Card Stunt Advertising
Stadium Shows Increase Name Recognition and Leave Lasting Impression
Card stunt advertising can occasionally be an effective method of promoting companies that simply want to increase name recognition or enhance their image in a community. A major card stunt, however, can require big bucks and a willingness to think outside the ordinary communications box.
The card stunt can leave a lasting impression on both live and television audiences. The impact can be especially dramatic for members of the stadium audience that participate in the stunt.
Event card stunts have been around about a century. The event reached near epic proportions in August 2007 at Bristol Motors Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee, when a record 130,000 cards were used to create huge American banners on both sides of the stadium and huge "U S A" letters in the end zones.
Well over 100,000 fans in the stadium witnessed and participated in the event. Additional thousands saw it on television and in news shows.
Best in Multimedia Promotion Campaign
Card stunts are usually most effective when they are part of a multimedia promotion campaign. They offer numerous advertising opportunities, starting with total stunt sponsorship and working down to simply inserting sample products, brochures and coupons into souvenir bags. Company names and logos can also be printed on the cards and made part of the stunt design.
Provided the budget is available, practically any stadium or arena event can provide occasions for stunts, including holidays, celebrations and special events, as well as baseball and bowl games.
Conducting a special event card stunt, however, is apt to be a complicated process that involves probably weeks of intensive planning by a small but technically bright core of insiders. It also requires the blind, rote cooperation of at least hundreds and perhaps thousands of people, most of them volunteers.
1961 Rose Bowl Stunt
An effective stunt also requires a bit of security, 14 collegiate mischief makers demonstrated at the 1961 Rose Bowl football classic. When that security broke down, Caltech students stole the stunt instruction cards from the University of Washington cheerleader and launched their hoax.
By modifying the instruction cards, they tricked more than 2200 Washington students into converting a card portrait of a Husky mascot into a buck-tooth beaver, the Caltech mascot. Then instead of spelling WASHINGTON, the Washington students unknowingly spelled CALTECH in huge black and white card letters. By now thoroughly confused, the Washington leaders cancelled the final stunt of the nationally televised halftime show.
Jacob Davis Productions (JDP) calls itself the world leader in card stunts, which is a relatively small industry. JDP shows have included that record-sized banner demonstration at Bristol Motor Speedway, as well as a tribute to Quarterback John Elway at Bronco Stadium in Colorado, another on World Autism Awareness Day, two World Series games, three Super Bowl halftime shows and seven card stunts for the World Championships in Athletics at Edmonton, Alberta.
Can Generate Supplemental Publicity
Though a card stunt is most impressive when it is created in a huge stadium, stunts can also be conducted at basketball games and other indoor events. The indoor stunts have the added advantage of not having to sweat out unfavorable weather conditions which can play havoc with such events.
With sufficient planning, stunts can also present supplemental publicity opportunities, as well as news, photo and video coverage that can rub off on sponsors.
References
- GO Magazine, July 2008
- Caltech Today website
- CardStunts.com
- Bristol Motor Speedway website
- Jacob Davis Productions website
