I think one reason for this could be that Yellow Pages has traditionally been printed, therefore posters/stickers became a natural extension of their printed directories. For Google, it has taken them some time to leap into this new media.

In Australia, the trend for Google has been to launch services/make announcements when the public are least expecting them (Australia Day aerial photographs?) – so.. today we see no posters around town, however when they are printed, you’ll definitely know about it

Anna,

you gave a good example of old and new media being meshed together – another example is coupons (one of the oldest form of advertising around!) with http://www.zixxo.com

In this case, a user searches for online coupons issued by businesses in their local area. These coupons are promoted by Google, Yahoo etc and for those coupons offered by at bricks and mortar businesses, users are required to print them out and hand them in with their purchase.

Mark
http://www.raveaboutit.com.au

There is and theres is no point in disintegrating old and new media: they are so thickly feeding and regurgitating each other:
Google Maps online
poster promoted on street
photo of poster put on blogs, flickr

next step:
blogpost on poster photo promoted on street etc.

I quite liked the idea of a German group that built a huge Google maps red balloon in the street, too. (although their film on youtube could have been shorter, and with really good music)

Thanks for pointing me to that article! Cause even so I read loads of stuff I didn’t come across this one before.

“To attract writers in new cities, the social network cum city guide is hiring freelancers to play the part of enthusiastic fans”

Shows

1. You need help to get to the tipping point /**surprise** I know

2. It’s a clever idea to get “opinion builders on board” even if that’s not for free

… Accountant and freelance writer Maria Christensen, 42, played that role to help get Yelp established in Seattle, working 10 to 20 hours a week for $15 an hour. “We’d watch [the user base] grow from a handful to a few hundred, to more,” she says. The marketing assistants are also encouraged to write reviews, but that’s not their main job. Yelp tried paying $1 a pop for reviews in new cities, but that often failed to yield quality content….

Actually I can’t think of an example in that local social area, where the roll out to a much wider area was successful.

Cheers Frank

Reminds me of some of street promotions that Yelp are currently running in various cities in the US :
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2006/tc20061207_915943.htm

Certainly blurs the divide between online and offline advertising!

Cheers,

Mark
http://www.raveaboutit.com.au