As 70% of buying decisions are made in the `purchasing context', marketers have to move from `at large' to `at the moment' to woo the customer. Floor advertising is one such channel aimed to influence the customer `in the context' when he is about to buy a product.

Recently, a London-based guerilla marketing firm Cunning, recruited 40 college students to wear temporary tattoos of SCION, the new car marque from Toyota Motor Sales on their foreheads1 to publicize and build brand awareness. Media planners are always on the look out for such unconventional methods to grab customer attention and then transform that into sales through pitching their offerings `differently'. One such unconventional method of Point of Purchase (POP) that is gaining momentum is, Floor Advertising (FLOORads). Simply put, it means ads on floor. So, next time when you stroll into a retail mall, you may tread over one or two brand advertisements. If you are a marketer, you will justifiably ask, `Will it work? Would companies accept their brands being trampled under the feet? What happens to the brand equity? What purpose do FLOORads serve? This article attempts to answer many such questions.

Floor advertising concept is not a novel idea; it struck Fred Potak2 way back in 1995 while running his industrial graphic company in Montclair, NJ. He then joined Rebh Brothers3Richard and George, to sell the concept of floor space ads to retailers. After initial resistance, a few retailers and companies opted for this medium to pitch their brands as a `last ditch attempt' to lure the customer at the retail outlet and influence him to buy the product. Their strategy worked! Floor advertisements started building the bottom line of companies. According to a study4, FLOORads can improve sales up to 25%. The impact of FLOORads also varies depending on product category. In an in-house study, Floor Graphics Inc., attribute percent of increase in sales of certain product categories directly to floor advertising (under specific controlled conditions). (Refer graph.)

With such promising results, hopes on the medium have been heightened and advertisers increasingly started committing funds on FLOORads as a part of their media mix. Another reason that contributes for the success of floor advertising is its low CPM (cost per thousand impressions) costs. While the one-time cost to air, a 30-second television commercial would amount to $450,000, a decal on a store floor would cost half that for a month's worth of exposure.