These days, the most successful marketing campaigns are not always ones with big budgets behind them.
Sometimes, a simple yet very well executed idea can lead to incredible success rates.
A great example of this is from Loto in Nicaragua. With an advertising budget 6x smaller than what would typically be needed for a traditional TV and outdoor campaign, Loto was faced with a big challenge: how to grab the attention of a wide scale audience with very little money to play with.
To get over the hurdle, Loto came up with an ingenious solution that meant the launch of their new service could not be missed.
The brand discovered that 1 in 6 Nicaraguans take the bus every single day, equaling an average of 1 million people – a huge potential captive audience. Hooking on to this opportunity and making the most of dwell time, Loto took over all bus services for one day and gave each and every commuter a free journey.
The ‘Lucky Ride’ came as a very welcome surprise and in order to be recognised for the gesture, Lotto handed out leaflets to each person with the words ‘Luck knocked on your door today. Travel for free thanks to the Loto’.
This campaign was a great way for Loto to give consumers the experience of feeling lucky – a feeling of course that is the central driver behind repeat lottery ticket purchases.
By directly targeting consumers through experiential marketing and face to face interaction, Loto received massive results.
In just three hours, Loto had reached one sixth of Nicaraguans, and in just one day 20,000 people had bought a Lotto ticket. The brand calculated that 3 million people were impacted through word of mouth.
And most importantly, with just a $50,000 investment, the campaign received a return of $500,000. Impressive ROI.
This campaign highlights that a successful marketing campaign isn’t just about big bucks. With a unique, creative and correctly targeted campaign, the results of experiential can be huge.
For another great example of a simple campaign that was very successful, take a look at when Stayer University asked people to write on a chalk board in NYC – it received a whopping 5 million views on YouTube.