Cutting through the cereal aisle, I stopped in my tracks at what I saw and even had to stop and snap a picture of it with my phone.

A single balloon had been tied to the shelf and, as you can see, a Publix employee had demonstrated (whether intentionally or not) a stroke of marketing genius.

There were no other balloons on the rest of the aisle and so after grabbing my coffee I scanned all the other aisles looking for balloons as well. None to be found.

So why the balloon for the Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes? Was it THAT GOOD of a sale? Even though these days a box of name-brand cereal for less than $2 is certainly a bargain (some are like $6!!!) I honestly think that they may have simply run out of the Publix-themed sales tags for this item and one quick-thinking employee or manager stepped up to the plate with the balloon.

But that’s not the point.

In fact, the balloon isn’t even the point. Balloons have been used in promotions for decades. All you have to do is look at just about any car dealership on a Saturday if you want to see a ton of balloons.

The point is that it was unexpected, effective, and unobtrusive marketing. Those are three key points that made people flock to those Frosted Flakes even more than lovable ol’ Tony the Tiger in this particular instance.

Unexpected – Nobody expects a balloon to be hanging from the supermarket shelf so it definitely grabbed the attention. There was not one person that didn’t stop to read what was written on it. This is the same psychological trigger that beckons us to strain our eyes to read the banners being pulled behind airplanes while at the beach.

Effective – Like I said before, $2 for a box of name-brand cereal is nothing to sneer at these days. That’s a pretty good deal if you’re one of those parents that like to hop your kids up on processed sugar first thing in the morning. My point: no matter how good every other variable is, no marketing is effective if its not somehow a good deal for the customer, whether that good deal is price, convenience, content, or otherwise.

Unobtrusive – If I had a great deal and I hired some call center to randomly call your cell phone about it, your knee-jerk reaction is to tell that telemarketer to get bent. Somehow, telemarketing still works to at least some degree or I wouldn’t be getting offers for extended car warranties on my mobile phone each week. However, the vast majority of people abhor telemarketing with all of their soul.

Why?

It’s obtrusive. But there’s nothing obtrusive about a balloon hanging onto a shelf in a grocery store. In fact, it’s downright pleasant and cheerful. This makes me ask myself the question, “How obtrusive is my marketing and what can I do to make it more pleasant?”

Take a few minutes every now and then to step back and give your marketing a truly objective observation to gauge, among everything else important, just how unexpected, effective, and unobtrusive it is. By adding a dash or so of each of those three elements, how much more effective can your marketing become?