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THE ATTENTION GAME: HOW TO GET EYES ON YOUR COMPANY
3 examples of great marketing stunts that drove brand awareness...
Niall Ratcliffe
December 08, 2024
In partnership with
Morning!
The wind is wailing outside of my window, the sun has already set, and it’s only 2:50 PM. It’s safe to say winter is in full swing. At least Christmas is only 2 weeks away… which would be great if it wasn’t for the fact I’ve bought 0 presents.
Anyway, less Christmas, more marketing.
Today, we’re going to be looking at how to get attention as a company. But not just a little bit of it, I’m talking 1000s of eyes and everyone talking about your business. All through the beautiful art of a marketing stunt.
Let’s get into it!
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION HERE.
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION
BREAKING DOWN THE STRATEGY
In 1883, a man by the name of Elisha Otis was trying to get his failing elevator company off the ground.
Otis had built the safest elevators to ever exist, yet he still couldn’t sell them to save his life. He sold a total of 3 elevators for the entire year of 1882 and had only sold 7 in 1883.
If he didn’t start selling more elevators quickly, the company was going to go under.
Tired and losing hope, Otis decided to reach out to infamous promoter P.T. Barnum (the main character in ‘The Greatest Showman’) to see if he could offer some help.
Barnum told Otis that no matter how good his elevators were, if he wanted people to buy them he had to find a way to get their attention. No one cares about Otis’ elevator-breaking system, so if he wants people to listen he has to up the stakes.
So together they decided they were going to put together a marketing stunt at the Crystal Palace in NYC and in front of 1000s of people.
Their plan was simple:
Step 1: Otis stands in an elevator in the air.
Step 2: Have his assistant cut the elevator cable.
Step 3: Onlookers in shock as Otis falls.
Step 4: Breaks kick in and Otis is safe.
At the Palace in NYC, 1000s of onlookers gathered as Otis and his team were up in the air. There were whispers, shocked faces, and many worried conversations.
Then the cable was cut and the whole room gasped. In the onlooker’s eyes, they were about to watch Otis fall to his death.
But the elevator dropped 2 feet and then his breaking system kicked in.
“All safe here Gentlemen, all safe,” Otis pronounced to the crowd.
The crowd erupted in cheer.
Over the next decade, Otis sold 2000+ elevators to all the greatest companies around the world.
Today, of the estimated 3.8M elevators around the world 2.2M of them are made by Otis. They are one of the most successful companies on the planet, yet they wouldn’t even exist if Otis hadn’t found a way to get attention on his product.
And there’s a big marketing lesson in that.
If you want your company to succeed you have to understand that everything trickles down from attention.
So how can you get attention?
Well, I spent the last 3 hours researching clever ways brands have been able to grab attention over the years.
Not just through boring ads or cold emails, but through stunts & guerilla marketing.
Here are the best 3 I found:
Example 1: Louis Vuitton Store
I recently saw this image on LinkedIn and instantly thought it must be AI.
It is 4 massive Louis Vuitton chests that make up an entire skyscraper on 5th Avenue in NYC.
Logistically, it seems completely impossible and in the new age of AI-generated images I didn’t even consider this could be real… then I researched it.
Turns out Louis Vuitton really spent an estimated $ 7M - $ 9M wrapping their entire 5th Avenue store in Louis Vuitton trunks while it was undergoing renovation.
Now on the surface, that seems like a terrible idea. It cost millions to do, it won’t last forever, and god knows how much effort it took to get planning permission for this.
Yet when you do the maths, it was a genius move to make the store one of the biggest tourist attractions for the younger generations in NYC.
Just the social impressions alone would have been worth for investment of getting it set up. I quickly searched it on TikTok and saw at least 10 million people have watched videos about it there. I can only imagine how many of those 10 million will now dream of attending the store in NYC when it finally reopens.
Takeaway: Sometimes the easiest way to get people talking about your brand is to do the extravagant thing that no other brand in your industry will do.
Example 2: The Rhode Phone Case
As a man, it’s safe to say I know nothing about selling lipliner. But what I do know is that it’s a commodity. There are 1000s of beauty brands and nearly all of them sell some form of lip liner.
Don’t get me wrong, everyone will have their favourite, but let’s be honest… there is very little difference between the top 50 products.
And that’s the exact position Rhode found themselves in.
They had a lip liner, and they were happy with their product. But they also knew it wasn’t anything revolutionary or special. If they wanted to get attention on it they would have to find a creative way to get eyes on it - and that’s exactly what they did.
Their answer: Don’t market the lip liner directly—market its sidecar.
Enter the Rhode phone case.
Rhode designed a custom phone case that paired perfectly with their lip liner. The case featured a built-in slot for the product, turning it into a must-have accessory. The phone case wasn’t just practical, it was stylish and of course, Instagrammable, making it the centrepiece of their marketing.
Overnight the phone case made global news and was going viral all over the place - I even saw it going viral on LinkedIn!
But no one cared about the lip liner, they cared about the phone case. Yet by wanting the phone case, they all bought the lip liner.
Social media exploded with photos, influencers showed it off, and suddenly Rhode’s lipliner was flying off the shelves.
Takeaway: Sometimes, the product itself doesn’t need to grab attention—its sidecar can do the heavy lifting. Think about how you can pair your product with something that sparks conversation and drives sales.
Example 3: Boeing’s Barrel Role
In the 1950s, Boeing faced a challenge. They needed to prove their new 707 jetliner was not only safe but revolutionary. Airline executives (their primary audience) were sceptical. The stakes were high, and Boeing knew they needed to make a statement.
Enter Tex Johnston, Boeing’s test pilot.
Boeing decided that if they wanted airline executives to understand just how revolutionary the plane was, they couldn’t just tell them - they’d have to show them.
So, they organised a public demonstration day and invited 100s of the top airline executives to come and watch.
Those executives were expecting a standard plane flyover showcasing the jet, but what they got was something very different.
Because during the demonstration over Lake Washington, Johnston took the controls of the 707 and did something that had never been done before with a commercial jetliner: a full barrel roll.
A photo from the plane while upside down
The crowd’s jaws dropped.
A massive commercial plane flipping in the air like a stunt fighter? It was unheard of. The stunt proved not only the stability and precision of Boeing’s engineering but also showcased their bold confidence in the 707.
Executives were speechless, but the message was clear, if the 707 could handle a barrel roll, it could handle anything. The demonstration solidified Boeing’s position as the industry leader.
Takeaway: If your product really is special, the best way to convince people is to show them - but no one cares about your product. So up the stakes and make it as dramatic as possible.
🌱 THE GREENHOUSE
Things I’ve saved this week that are worth seeing:
TL;DR
Takeaway 1: Be extravagant
Takeaway 2: Build an attention sidecar
Takeaway 3: Be as dramatic as possible
There’s something about marketing stunts that I just love. They take balls, guts, and courage - all things we don’t associate marketing with.
It’s easy to sit behind your laptop and tinker around in the Meta Ad Suite and throw up some ads. It’s not easy to put your brand on the line in an attempt to get global attention.
It’s that high-risk, high-reward element that I love.
Hopefully you learned something from this, if you did - why not share it with a friend?
Until next time,
— Niall
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