesses need covert advertising because it is a tactic that simply works. It puts money in the pockets of businesses. A company can definitely increase its profits using this type of advertising. Just think about some of your favorite movies and what products were placed in them without you consciously being aware of them. I know that after I watched “The Wedding Planner”, I bought M&M’s that week. Remember, Mathew McConaughey’s character eats M&M’s and tosses out the colored ones because of the dye. I still ate the colored ones though!

Many companies also use covert advertising on commercial radio. We are all used to so many commercials on the radio that I’m not sure we would even recognize covert advertising in this form. I think that’s the point! Whether we recognize it or not, it is successful on radio or no one would use this outlet.

How to Implement Covert Advertising

If you’re a business that can afford covert advertising on television, radio, or the movies, then you have people who will make sure that your business will properly implement covert advertising. If you are a small business owner, don’t fret. Believe it or not, there are still many ways you can implement covert advertising into your business plan. Write an article for a local newspaper. In this format, you need to sneak in your product or specialty as part of the solution to your article. Be sure to include a link at the bottom of the article that gives your name, phone number, and website.

Don’t have too much pride to ask a colleague to plug you and your product. If you make cookies, have a friend take the cookies to work and place them at their desk. When people ask about the cookies or better yet, try one, have your friend give them your contact information.

In this day and age, you can have acquaintances use covert advertising in their blogs for you. I can’t tell you the number of times I have purchased a product that was carefully placed in a paragraph on a blog that I frequent. I often read the same blogs over and over again. I feel like I know the people who write them. Since we have built up some sort of trust, I am willing to try products that they just happen to mention.

Covert advertising has proved to stand the test of time. It is a tactic that has netted large profits for many businesses. So whether you’re a small business or a large business, it’s definitely to your financial benefit to give covert advertising a try.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Advertising, Marketing Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.