totallyMAd – The Blog

Effective ambient campaigns, using the space around you

by Lindsey Kin

In an Editorial Desk piece I wrote recently, I commented that with the use of ambient media and its artiste statements attached, such campaigns will stand out from the crowd. If marketers want to secure the immediate attention of their consumers, ambient media is the way forward in today’s congested marketing environment. Such campaigns will make you look, even if you do not want to; generate interest, even if there was none to start with; and are out of the ordinary, so they will grab one’s attention, creating buzz around a campaign, and in turn, increasing brand recall.

Here are some campaigns that I came across whilst conducting my research for my Ed Desk. They are awesome:

An international example: Guangdong Advertising, Beijing, China created the ‘Excretion Vision’ campaign for Greenfamily Youth Association of Environmental Protection. Guangdong was challenged to raise people’s awareness about environmental protection. The agency erected huge billboards on drainage holes, where dirty water created the synonym for human excretion, resulting in a strong visual impact as well as psychological, and even physical, abhor. Strong interaction between audience and campaign was created, making people aware of protecting the environment, as well as the consequences – both sight and smell – if they did not.

As a local example, winner of the ambient media category, at this year’s Out of Home Media SA (OHMSA) Awards, the Durex campaign titled, Play-O Broken Bed stand at the Sexpo, was designed by MorrisJones & Co. It featured a bedroom in shambles with a broken bed and shattered mirror, making the ad relevant and interesting for its clients, as well as the inquisitive ‘passer’ at the show.

Feed SA, a charity dedicated to feeding disadvantaged people throughout South Africa, teamed up with TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg to create an effective campaign to increase contribution of food to Feed SA. Images of hungry, begging street children were effectively placed at the bottom of supermarket shopping trolleys, bearing the Feed SA website, www.feedsa.co.za, as well as the following line: ‘See how easy feeding the hungry can be’. Any food that was placed into the trolley appeared as if ‘actual food’ was being given to a street child.

Lowe Worldwide, Belgium, created the ‘Axe emergency exit sign’ campaign for Axe deodorant’s. Emergency exit signs were utilised to create the ‘image’ of an irresistibly ‘fine’ smelling man.

Do you have any interesting links, to any amzing ambient media campaigns? Post your links below.

For a ‘look-see’ at more campaigns that I came across during my research, click on the following link: www.mediaupdate.co.za/?IDGallery=23601. What are your comments on these campaigns? Post you comments below.