TThere is a new form of advertising on Long Island that people are talking about. The advertising is called Birdvision (trademark) and the company that has developed the technique was developed by Guerilla-Gorilla Advertising Agency, which is based out in Sayville.

Last Wednesday a group of geese were spotted flying over the towns of Southampton, East Hampton and Sag Harbor in perfect formation, forming the word “PEPSI.” It got the attention of just about everybody that was walking outside that afternoon, including myself. I was heading back to my car after getting some lunch at John Papa’s Café when I heard the squawking of geese up in the sky and I looked up, expecting to see the standard V formation. But I noticed immediately, that these geese were flying oddly and then as I focused even more, I realized that the geese spelled out the word PEPSI.

“Oh, my God, look at that!” I yelled to my friend Justin with whom I had just finished eating.

“What, dude?”

“Look man, it spells out the word Pepsi!”

“No way.”

I immediately got on the phone and called up my Dad, “Sounds like a good story for the paper.”

The geese were in full view for about three minutes and then they faded off, heading east. Justin and I both looked at each other completely dumbfounded. Were we seeing things? We verified the remarkable sighting with each other about ten different times, then spoke with some other people on the street who noticed the geese and who all acknowledged that they saw it too.
After a little research, I found Guerilla-Gorilla Advertising Agency and gave them a call. I learned that they have been in the advertising business for just five years, but have already made a big stir about how they market their products. Their CEO, Richard Tulio, used to work as a brand manager in Manhattan, but found out he liked guerilla marketing more and realized that he could start his own company. “My first idea for guerilla marketing was to hire high school cheerleaders to spell out brand names while they did their cheerleading routines. It worked pretty well, but was way too difficult to manage payment to the cheerleaders and there was also the trouble with squads not being very good. But from that failure, I learned a lot and discovered my bread and butter moneymaker, which was literally made from bread and butter. I called up a contact at Moose Creek Steakhouse, an old friend of mine, and told him about baking brand names into the bread that they give out at the beginning of the meals. The idea worked, and we were able to make some money on that advertising.”

After he was successful in selling bread and butter branding, Mr. Tulio got the geese idea in his head while at his son’s high school football game and hearing a flock of geese overhead. “I just said to myself, wow, those geese are really noticeable, and when I saw them flying in a V, I couldn’t help but think, Verizon would kill for this kind of marketing.”

From there, Mr. Tulio created Birdvision, by developing a follow the leader technique for geese using high frequency technology to get them to spell letters. The whole concept takes advantage of the fact that geese fly in formation by following a leader.

“The secret lies within our custom made neckband transmitters. It’s a little complicated, but basically we can trick geese into thinking their flying in a V, when they are actually flying in different formations. We only put a transmitter on to the lead goose and the rest simply fly around the leader, or so they think. We can make them spell anything.”

Guerilla-Gorilla Advertising can also make the geese fly in specific flight patterns, so long as the weather permits, using the same high-frequency technology, but are limited to how long they can do that through animal rights regulations.

So far, the client list that Mr. Tulio has been able to rack up is very impressive. Pepsi, Honda and Budweiser have already signed up for this summer when the geese return from the south. So don’t be surprised if you think you are losing your mind when you look up into the sky and see a flock of geese telling you to buy a Budweiser.

Guerilla-Gorilla Advertising has grown over the course of five years from a staff of two to a current staff of 73 in their Sayville offices and other offices in Manhattan and in Buffalo. Who knows what they will think of next?