Make Your Message Stick to Gen Y

It's not always easy to catch the fast-moving Gen Y audience, especially on a Saturday night. While out on the town, they're bombarded with fliers and other marketing messages, but who knows if they'll remember them the next day (or even remember anything the next day in some cases)!

There's a new innovative idea that might give them something to wake up next to that won't make them wish that they stayed in the night before. HandvertisingUSA is now offering the service of distributing marketing messages by stamping them directly on the consumer's hand.


The idea is that the person goes out to a club or venue and has to step out for a smoke, a talk or to just roam along to the next stop. Their hand is stamped as a means to re-enter the location without having to pay the cover charge once again.

For this reason, those to be stamped will likely not mind. However, it is possible that some will - it's almost like giving a tattoo without asking. For that reason, it might be good if they are offered an incentive. This could be a dollar off of the cover charge, or even a free sample of the product being advertised. And allowing them to opt-out can relieve possible negative impact on the brand in the blogosphere.

Obviously, beverages are the first perfect fit that comes to mind for this type of promotion, but other products can fit as well. Note that this also gives the advertiser the opportunity to have their URL displayed in a prominently viewable location. Since it will probably be around the next morning when the person gets up to check their email, or upload last night's photos to Facebook or MySpace, they'll be right in front of the computer with the URL to access your site.

To ensure that they make the jump to the site, it might help to keep the marketing message cryptic. Find and buy an interesting URL that begs them to solve the mystery. Look at the success of Fox's TV show Lost - Gen Y loves a good mystery!

This is quite a creative idea that, when used properly, has a good likelihood to connect with valuable Gen Y audiences (those who are cool and trendy that others tend to follow). It would be interesting to see what viral campaigns could be interwoven with this strategy and how it could enhance the campaign's value. This new medium could have some very interesting applications with the right creative mind behind the wheel!