In its third year of turning the city of Toronto into a free all-night contemporary art thing, Nuit Blanche left me wondering one thing: How could advertisers benefit from this in a way that didn’t invade the consumers’ space?

This issue is two-fold, and we’ll begin with the obvious first. The event draws over a million people out onto the streets of Toronto. These people want to be impressed and left in awe with what they see. What should you do? Impress them. But how?

Many companies have access to technology and resources that are not always available to artists. Take Project Blinkenlights for example. With a bunch of high-powered lights, they were able to turn the windows of Toronto’s City Hall into a giant screen, where anyone with a cell phone could play a game of Pong. With proper access to innovative technology like the Philips Lumalive Fabric, or using the software demonstrated by Johnny Lee for the Nintendo Wii at the TED conference, artists could create amazing work – with your brand as the hero.

What else can you do? Take a look at the exhibits you see, and think about how your product could be used within them. Take the opportunity to put your product into the hands of consumers. Zombies in Condoland turned walkers-by into zombies for the remainder of the night; any makeup company could have donated their product to the exhibit and had samples given to the freshly bitten zombies. Opportunities are all around us, and smart advertisers will take note of how to get involved in a non-obtrusive way.

The second – and possibly more important issue – is the need to consistently examine your culture as a source of inspiration. We aren’t living in a bubble here, and smart creative doesn’t come purely from a studio. Great marketers consistently engage with events,  exhibits, and opportunities that make them think – not just marketing conferences, not just awards shows, but places where innovation and creativity in all fields is being demonstrated.

We’re talking independent gallery showings. We’re talking scientific documentaries. We’re talking heavy textbooks. We’re talking walkabouts of neighbourhoods you don’t generally go to. We’re talking anything that separates you from your own standard way of thinking. Because exposure to a wide variety of new ideas will encourage you to get out of your own head and view your environment as somebody else -  and train you in the art of capturing consumer attention.

So what do you do?