Obay - Simple, Effective, Viral

A mock transit ad campaign (shown above) has captured the attention of the marketing nerds, digital freaks, news hounds, pop culture geeks and quite a few other passerbys. From what's now been formally revealed (although Buzz Canuck had an inkling early on), it's a teaser for Ontario Colleges. The Torontoist did some good forensics teasing it out of the  Colleges Ontario director of communications late last week.

Effectiveness? Check out these two respeondents at Yahoo Answers:
"It's brilliant! because it is working, if people are talking about this campaign, then when the products are launched onto the market, success is almost assured!"

"It's Marketing 101. I've seen them too and they're driving me nuts. Someone mentioned that they're from Ontario Colleges, an association representing colleges across the province.Regardless, they're successful.  We're now talking about it, which is the point of this ad strategy."

All details will be formally revealed tomorrow by the Colleges Ontario, I just hope it's something worthwhile - because the campaign was very eclectic, invited discovery and has driven some pent up and wide spun buzz. I'm cautiously optimistic that the follow up will deliver some of the steak to match the grassroots sizzle over the last week.   

So here's an open  question - small outdoor media buy, effective in getting people's attention for its apparent riskiness/quirkiness (although from this professional's eyes, very little), curious why other brands with much larger budgets don't attempt the teaser ad approach more. It seems like we get one of these every year, it lands a lot of attention and we don't see another one for 12 months. Marketing practices that make you go hmmmm.