 |
| Kit Kat park bench |
For those of you who don’t know exactly what ambient advertising is, it was best defined by Sandra Luxton in her article titled “What is this thing called ambient advertising?” where she defined it as “The placement of advertising in unusual and unexpected places often with unconventional methods and being the first or only ad execution to do so”.
 |
| Mc Fries pedestrian crossing |
This presentation was accompanied with a report. The report covered everything from the beginning of ambient advertising, to its purpose, to its effectiveness etc. In writing the report and presenting our findings to the class, I found it extremely interesting that although ambient advertising is often associated with out of home mediums such as; roads, buildings, stairs, cars, buses etc, it relies heavily on e-marketing. This is due to the fact that ambient advertisements are seen only by a relatively small amount of people. The advertisement hopes to be creative and unique enough that those who do see the advertisement will generate buzz and word of mouth about the advertisements. This is done through blogs, Youtube and other social networking sites. In fact, the majority of ambient advertising examples used in our report were taken from Youtube and various blogs.
 |
| Mc coffee street light |
Furthermore, ambient advertising is thought to be relatively cost effective. This again is due to the fact that individuals generally tend to share the advertisement with friends and family through their blogs, Youtube, Facebook etc.
 |
| A campaign for feed South Africa in which images of hungry children are placed in the bottom of shopping trolleys |
Considering the above statements, it is easy to see why Ambient advertising only began in 1996 and has steadily increased in popularity, as Electronic Marketing is essential to the effectiveness of ambient advertising!
P.S Does anyone have any other super cool examples of ambient advertising?
The South African One totally Works...
ReplyDeleteI was once involved in an add compaign in the cinemas for RMIT. It was the second time in the world interactive adertisement was put into place (well according to the director/producer). Anyway, the ad would come on and it had gaps in it for a live actor to talk back to it. It was pretty cool watching an actor stand up in a full cinema and have a conversation with the actor on screen. I'm not sure if this is part of ambient advertising but it's still very different!
ReplyDeleteI have always thought you could use car parks more effectively - In the city or at shopping centres, they have entire blank walls and floors that could be filled with funny or meaningful pictures. I have also thought that having a life size photo of a man with a broken bloody nose or someone throwing up just outside a club might curb some of the violence/ drunken behaviour. Or maybe it wouldn't help at all!
Spyke - I also think the South African campaign is extremely attention grabbing and effective. However, remember these ad's are placed in the bottom of shopping trolleys. I personally would feel guilty placing lots of food items over this image as it reinforces the fact that while i have enough to eat, many people in the world dont. Consequently, i think this advertisement would deter consumers from purchasing as much groceries as they otherwise would, which leads to lost sales for the supermarket. Consequently, while this advertisement may be good for promoting "feed South Africa", i think it does damage to the supermarket sales. I am genuinely surprised the supermarket approved this campaign. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteRichard, i know the campaign you are talking about, i've seen a youtube clip of it. It was an extremely creative campaign. I would classify it as ambient advertising as it was unexpected and unconventional and as you said one of the first campaigns of it's time. So were you one of the actors?
ReplyDeleteAlso i really like what you said about using car parks for advertisements. I know most people find advertisements annoying, but i personally really like advertisements and thus like to see them in boring places as they change the boring place such as a car park into something entertaining and fun. Good iead Richard!