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Austin’s White Hat Aims to ‘Help Make the World a Quieter Place’ with Gun Silencers

Originally on AdWeek by: Erik Oster

 

Austin agency White Hat has a rather unusual client.

The agency began working with The Silencer Shop, a retailer and distributor of gun silencers for the outdoor sports (hunting and shooting) market, last year.

“The Silencer Shop walked through the door with product so unique that it was impossible not to get excited about it,” White Hat co-founder Deborah Magnuson-Elliot said in a statement. “They were lost in the traditional gun industry advertising space, and we were certain doing the unexpected for that industry would get them far.”

“We saw the opportunity immediately – talk to their audience verbally and visually in a very unusual and graphic way,” added co-founder Pat Stark. “And we will build their awareness and image much faster.”

So how does an agency break out of the “traditional gun industry advertising space” and reach a broader audience?

White Hat launched a campaign entitled “Help Make The World A Quieter Place” which targeted regional markets with broadcast, digital and print ads, as well as a mailer in the shape of a silencer, OOH efforts and t-shirts, hats and stickers. The campaign aimed to instill brand loyalty in a wider audience while supporting a transition to online distribution. Broadcast efforts featured surreal, nearly-silent scenes of guitarists quietly rocking out, mimes, tiptoeing elephants and ninjas, concluding with the message that “A silencer on your firearm makes the rest of the world seem like a very loud place” and the “Help make the world a quieter place” tagline.

Now the agency is working to extend the campaign with an endorsement of the brand’s mobile app from Tea Partier, Fox News political commentator, TheBlaze host, Ted Cruz-backer and paranoid author of Hands Off My Gun: Defeating the Plot to Disarm AmericaDana Loesch.

There’s also a series of print ads which further the “Help make the world a quieter place” message. At the center of the effort is a full-page print ad which will appear in the September issue of NASCAR’S annual yearbook, released Sept 3.

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