Don't Confuse Ambient with Non-Traditional

In the realm of marketing, ambient media must be one of the most ill defined formats around of late – not helped by the hype it tends to generate, which seldom puts clarity above certainty.

There appear to be two schools of thought. The first is that which I subscribe to – that ambient advertising is when the execution is integrated into the environment, and works off the environment too - the message often being deliverable only when the environment is taken into account. Good examples are when Lotto ads were placed within the salmon racks in delicatessens, or when squashed cars were placed outside cinemas showing the Godzilla movie.  More recent examples include the Adshel ads that invited passers-by to put their heads in the holes for a Telecom phone photo, and the urine-activated drink-drive ads on urinals, both of which made great use in integrating creative with their environment, and in a relevant context with a well-targeted audience.

The second school of thought is that best summarised by Chris Monaghan, ex-Deltarg, who is setting up the New Zealand arm of Australia’s Ambient Advertising this month.  Monaghan agrees that the definition of ambient media can be a grey one – in his words, “the term ‘ambient’ was coined in the mid 90’s from the ambient music scene that created mood or atmosphere. Now it’s the common term used for niche out of home media. We are about non-traditional media, as media continues to fragment, advertisers are continuously looking for different ways to create cut-through and engage the consumer in memorable brand experience.”

Herein lies the confusion – between “ambient” and “non-traditional”.  Call me old-fashioned at the ancient age of 35, but toeing ads around on Vespas, placing them on petrol pump handles, billboards-on-trucks, car-park barrier-arms, coasters in bars or even plasma screen TVs strapped onto peoples’ stomachs is really just print advertising on a different surface – unless the message “works” with the location as discussed previously.  This is disconcerting, because this secondary view of ambient advertising - that it’s about “non-traditional media” - is a slippery road to hell, in my books.  Sure I think advertising is worthwhile, and can be genuinely useful and enjoyable – good advertising helps a culture as well as its economy.  But the promotion of “non-traditional” media will only serve to increasingly clutter the environment.  Kiwis returning from Europe will frequently note how cluttered with outdoor advertising New Zealand is, and despite the occasional inspired campaign, most of it does not positively add to the environment.  People often talk about the challenge of escaping their email and cellphone – need it be the same way just for a walk around town?

Ironically, ambient advertising cannot help but succeed in the short term, because its users cannot help but stand out and gain cut-through when they’re the only voice in a given environment.  But the likely success of ambient media will be its eventual downfall, as it becomes increasingly successful and mainstream – just witness how street posters have become almost passé. Once upon a time billboards would have been considered ‘ambient ‘ too.

But to be fair to Mr Monaghan and his colleagues at Ambient Advertising, they have also latched onto one of the most genuinely valuable and exciting developments in advertising to date – life-sized holograms.  Working with the Dutch company Vizoo, they can now present life-like, fully-mobile and interactive representations of a product or its salespeople.  Typically presented in a shop-window for passers-by to see, Vizoo enables the quickly-gathering audience to watch virtual models parading clothes, cars speeding and spinning doughnuts in front of them, or even just massive representations of consumer hardware. They can also interact with the holograms, changing colour and so forth. Again, this is not truly ambient advertising in my book, but nonetheless it is an awe-inspiring way to present certain products – cars being an exceptional example, requiring as they do a sensation of speed and dynamics, not normally achieved by gathering dust in a shopping mall.

So the view of the ambient advertising future is both scary and exciting – kind of like unsafe sex, so I’ve been told….

Jonathan Dodd