I jumped into my car, reached for my seatbelt and looked up at the campervan parked in front of me. The message on the back appeared to be hand-written, like someone had just dipped their finger in a can of paint. It read: I love every body. Yours is next. Taken with their humour, I scanned the remaining area for more information about who this person was. The print scrawled across the back window read:
www.wickedcampers.com. Sometime later I spotted another wicked looking camper. Instantly recognising their trademark style, and eager for more wicked wit, I searched for the slogan and wasn’t disappointed: The liver is evil. It must be punished.
Targeting those on a backpacker’s budget, the Wicked Campers image is reminiscent of the old VW Combi Vans. Each one is themed to give the van its own personality complete with a name derived from the hand-painted, colourful, quirky images adorning the vehicle. The wicked finishing touch: an original, irreverent and witty hand-written “message” on each van. This company has very cleverly tapped into the backpacker culture, and in doing so has skillfully created their own.
By opting for outrageous antics Wicked Campers have built their marketing into their brand identity. This is a great illustration that marketing is no longer what you do to a brand after it’s built. To get mind space in today’s noisy marketplace, brands need to build marketing into their brand.
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Seeing as most businesses have a limited marketing budget, a new and attractive option for webmasters and small businesses might be to use crowd-sourcing. 
Thanks to new technology and the ease of recording music these days, artists are able to produce wild tunes for people with even the most particular tastes. Many people don’t realize this but their bands (or Brands as we might call them) are effectively targeting ultra specific niches.
