Paint The Town With Yelling

BY julie stolberg
2011/09/16

Sometimes brands have the best intentions that often sour on execution. I witnessed a brand faux-pas this past Friday night. I was at Yonge and Dundas catching a film when a posse of tall young 20 something dudes stormed passed me yelling about paint. Benjamin Moore paint to be exact. Nothis wasn’t a flash mob, it was a gang of guys handing out Benjamin Moore coupons. Dressed in Benjamin Moore backpacks this rowdy posse honestly pushed through the crowds yelling at people to grab a coupon. They weren’t being aggressive or mean, but they weren’t inviting discussions about the product. In fact, they weren’t engaging in any conversations other than “take this coupon”.

Now to stand out at Yonge and Dundas you often have to make a spectacle, but I questioned Benjamin Moore’s tactic. First off, the paint these guys were promoting is a high end interior paint – is Yonge and Dundas a high end crowd? It’s mostly tourists and students.

Was hiring groups of young guys the right face to represent the brand? None of these guys looked like they ever picked out paint or thought twice about interior decorating. Maybe they’ve painted their Mom’s house, but that’s about it and they probably complained the whole time.

All in all it was a really strange encounter. I know Benjamin Moore had good intentions – they must have thought, “We’ll give out coupons and people will try our awesome product.” But the idea was lost in the details. I wonder…did the brand have anything to do with selecting who, what and when these coupons would be handed out? I doubt it. They passed the buck and hoped for the best. Chances are Benjamin Moore will see a lift in sales; these guys were tossing out thousands of coupons (most landing on the ground).

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  • 20/09/11

    Catherine says:

    I encountered a group of these guys after catching a TIFF film on Sunday. As I walked by one of them said to me (rather aggressively)... "Baby's coming, you wanna paint the room?" It was terrible. They were so intimidating.
  • 20/09/11

    Catherine says:

    Found this: The brand will also have 20 ambassadors, in high traffic areas such as the King St. theatre district around the TIFF Bell Lightbox, toting LED backpacks that display campaign ads while they hand out coupons, says Hunter-Dunne. “This is considerably different than what we have done before as we tend to adopt more conventional advertising strategies,” she says. “Taking it to the street level like this is a little more out of the box.” The paint brand is targeting creative, high-income consumers aged 35- to 55-years old, says Hunter-Dunne. “Most of our consumers are affluent baby boomers who are inspired by design and creativity,” she says. “And I think that is the TIFF moviegoer, they appreciate the creative arts as much as they appreciate their home.” Read more: http://mediaincanada.com/2011/08/31/spotted-benjamin-moore-paints-the-town/#ixzz1YVzKoeMF