Jump to content

Advertising through geocaching


dorqie

Recommended Posts

I'm not talking about putting ads in geocaches. I'm talking about things like the Jeep TB's and the APE series.

For companies as large as those, and for geocaching being relatively small, I always wondered why put in the extra effort.

Can someone enlighten me?

Link to comment

AS far as the current Geico travel tags... just think about throwing say 5,000 tags into the wild. They will probably pass through 10 cachers hands before being temporarily lost. That is 50,000 people reached... saying "Hi... yes we are an insurance company that cares about your interests". Well 10 years down the road... guess what... some of these tags will re-emerge to see another 10 people or so. That is a large mass of people advertised to for just about say.... $20,000 between paying for the tags (the real price not retail)... paying Groundspeak for the rights... and paying for the Magellans that they are handing out in the sweepstakes. Then... we are the ones doing the legwork. $20,000 is not even a pin drop to a giant company like that. Will they get a return... who knows?

Link to comment

AS far as the current Geico travel tags... just think about throwing say 5,000 tags into the wild. They will probably pass through 10 cachers hands before being temporarily lost. That is 50,000 people reached... saying "Hi... yes we are an insurance company that cares about your interests". Well 10 years down the road... guess what... some of these tags will re-emerge to see another 10 people or so. That is a large mass of people advertised to for just about say.... $20,000 between paying for the tags (the real price not retail)... paying Groundspeak for the rights... and paying for the Magellans that they are handing out in the sweepstakes. Then... we are the ones doing the legwork. $20,000 is not even a pin drop to a giant company like that. Will they get a return... who knows?

That. Brand awareness is huge for industries like insurance, and GEICO is a master of it. You may not buy today, but later, when you need some insurance....GEICO, they're everywhere, they must be good, I think I'll contact them. (No, I'm not a customer, but I like their ads.)

Link to comment

AS far as the current Geico travel tags... just think about throwing say 5,000 tags into the wild. They will probably pass through 10 cachers hands before being temporarily lost. That is 50,000 people reached... saying "Hi... yes we are an insurance company that cares about your interests". Well 10 years down the road... guess what... some of these tags will re-emerge to see another 10 people or so. That is a large mass of people advertised to for just about say.... $20,000 between paying for the tags (the real price not retail)... paying Groundspeak for the rights... and paying for the Magellans that they are handing out in the sweepstakes. Then... we are the ones doing the legwork. $20,000 is not even a pin drop to a giant company like that. Will they get a return... who knows?

That. Brand awareness is huge for industries like insurance, and GEICO is a master of it. You may not buy today, but later, when you need some insurance....GEICO, they're everywhere, they must be good, I think I'll contact them. (No, I'm not a customer, but I like their ads.)

Yes, they're ads are cute.

That little lizard is what's on the tags.

Link to comment

I'm not talking about putting ads in geocaches. I'm talking about things like the Jeep TB's and the APE series.

For companies as large as those, and for geocaching being relatively small, I always wondered why put in the extra effort.

Can someone enlighten me?

considering one 30sec spot costs more than the whole promo, its good way to get to more eyes that aren't glued to the tv. ahame it wasn't garmin instead of maggies.

Link to comment

The Project APE caches only cost the studio a few items of memorabilia from a movie that is not generally considered an all-time classic. So even if the payoff was zero, it didn't really cost anything.

 

I suspect that the Jeep giveaways were losers for the company. Geocaching was a lot smaller then, so I think the eyeball exposure was pretty small. And as a demographic, I don't have the impression that geocachers are a particularly spendy or profligate bunch. There is a bit of an anti-consumerism vibe that floats around at times, and at least in this country, and up until a year or two ago (after all of the Jeep promotions ended) as a community we couldn't even support a single magazine. I could be wrong about all of that; maybe a lot of geocachers ran out and bought jeeps. The promotion did run more than once. But, I'm skeptical.

 

Giving away a bunch of TB tags to increase brand awareness for a product that most of us are actually required by law to buy - that is probably not a bad strategy, depending on what they had to pay Groundspeak.

Link to comment

It is another form of guerrilla marketing, probably more effective than the LED placards for Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie that caused a bomb scare a few years ago. But I didn't see the APE movie, did not buy a jeep, do not use expedia, have not switched to geico. I suppose I did Unite for Diabetes.

Link to comment

Marketing is my profession. I wouldn't expect the Geico travel tags to have an identifiable return on investment for Geico. But as a Geico customer, and a geocacher, I like seeing Geico supporting Groundspeak. And, since Geico lately has been advertising their coverage for recreational vehicles, boats, ATVs, etc, they may be reaching a desirable market segment through this campaign. Still, if you break it down to CPM (cost per thousand impressions), I doubt this campaign really makes financial sense. But I really don't know, since I have no idea how much Geico paid for it.

 

And it may be working. If geocachers are talking about Geico (which they are, as evidenced by this thread) then the campaign is obviously raising some awareness.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...