Designmetropole Aachen Strikes Again!

Entrepreneur.com defines guerrilla marketing as “an unconventional way of performing marketing activities on a very low budget.” In times of economic crisis or budget constraints, guerrilla marketing is a strategy some people may implement. Creatives are well known for leveraging this tactic.

In August 2009 Trendease looked at some of the adventures of Designmetropole Aachen. And the group has not stopped there. Members of the group confessed their nervousness during the most recent of their marketing endeavors, adding “Designmetropole” to the city limit street signs, because this could have been considered vandalism and heavily punishable by the local authorities.

After the story launched; however, we received some intriguing news. Yes, they were contacted by the authorities, but not in the manner one would think. The powers that be were impressed with the group’s ongoing attempts to bring attention to the city as a creative center and are now collaborating with the members of Designmetropole Aachen, working towards a mutual goal.

So where does this lead us? To another inspirational chapter in the Designmetropole marketing book: Shock Factor 101. We caught up with Fabian Seibert for an explanation of their latest stunt:

The city of Aachen has a beautiful baroque hall that it rents out for festivities of all sorts. The Kurhaus (house for health treatments and regimens) was built around the 1780's as a recreational building. Back then Aachen was one of the most fashionable bath cities in Europe.

The Kurhaus' manager, Iris Tirtey, asked us to think up a marketing stunt for the house's open doors day. They promised to really have ALL of the doors open to the public, even the kitchens and stocks. The day would be filled with indoor events from classical concerts to theater gropes and rock bands. But nothing outside.

Plus we suspected that they probably wouldn't keep the WCs' doors open, hehe.

This is where we came in with our idea of providing the public with just that. Dixie toilets with cardboard figures of the proud members of Designmetropole Aachen showing some skin, peeing and in some cases even pieces of their proud members, (blush).

In addition to this, the gang worked the streets around Kurhaus and brought the open doors day to peoples' attention. It was a great success despite the unpleasant weather that day.

Moral of the story? Cutting-edge marketing can get you noticed, perhaps by more than your target audience, perhaps by a new potential partner!

—Jennifer Castoldi