How does a small, left-wing weekly attract more ads from big companies?

The next issue of the newspaper already contained more advertising than ever before: for example, a double-page ad for Swisscom worth 9000 francs. All generated from a campaign budget of just 1200 francs. During the next quarter of the year the advertising income triplicated.

We surprise the companies by showing that we’ve already been advertising for them. We took their current ad from another newspaper. We read out the ad aloud on the street with a megaphone. We filmed the action and put it on YouTube. The marketing people of the company in question received a link to their piece of free advertising via e-mail.

People at the companies in question were soon talking about the YouTube movies. The link for the swiss retailer Migros, for instance, went to four people and within the space of a few days the movie had generated over 900 views. The next issue of the newspaper already contained more advertising than ever before.