A recent Wall Street Journal article has marketers salivating over lickable ads.
Welch's grape juice is taking out full-page print ads in People magazine this month that give readers a chance to sample its grape juice by licking the ad. Consumers are supposed to peel off the entire sticker on the Welch's ad before licking, says First Flavor, the company that developed the technology used in the ad. Therefore, if someone doesn't rip off the whole sticker the flap can't reseal, giving people an easy way to know whether the ad has already been licked, therefore removing the "ick" factor.
Its not a direct form of buzz marketing, but I guarantee you that Jay B. Minkoff, chief executive of First Flavor, and Chris Heye, Welch's marketing chief are expecting to generate a lot of word of mouth about the grape juice its advertising. Lickable ads are a new, experimental concept that may either boom or bust. But if there is one thing for sure, there will be lots of buzz following the release of the ad. Still not sold on it? The lickable ad is, in essence, like a free sample, and we all know that free samples are one of the driving forces behind word of mouth and buzz marketing.
You can check out the ad in the Feb. 18 issue of People magazine, which has a circulation of about 3.6 million.
**Correction- The ads contain a peel-off strip that you place on your tongue and it dissolves, producing a grape juice flavor-- akin to a listerine breath strip. Seems as though the guys over at WSJ really messed up the article! Thanks to Jay B. Minkoff for setting it straight.
