Oakley 'Rolls' Out New Marketing Plan

Marketing by Education

oakley Rolling O Lab

If you can't get your customers to come to you – then go to them. Sunglasses maker Oakley is taking that idea to heart as it launches its “Rolling O Lab,” a 40-foot RV the company calls its "mobile demonstration unit." The plan is to educate potential customers about Oakley’s newest technologies. The Rolling O will head straight for its target audience – sports-loving men – so watch for it at games across the U.S.

This kind of mobile marketing has been around for decades. It was 1936 when

Oscar Meyer

Oscar Meyer made a car into the shape of a hot dog and drove it around the U.S. promoting the brand. While Oakley is following in Oscar Meyer’s footsteps, don’t expect to see a sunglasses-shaped trailer in the parking lot of your local stadium.

Oscar Season Litigation

Academy Award winners may not be able to sell their Oscar statuettes, but nobody said those little gold men can’t be leased for a period of time – at least not yet. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is suing Universal Spheres and its subsidiary, online poker site GoldenPalace.com, for trying to dodge rules that have been in place since 1951, rules that forbid the anointed Hollywood elite from selling their prized Oscars. Instead of buying an Oscar, which GoldenPalace.com has tried to do, the company is instead leasing one – at $30,000 for 999 years. The Oscar in question: Morris Stoloff’s 1960 award for best score, which he won for Song Without End. The Oscar will be part of a traveling exhibit that showcases other such collectibles as William Shatner’s kidney stone, Britney Spears' pregnancy test and a grilled cheese with the image of the Virgin Mary on it.

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