Have you seen the sofa?

I’ve just had a lovely lunchtime experience – all thanks to the marketing people at sofa.com I was stood at a bus stop with about four other people and a moving sofa came tearing past – stylish brown leather (I think) complete with pot plant, comfy cushions and magazines. Oh! and a www.sofa.com message. At least two other people at the bus stop laughed out loud, the guy “driving” the sofa waved (not often you get to write that sentence) and when I look around everyone was smiling. For a moment, it was a bit like being at a village carnival! Unfortunately with a top speed of 92mph the moving sofa moved quicker than I so no photo… (although click on the youtube link below to really see it in action) The success of ambient marketing is notoriously difficult to assess, but observing these people you could see that this mechanic has certainly achieved cut through and consumer interaction – quite literally at the street level. How successful it is in terms of call to action is much harder to say. I cheekily asked the woman who got on the bus with me whether she would visit sofa.com when she next wanted some furniture and she said “I don’t know, but they seem like nice people don’t they”. Not quite a resounding yes, but I do wonder if this could mean that on brand building level the moving sofa has had some impact?