How to Raise your Brand’s Awareness
I’ve worked on brand awareness campaigns that have run into the millions of dollars range. Here’s the thing, 1) most of us don’t have that much in our ad budgets. 2) I’ve noticed a cheaper way to raise your brand awareness. It’s not as scalable as social media ads but it works. The answer is stickers.
When I moved to San Francisco I noticed this red leopard logo everywhere. On buses, trains, lamp posts, cars. It didn’t have the company name, just a logo. One day I walked by a cafe that had the logo in the window. I had to go in and see what this was all about. The company is Equator Coffee. At the cash register, they have a bowl of complimentary stickers. This free brand awareness is how this coffee company stands out amongst the thousands of others cafes in the city. People remember interesting logos.
Enter Snoo, the reddit Alein
When Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman started reddit in 2005, they spent their entire advertising budget, $500, on stickers.† Snoo was posted across college campuses, luggage, I-95 rest stops—everywhere. This eventually led to the community modifying the logo to fit their own personal style, usually related to their subreddit.‡
The tricky part is the logo itself. No one will want to share your sticker if it’s lame and has the URL squeezed in there too. I recommend paying a good designer to make a remarkable logo. Then use a service that prints the kind of sticker you want. I recommend Sticker Mule, I’ve used them before, they have extremely high-quality stickers.
Finally, don’t charge for your stickers, give them out for free. Everyone likes free stuff.
Works Cited
† Ohanian, Alexis. 2012. “How Reddit Built Its Empire On 500 Bucks, Stickers, And Giving People What They Want.” Fast Company. June 28. fastcompany.com
‡ Pardes, Arielle. 2018. “The Transformative Power of Reddit’s Alien Mascot.” Wired Magazine. July 7. https://www.wired.com/story/the-transformative-power-of-reddits-alien-mascot/.
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