Big Money Doesn't Mean Smart Money: Engagement and Your Audience

There I found myself, at the start of November posing for my American Eagle ad that would go right in the middle of Times Square. Wait a second, so is this guy standing next to me, and that girl in front of the McDonalds. Wait! Everyone in Times Square is on the American Eagle Billboard. Pretty nifty I say.

I took a trip to New York earlier this month, my first ever. Naturally, I had a few stereotypes to check out and pre-conceptions to investigate. Did New Jersey sell something called Smush Smush that Snookie keeps looking around for? Was the city expensive? Was it a rat race here? Did New Yorkans have bragging rights on pizza? To answer respectively: No smush smush in Jeisey and no one said "Bada Bing" either. NYC costly? Let me light a cigarette from my $14.99 pack I bought at Penn Station and get back to you on that. Rat Race? Can't tell. They were moving too fast. Pizza? Oh yes sweet Jesus - New York Pizza is why we have pizza.

And what about Times Square? You ask. Is it as they say it is?

Oh Times Square! Oh Bright, Glorious Times Square. What an impressive waste of advertising dollars!

Anyone who had money to spend on advertising was in Times Square. Coca Cola, Chase, Smirnoff, Target and all the other good ole boys. They had the biggest and brightest billboards. Flashy, bold and utterly ineffective.
As I sat and watched the thousands of people milling around, I noticed that the billboards in Times Square received a common reaction from passers-by: A dazed, annoyed glance then instant memory loss. Quite sad.

It's quite frustrating to see the big boys ignoring the truth - it takes more than a big budget to be effective.

Fortunately there was one shining star in that whole jumble of dissapointing mess. American Eagle. American Eagle remembered something very very important - people. Using a simple concept and possibly a low-cost execution, they put people walking around Times Square on their Billboard. I don't know about you but if I had my mug plastered on a huge billboard in the middle of Times Square, do you know who I'm gonna go tell?
EVERYBODY!!
why?
Because it's the Coolest thing EVER!!

Last year, patrons in the American Eagle store in Times Square got their photo taken a put up on the billboard for everyone outside to see. This year, they took it to the streets.

Now let's take this further for a minute. What if Narcissistic Me and all my friends and anyone I ever met could see the photo of Me on the billboard in Times Square on the internet, where would be a good place to check? The American Eagle Website of course.

Now, If all my friends and everyone I ever met (who probably told all their friends, who told all their friends and etc, etc, etc...) visited the American Eagle site to see themselves and their friends who might have been on the billboard in Times Square - the AE site would probably crash from the traffic. That's good (not the crashing part, but the high volume traffic part).

And here's the best part. Do you know what else all these people will see on the AE website when they visit to see themselves and their friends?

American Eagle Merchandise.
That's right.
Pretty nifty I say.

Until next time folks. Think simple and think people.