Schirm & Co.: RAINVERTISING

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Use of Ambient Media: Small Scale

Advertiser: SCHIRM

Product/Service: UMBRELLA SHOP

Agency: JWT GERMANY

Date of First Appearance: Mar 3 2011

Entrant Company: JWT GERMANY, Hamburg, GERMANY

Chief Creative Officer: Till Hohmann (JWT)

Creative Director: Kirsten Hohls (JWT)

Copywriter: Dominik Schreiber (JWT)

Art Director: Adrian Finzelberg (JWT)

Client Service Director: Dirk Haase (JWT)

Business Manager: Carola Vertein (Schirm & Co.)

Media placement: Invisible, Water-Repelling Stencils - 10 Glass Surfaces (E.g. Bus Stops) Within 500 M Of Store - 03 March 2011



Insights, Strategy & the Idea

The last real umbrella store in the rainy city of Hamburg needed a very inexpensive way of increasing footfall. It was all about creating a direct trigger in the vicinity of the shop. The important insight that steered development of the idea: It’s easiest to sell umbrellas when it rains - to those who forgot it at home. In Hamburg there are 130 rainy days/year. Given these facts the strategy became clear: it had to be no-cost guerrilla, directly in the vicinity of the store, with a message that get’s people attracted on rainy days.



Creative Execution

We discovered a water repellent spray that is used on car windshields - so it is see-though and invisible. It was used to spray stencilled messages on glass surfaces close to the shop. The neat part: The messages appear only when they get wet - the spray repels the water on the messages. So only when it rains, and people have got a problem without an umbrella, the messages indicate the direction to the umbrella shop close by. A direct and very surprising trigger.



Results and Effectiveness

It is a very cheap and effective idea - which fits to the type of client. The idea cost 130 Euros to implement. So 100%ROI was reached by selling only two umbrellas on top! The client has already seen a marked increase of footfall whenever it rains (no wonder: 130 rainy days/year in Hamburg). Also: the local shop owners have all been very supportive and have indicated that they like this idea and find it fun (even when the messages were sprayed on their shop windows!).