If there is one nation that takes pedestrian safety and traffic laws seriously, it is the Germans. Last month the Bavarian city of Augsburg installed a series of traffic lights into the pavement at several intersections with high foot traffic. Their reasoning? Following the death of a teenager who walked in front of a tram while texting on her phone, city officials figured these new lights in the sidewalks would keep pedestrians who couldn’t be bothered to look up from their phones informed about crossing signals. Another example comes from car-saturated Los Angeles – where in 2019 over 236 people were killed in car crashes, and more than 50% were walking – a serious problem for human lives and a telling reflection of how cities prioritize human foot traffic.
The idea may sound a bit hokey, but Augsburg is on the cutting edge of civil engineering when it comes to a now pervasive phenomenon of modern life: people spend a whole lot of time looking down at their phones. What’s more, it takes considerable effort to get them to look up. One study showed that 60% of adults prioritize their smartphones over walking and linked this phenomenon of “distracted walking” to a recent rise in pedestrian injuries and fatalities. We can bemoan this phenomenon all we want, but all signs point to it being here to stay.
But safety concerns aside, there is an important marketing lesson to take away from our German friends’ efforts to keep traffic flowing smoothly. One of the most underutilized advertisement spaces in today’s world is right beneath our feet. Here is why you might want to consider floor advertising in your next marketing campaign.
Heads up! Your customers are looking down.
Americans spend 4.7 hours a day looking at their phones. But they’re not just looking at their phones, they are looking at their phones while doing everything else: eating, commuting, driving, exercising, walking, you name it. Competing with a smartphone for the attention of a customer (or anyone, really) doesn’t seem quite so daunting when you keep in mind that the average person is actually quite used to multi-tasking with a phone in hand. You just can’t always expect them to look up.
Floor decals are not the newest product on the market, but they are now more relevant and useful than ever. If it strikes you as somewhat lowly to put your brand’s logo on a floor or sidewalk, it may be time to reconsider. Given the rising likelihood that a consumer’s head will be tilted downward at any given time, the ground we walk on may be just the space to get your brand in your customers’ line of vision. If your goal is to get customers to actually see your message, start brainstorming some floor sticker marketing ideas for your next print campaign. A floor advertisement is placed exactly where your customers will see it.
Advertising with Floor Decals – from Outdoor Concrete to Indoor Wood
Let’s be honest – a floor decal marketing campaign is only as good as the creative. Your campaign should elicit a strong emotion – humor, joy, disgust, anger – all depends on your campaign goals. So it’s really a combination of medium + message + location for the biggest impact. You must think creatively and merge it with your overall campaign. That being said, there are some tactical advantages of this method on the product site – namely their versatility and cost.
Beyond working in tandem with consumer phone habits, a floor sticker marketing campaign can come with a whole host of advantages.
Capable of being cut to most any size or shape, they are incredibly versatile. The low cost and unimposing 2D nature of a floor advertisement makes it possible to place large sizes and quantities in any given space without obstructing foot traffic or breaking your budget. That means you can put them exactly where people are walking, and not in some distant corner. Easy to apply to both textured and smooth surfaces, floor decals are just as easy to remove and cause no damage to the original surface. Laminated with slip-resistant coating, there is no danger that a floor sticker will cause accidents (distracted walking, aside). Floor stickers are safe and non-slip enough even to be used as dance floor decals.
And while concrete graphics and other floor stickers may not last forever, the bright side is that the faster they get worn out, the better they are working. Here are some floor sticker ideas and examples to get your creative juices flowing.
Floor Sticker Marketing Ideas to Try Out
Footprints are a common way to use floor advertising to guide customers to a specific location or product. Depending on how you look at it, there is something either pleasantly poetic or mysteriously film noir about following a trail. Either way, footprint floor graphics are highly engaging. If the first set goes unnoticed, the second or third are sure to get pedestrians wondering, “Where does that lead?”
Another way that concrete graphics or floor stickers can engage your customers is by fantastically transporting them to a destination of your choosing. Use floor advertising to set the scene for an epic vacation and let your customers’ imaginations do the rest. Consider floor sticker marketing ideas that employ clever placement and an element of escapism, especially where there isn’t much else for your customers to be looking at. Waiting areas are the perfect place for your customers to ponder your floor stickers. Public transportation is another great place for a floor advertisement.
The 2D nature of a floor sticker doesn’t preclude 3D effects. Making creative use of perspective, a floor decal can appear as if it were popping out at your customers. Done correctly, the effect can be visually stunning. Not to mention, floor advertisements can be incredibly engaging. Say good bye to customers walking by your message without even seeing it. With creative floor sticker marketing, your customers will will making a point to walk right through them.
I mean, just look at how much joy this man must be experiencing as he walks over this bridge. I’m getting a fear of heights just looking at this:
Floor Graphics and Experiential Marketing – A Dynamic Duo
One of the more modern approaches to marketing is experiential marketing – a practice of immersing visitors in the brand or product through interaction, storytelling, and multi-sensory design. These events garner lasting, emotional connections between a brand and its consumers. Essentially an antidote to yet another Facebook ad.
Experiential marketing campaigns can be part of an event like a trade show, or can be a part of every day life, such as placed in a city center for passers-by to enjoy.
Floor decals are but one part of an experiential marketing experience, and can be a cornerstone element, depending on the campaign.
Floor Sticker Ideas with Selfie Potential
Maybe you’ve noticed a certain downward trend in photos shared via social media. Sister to the selfie, there is no denying that people often take photos of their feet. This is not much of a surprise given that their phones and attention tend to be pointed in that general direction to begin with, but this trend does bode well for your floor sticker marketing campaign. A combination of clever placement and the right footwear on the part of your customer can lead to plenty of likes and shares. Clever floor sticker ideas are ripe for sharing! Consider employing floor advertising that is highly attractive and engaging, and it may be photographed and shared even further.
There is a certain impressive novelty to high-flying advertising like aerial banners or tremendous bill boards. But given that the average customer’s vision isn’t oriented upwards, these high-profile marketing tactics may be on their way out. Aside from some serious cost advantages of floor sticker marketing, floor advertising with decals makes creative use of the high traffic spaces we too often take for granted. The ground we walk on could be the next great frontier for print advertising and sticker marketing campaigns.
For more information about floor advertisements and sticker ideas, visit our product pages: