I've been trying to keep my eyes open for some unique ways that businesses are marketing their products and services. A entrepreneur friend of mine had "skinned" his laptop and cell phone with an adhesive vinyl cover that donned his company logo. He told me that everywhere he goes his laptop and cell phone images strike up conversations about his company. Apparently there are many websites that sell these "skins" for your devices, but he told me that he ordered his from a company called Unique Skins that actually specializes in corporate accounts. (http://www.uniqueskins.com/corporate_landing). I find this tactic to be rather similar to skinning your company car or van; a form of advertising all on its own. I'd love to hear if others have tried this and whether it was successful, and what other out of the box ideas you've seen for marketing.
I know of someone who could probably do this for you. He is a co-worker but owns a graphics company. His website is speedygraphix.net. He does all kinds of custom things for people and your best bet would be to just email him about it and get a price quote that way. It seems like a unique and pretty cool idea. I guess it could work if you are constantly carrying your phone out or your laptop around. Basically, it needs exposure and if you think you spend enough time on either of them to justify it, then maybe it is an option for you. Like you said, it's no different than companies putting graphics on their cars.
I don't know if you heard of integration marketing (Mark Joyner popularized this term), it is quite out-of-the box marketing for me that not a lot of people are using.
I think this type of marketing is great some companies print their logo on tee shirts and they give it away for free.
I can't find any info on "integration marketing". I do quite a bit of reading and haven't heard anything about that. Possibly something good for a "make money online" blog to pick up and review.
Here's a free, outside of the box method - OFFLINE MARKETING! So many MMO heads overlook the power of offline marketing. You have a printer? Print out 100 flyers advertising your site/business and go around heavy traffic areas in your city town posting them on phone polls and handing them out to "prospectives" Make a sign with your URL in huge letters, attach it to a stick and stand on the corner of a busy intersection - have someone film the occurrence, the go home, chop it up in Windows movie maker, render it down to a MPG file and upload it using Tubemogul to several high traffic video sites.. Be sure to watermark you url in the video as well. I've got 20 more "unique" methods!
Canvas The Neighborhood - This is my favorite and it may not work for all businesses, but one of my clients had a great grand opening for their cupcake bakery due to this tactic. There were already a few cupcake bakeries in town and one that was really the talk of the town. I planned for her to focus on the immediate area around her store. She canvassed the neighborhoods within a mile radius. She put together a nice little package which consisted of two cupcakes, a nice brochure with menu, magnetic business card, and a letter from her announcing the grand opening. She then went through the immediate neighborhoods until she ran out of packages. She not only gave people a chance to sample the goods, but she was also able to speak with them face-to-face and build a rapport with the people that would be purchasing from her again and again. The entire first two weeks she had people lined up out the door all day until she sold out. This is the type of tactic that is worth its weight in gold. It makes your customers feel good about doing business with you and the word of mouth will spread like wildfire.
sponsoring or participating in local community events can help tremendously as well community welcome baskets also help allot on certain neighborhoods giving away a coupon or something like that.
that's just one type of integration marketing. You can contact companies in niches related to yours to put your offer on their "thank you page" so whether someone will purchase something from them your offer will appear...something like discount. It is an approach that worked for many people.
heh.. sponsor a streaker at a major sporting event. It worked well for Golden Palace back in the day...! -Moe