The secret lives of unconventional campaigns: Street marketing on the fringe

Abstract

The term unconventional marketing refers to a set of alternative approaches for organizations to carry out communications strategies. Among these approaches, street marketing is particularly suited to targeting consumers as they navigate urban areas. However, engaging in street marketing can also expose advertising agencies and their clients to the potential risk of legal entanglements concerning the utilization of common goods for matters of marketing communication. Based on a study conducted with 10 agencies and 5 advertisers, this article highlights how companies attempt to circumvent the law, revealing three major elements that agencies and advertisers mobilize while making the decision to do so, as well as details of how they get around the rules and manage the risks and costs of breaking them.

Keywords::

• agency–client relationship
• justification
• permission
• regulation
• transgression

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marcel Saucet

Marcel Saucet is the CEO of the French-based street marketing consulting firm LCAConseil.net; he is also a consultant for large companies (Azzaro, Clarins, Mugler). Sharing his time between France and the USA, he is also Adjunct Professor and Research Associate at the University of San Diego and IPAG BS Nice. He has published articles on unconventional marketing approaches in the Journal of Marketing Theory, Decisions Marketing and Micro Macro Marketing.

Bernard Cova

Bernard Cova is Professor of Marketing at Kedge Business School Marseille/Bordeaux (France) and Visiting Professor at Università Bocconi, Milan. A pioneer in the field of collective consumption since the early 1990s, his internationally influential research has paved the way to brand community approaches. His work on this topic has been published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing, the European Journal of Marketing, Marketing Theory and the Journal of Business Research.