Beyond mobile spam.

Ray-ban has almost proven that mobile marketing can be so much more than stupid little banner ads pushed to your phone. Last week in New York, the sunglass company staged a fake flash-mob to stare at their newly commissioned billboard artwork and attracted a lot of attention: [via UTalkMarketing]

Ray-Ban has done just that to promote its latest outdoor creation – a huge building wrap created by Ron English.

Famous for being a “billboard usurping culture jammer” (ie. he creates illegal outdoor ads attacking big brand corporate culture), this time English has jumped ship for dollar to work with the eyewear brand.

The six-storey ‘adverart’ work has been unveiled in the heart of Manhattan as part of the brand’s ‘Project Colorize’ marketing concept.  But how to generate interest?

Ray-Ban’s answer was to stage a series of fake-flash mobs. Street teams converged onto 6th avenue, staring at the ad, decked out in Ray-Ban shades (obviously), and froze like statues.

The result? Lots of passing commuters stopping in their tracks to see what the mobbers were looking at.

Isn’t this what mobile marketing is all about? (Accepting, of course, had the flash-mob been real.)