Meet the passive-agressive, letter-writing billboard
Dr Mumbo doesn’t get that many letters in this digital age, but recently he’s been receiving some pretty strange correspondence, from a billboard.
He’s had not one but two letters from “This Billboard”. The first letter was flattering, “I’m just writing to say I’m a big fan of your work” before hitting home with a request – it’s the usual child-asking-dad for a favour strategy.
It continued “I was wondering if you could help me out. See I’m not as popular as I could be. I want more people to take an interest in what I do, and I’m looking for someone to help me get the word out. I’ve got no followers, zero, none. Last week I googled myself, I got to the 12,421st page before I gave up.”
Following Dr Mumbo’s failure to reply (he’s not so keen on snail mail), he received a follow-up, which is where the passive aggression of the billboard started to shine through.
It said: “I’m just writing to say thanks for your response, but it must have gotten lost in the mail. I figured you’d be worried sick, so I thought I’d let you know I sorted everything out. The guys at Bonfire got in touch and helped me out a bunch. I’ve got a specky new site, and I’m getting heaps of new followers and fans every day. Heck, I’m even number 1 when you Google me.”
And indeed, if for some reason you were to receive the urge to Google the peculiar phrase ‘This Billboard’, you will find a “specky” site. Not only that, but also Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Billboard selfie anyone? Impressive for an inanimate object with no arms.
But, sadly as is the case with all things Dr Mumbo receives, it’s a PR stunt.
Want to know who for? You’ll have to Google ‘This Billboard’ to find out.
I think it’s pretty clever actually
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that’s actually awesome
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Love it!
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I got the letters too and used my powers of deduction to determine that the sign-off TB from Stirling Hwy Mosman Park could only be The Billboard. ot as clever as @ThePerthCactus…
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Yep, I got the same letters. To be honest, the first letter creeped me out. I wasn’t sure if it was a stunt or some nut trying to connect. I agree with the @Freocookster, it wasn’t clever.
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Very smart PR combination or traditional, targeted, smart digital campaign.
Really clever and so simple. I hope this continues.
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I think “Google this billboard” is pretty obvious. Yeah does grab your attention, but for only literally 1 second. One way you turn this around next time is have “look me up?” or “check me out?” and in the second line below you have the actual gps latitude and longitude coordinates for the actual billboards location. Reason: 1.) Your asking a question to viewer 2.) ‘?’ Give you a opportunity to use subliminal advertising with QR code a website or offer 3.) GPS coordinates= an action/directions to find out more about that advertisement.
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I actually really loved the idea and the execution. The fact that it came as an addressed letter was great (and actually made me rethink the value of snail mail).
I kept the letter on my desk for about a week as I was really intrigued and was looking for clues. I actually worked it out in the end but only after a week of thinking about it.
Nice idea. Simple execution. Love the old school DM pushing a digital service provider. Kinda cool.
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