Given the sheer volume of advertising we all absorb every day, a business that wants to stand out has to break the pattern and surprise the people it is trying to reach.
It is odd that architecture, one of the most creative professions there is, applies so little of that creativity to its own advertising. Through Spain’s long property boom, practices had little reason to try: the work came in on its own, so marketing and advertising budgets stayed modest. Then the crisis hit, and those budgets were cut back further still.
Klicstudio takes a different view. In a downturn you have to sharpen your wits and spend more on advertising, not less. As a rule, architects and architecture practices do no advertising at all — and when they do, it is aimed at other architects. The point is to go out into the street and look for clients, or at least make yourself known: we are here, and we can help. And if we can do it in a way that is original and good fun, better still, says Goñi, founder of Klicstudio.
So the practice has gone for guerrilla marketing: low cost, high on ideas, built on a little psychology and on catching people off guard in the middle of an ordinary day. We wanted something with impact, something you don’t see every day, at least not in our sector, and something within everyone’s reach, Goñi adds.
Consumers are increasingly immune to advertising messages, the traditional ones above all. So the resources, and the extra effort, have to go into innovation and creativity.
Campaigns of this sort are still rare in Málaga, and guerrilla marketing for architects close to unheard of. With luck, it is a first step towards something more inventive in the way the city communicates. And towards a bit more fun along the way.
