Spotted these 10 sumo wrestlers along Orchard Road?

Over the weekend, ten men in inflatable sumo outfits were seen fighting alongside Orchard Road as part of an activation for multi-currency wallet YouTrip. 

The stunt, created by the YouTrip marketing team, was designed to engage the public in a unique and memorable way, according to a statement seen by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.  The concept came from the marketing team's personal experiences where friends and family jokingly claimed they'd do anything to win free flight tickets, it added. 

Don't miss: Guerilla marketing stunts certainly capture attention, but do they drive conversion 

The stunt was captured by TikTok users @sofreeiashoot, @jojolbao95 and @felicia.bai1 and was circulated online. In the TikTok videos, the sumos are seen fighting and challenging each other as a man hover over them carrying two signboards. One of the signboards reads "Battle to win free fights to Japan", while the other features a giant boarding ticket from Singapore to Japan. 

In one of the TikTok videos, a sumo is seen challenging a frog mascot known as Captain Green.

The stunt comes as YouTrip gives away 100 flights to Japan for users who sign up and spend with the YouTrip card. To qualify for the giveaway, new users will have to download YouTrip and sign up with the promo code '<Fly100>. Meanwhile, existing users have to simply spend a minimum of S$500 or in foreign currency equivalent with their YouTrip card from 10 October to 8 December to qualify. 

In addition, giveaway participants will have to follow YouTrip on Instagram, like and share a post, comment their Japan bucket list and finally, tag a friend they'd like to go to Japan with. Only three participants will stand a chance to win a pair of flight tickets to Japan. 

"YouTrip is committed to providing our users with exceptional travel and payment experiences. We're excited to launch this giveaway to reward our users' love for Japan and their trust in YouTrip. Japan’s allure is undeniable and we're proud to be travellers’ choice of payment method as they explore the country with greater ease and confidence," said Kelvin Lam, chief operating officer of YouTrip. 

YouTrip is not the only brand to unveil a marketing stunt in recent months. Over the 11.11 sale period, fashion and lifestyle eCommerce platform ZALORA took things offline by painting the town red. Over the week, people dressed in bright red spandex took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to promote its deals. 

In Singapore, people in red spandex walked around iconic locations such as Orchard Road, the Merlion, Raffles Place and more with red trolly carts and boxes that read "Shop more. Save more". 

Certainly, guerilla marketing stunts are not new to our industry and definitely helps to cut through the clutter. However, do these types of guerilla marketing tactics work beyond awareness and actually drive conversion? MARKETING-INTERACTIVE asked subscribers on its Telegram channel where a 58% of respondents said they do not see these tactics as one that would then encourage them to buy online. Around 41% said that it would only pique their interest.

One of the reasons this could be the case, according to Ron Graham, management team member at Plan B Media and ex-COO of Kinetic Worldwide, is that the stunt is simply a stunt. "Without a solid message and specific value proposition, it will likely not result in conversion to action," he said. 

Meanwhile, Delbert Ty, chief marketing officer at Coffee Meets Bagel said for stunts to work it has to accomplish a few things, one, make a direct and inarguable impact to some business metric. That could be website visits, google searches, transactions, and the likes. When asked how a brand can then successfully turn an activation into a conversion on the customer front, Ty explained that there really is no formula for consistently going viral especially in this day and age of blackbox algorithms governing our lives.

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