Zoo Marketing...what a wild idea!

Advertising and product placement is everywhere. Whether we know it or not, we are exposed to thousands of advertisements a day. Product placement is constantly reaching new heights; marketers are always eager to think of an innovative way to reach their target audience. I just listened to a podcast from Ad Age about advertising in zoos. Surprisingly this option was not explored until recently by marketers.

In the Ad Age podcast, they talk about the unique experience of placing brands and products throughout the zoo. Fisher Price is a company that has done a lot of advertising through San Francisco Zoo and San Diego Zoo. The results of having play areas and food stands with the Fisher Price brand were very positive, so Fisher Price started incorporating zoo advertising in their marketing/media plan. Inspired by the great outcome from zoo advertising, they have also decided to reach out to cruise lines and hotels.

At the Philadelphia Zoo, there is a lot of advertising for Dodge. They have different Dodge vehicles positioned around the grounds of the zoo as well as various print advertisements by different animals exhibits. They also have an amusement park ride at the conservation center where zoo visitors sit in a Dodge Durango and take a virtual tour. The Ad Age podcast revealed the zoo's intentions to increase their sponsors' exposure and to help develop long-term relationships with their sponsors.

Zoos are a great place to advertise, because zoos attract a lot of families. Another good reason, is that there isn't a lot of competition for the companies to market their products since not a lot of companies think to spend money to advertise at zoos. Zoos attract over 143,000,000 visitors per year, giving companies access to a huge audience. There are more than 200 zoos and aquariums in the country, which gives marketers a lot of different options and opportunities for marketing.

This podcast was extremely informative and interesting. Check out the variety of podcasts that Ad Age has available to find out more on product placement and sponsorship!

Go to: http://adage.com/article?article_id=48120 and click on the podcast link that directs you to a huge number of podcasts available for free through itunes.