Experience Manifesto

Airport Advertising Takes Off - WSJ.com

Repeat after me. If the consumer is in control, then we can't f'in cram advertising down their throats! Either they're in control, or they're captive. The can't be both.

Travelers at Heathrow Airport's new terminal will be able to sip champagne at a Gordon Ramsey restaurant or eat doughnuts at a Krispy Kreme outlet. One choice they won't get: avoiding ads. (Emphasis mine)

In a major expansion of the world's busiest international airport, Heathrow owner BAA Ltd. is scheduled to open the airport's fifth terminal next month -- with more advertising than almost any airport in the world.

From giant billboards overlooking security lines to television screens in the underground train station, the ads have been positioned in ways BAA hopes will make them impossible to avoid. There are 333 billboards or posters and 206 flat-screen TV sets, which can change ads to target specific flights. By contrast, Los Angeles International has 34 advertising TV sets in the entire airport and New York's John F. Kennedy International has 40, according to JCDecaux SA, a Paris-based specialist in outdoor advertising that was hired to design and sell the new Heathrow ad space to marketers.

To map where passengers would walk, Decaux hired researchers with video cameras to follow people around other terminals as they checked in and waited for flights. The researchers also monitored passengers' pulses: The average business traveler's heart rate was 91 beats per minute, they found, compared with 70 beats for a relaxed person.

"Highly aroused people are receptive to messages," says Kevin Miller, Decaux's head of research on the project.

Typical Terminal Five visitors will see between 50 and 120 ads, depending on whether they arrive at the airport by car or train and whether they fly domestic or international flights, says Julie France, U.K. managing director of J.C. Decaux Airport. That's at least one ad every two minutes and 55 seconds, based on the two hours and 26 minutes an average traveler spends at Heathrow.

Link: Airport Advertising Takes Off - WSJ.com.

Notes From the Digital Frontier -- Are out-of-home TVs taking over?

Another opinion about the value of placed-based media. It's funny that anecdotally this is what I experience and what I hear from friends and family. Yet, when I read the studies about OOH and placed-based media, they always have very high recall rates. It seems especially true when it’s just ambient information, not related to what I’m doing. I’m interested as to what you think about this issue. How often to you ay attention to the OOH networks you encounter? Do you like them? Do you notice anyone else looking at them? I’ll get a poll up shortly.

Recently there has been a lot of hype in blogs and news stories about out-of-home screens as the next best marketing tool.

I’m not sold.

Now, television screens showing news are always appreciated. I absolutely love the TV screens in our university’s Atrium, because despite the fact that I’m usually running through the area, I can always check to see if there’s a national emergency. I also have to watch TV in the gym, because otherwise I wouldn’t stay there very long.

Traveling in and around London last summer brought me face to face with the very handy and attractive BBC news screens on the trains as well. As a new arrival in the city, current events, weather reports and highlighted attractions were much appreciated.

A few weeks ago, however, I noticed the blaring television screen installed above my gas station pump in Chicago – something we do not have in our college town, and something which was entirely ineffective as I was in Chicago and the last thing I wanted to do was stand outside in the freezing cold.

In my opinion, this is the central problem with touting out-of-home TVs as the next best thing – life just gets in the way. (Emphasis mine) I do look at TVs when I’m running around doing my daily errands but I’m inevitably concentrating on what I’m doing and not on what I’m watching. This goes for TVs in restaurants, doctor’s offices, and the mall among others. I know the TVs are there, but I don’t remember what was on them. That’s why this marketing tool is not as effective as some believe it to be. (Emphasis mine)

Link: Notes From the Digital Frontier -- Blog Archive -- Are out-of-home TVs taking over?.

Scotsman.com News - Scotland - Passengers sound off at noisy bus stop advert

Thanks to Adverganza for the tip on this story. Will they never learn? Here's what I don't understand. Look at what people in this article are saying. Then tell me how the agency always comes up with a good report on how well it works? Didn't the client read this story and jump in before people really hated them? If not, why not? Plus, there's great, directional sound technology out there -- maybe someone at Barcardi needs to start reading our blog!

IT is the latest in advertising designed to grab the attention of people on the street.

But a new campaign at Edinburgh bus stops has proved too successful in drawing attention to itself, prompting dozens of complaints about noise.

Flat-screen TVs were put up at a bus stops on Drumsheugh Place and Princes Street last week, as part of a two-month trial campaign for the drink Bacardi.

The screens played a rolling series of 20-second adverts to promote the firm's latest range of drinks, along with a soundtrack of dance music.

But nearby shop workers and regular bus stop users quickly demanded that the music was turned off.
One worker - who put up with the repetitive drumming of the dance music for more than ten hours - said she felt like "putting a brick though it".

Others said they saw people who were waiting for buses on Friday moving away from the shelter despite bad weather to avoid the noise.

Adshel/Clear Channel, the company that provides and maintains Edinburgh's bus shelters, has now turned the sound off at Drumsheugh Place and lowered the volume on Princes Street.

Commuter Elizabeth Duncan, 53, a secretary from Stockbridge who uses the bus stop at Drumsheugh Place every day, said she had been surprised at how loud the adverts were.

"It is just far too loud and has been driving people out of the bus stop because no-one wants to sit and listen to the same repetitive music over and over again, particularly at that volume," she said.

Several shopkeepers opposite the bus shelter on Drumsheugh Place also complained. Michelle Green, manager of Johnson Cleaners in the street, said she had been annoyed by noise from the bus stop all day on Friday. She said: "I started my shift at 7.15am on Friday and finished just before 6pm, and the noise was going all day, from the moment I arrived until I left.

"I can only assume it was going on during the night as well, and I really did feel like throwing a brick through it.

"I really don't think that is the way to advertise. If anything, it will turn people away." (Emphasis mine)

Link: Scotsman.com News - Scotland - Passengers sound off at noisy bus stop advert.

Link: Adverganza: This time, it's not the smell ... it's the noise

Japanese vending machine offers free drinks for watching ads - Engadget

In a marketing case that just sounds too good to be true, vending masters Apex Corp. have purportedly laid out plans that will bring free or subsidized non-alcoholic beverage to thirsty consumers who are willing to watch a 30-second commercial before partaking. Aiming to launch next month in Japan, the MediCafe project will give users the option of plunking down the 70 ($0.58) to 120 ($1) required to purchase an item, or watching an advertisement for half a minute while the machine dispenses their liquid of choice. It was noted that not all drinks would be free, as some advertisers would only be offering up discounts in exchange for your attention, but this still sounds like a much more legitimate way to receive gratis soft drinks than other alternatives we've seen

Link: Japanese vending machine offers free drinks for watching ads - Engadget.

MediaPost Publications - Online, In-Cinema Games Play Into MSNBC.com Brand Campaign - 04/03/2007

We're very excited to be a part of the new branding program for MSNBC.com. We're bringing a cool, large group, audience interactive technology that was orginally developed at CMU. You can see some video I shot at a CMU event a few years back, but we won't using that content. Although, I have to admit, when people play that game at our Lab, they usually have a pretty good time with it! We'll post more once the games been launched.

MSNBC.COM'S FIRST BRAND CAMPAIGN ANGLES to get newshounds to interact with its vast content hub by means of an interactive game and screensaver, along with an unusual in-cinema effort that deploys a new technology.

"We want people to engage with the brand and the idea," said Marty Cooke, chief creative officer, SS K. "The game is kind of fun because it's like the old Tetris game where the bricks are falling and you have to catch them." When readers click on a brick, they are connected to a real-time headline and news story on MSNBC.com.

"The idea of linking the banner ads to the real time news is really cool; you see the stories manifest out of the bricks," Cooke said. The agency enlisted Fuel to create the online RSS game, while the in-cinema game was created by Brand Experience Lab. Boston-based Beam crafted the screensaver and online ads.

The in-cinema game will debut in May in three theaters in L.A., Philadelphia, and White Plains, N.Y., and uses a never-before-used technology called Magic Mirror developed at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

The audience looks at the screen and tries to catch the bricks. In order to catch the bricks it must lean to the left or the right to move the game paddle. The paddle responds in real-time to the collective motion of the audience. The camera sees the audience and controls the motion of the paddle.

Link: MediaPost Publications - Online, In-Cinema Games Play Into MSNBC.com Brand Campaign - 04/03/2007.

adfreak: Uniforms with ad panels: a new frontier!

Another example of a new advertising format that doesn't actually answer a question anyone has asked. And see, we're not the only ones thinking that this whole captive audience thing isn't that funny.

Designers long ago transformed clothing into self-promotional vehicles via labels and logos. Now, Eye Level Marketing (a division of the Billboard Clothing Co., probably not related to Armani) has begun placing big ad panels on employee uniforms. And aren’t they attractive? Eye Level says workers at sports arenas, state fairs, theme parks, supermarkets and drugstores are perfect for their signage. But why stop there? It’s not such a leap to imagine Pfizer and J&J buying space on physicians’ scrubs, or Taser and Smith & Wesson advertising on police uniforms. There’s a joke there about a captive audience, but it’s not funny.

Link: adfreak: Uniforms with ad panels: a new frontier! .

Adrants -- Kleenex Let it Out Campaign Gets Hosed by Greenpeace

I actually enjoy these commercials from Kleenex. I think that they're funny, touching and commercials that I always stop to watch. And we rarely buy anything but Kleenex in our house. But, I have to admit, I thought that this was pretty clever too! Nothing like using your own event against yourself! They could've done something that really interrupted the experience, but instead, Greenpeace decided to use the axctual forum that Kleenex created to air their complaints. Now, it'll be interesting to see if any of that footage gets used or if Kimberly-Clark will make any changes to their manufacturing process.

Over the weekend in Times Square, the Kleenex Let It Out campaign in which people let their emotions out while Kleenex films them was infiltrated by Greenpeace which is irked Kleenex manufacturer Kimberly-Clark uses "ancient growth" forests in their tissue products. Greenpeace activists, posing as distraught individuals complained about Kimberly-Clark's apparent deforestation tactics while Kleenex PR people had nothing much to do except let it happen, even when some activists unfurled a banner for Kleercut, Greenpeace's tree hugger effort.

Link: Adrants -- Kleenex Let it Out Campaign Gets Hosed by Greenpeace.

Reynolds Wraps Up Your Valuables - AdPulp

Loved this!

Link: Reynolds Wraps Up Your Valuables - AdPulp.

Polaroidadgoodness - advertising and design blog

For the town that banned outdoor advertising, this is a pretty cool promotion. And especially that it is for Polaroid, a brand that's usually written off as having no place in today's high tech world, it's particularly cool! I also think it’s cool that they’re using their own product for the promotion. What better way to get people to play with it!

Polaroid replaced mirrors by cameras in shopping malls and business centers in São Paulo, reinforcing the brand’s concept “Instant Images”.

Link: Polaroidadgoodness - advertising and design blog.

Some fear billboards distract drivers | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

When officials in this Minneapolis suburb didn't like the two eye-popping digital billboards that Clear Channel erected along the freeway, they pulled the plug. They had the power company cut off the electricity after just a few days.

That move in December sparked a court fight that local governments and the advertising industry alike are watching as digital billboards with fast-changing messages become more prevalent.

The glowing signs offer advertisers a tantalizing new means of cutting through the urban clutter. But some officials worry that the bright billboards, which display a new image every few seconds, are another dangerous distraction for drivers, many of whom are already multitasking behind the wheel.

"If you see a big bright screen and it's flipping its image like a computer, that's going to pull your eyes off the road for a couple seconds," said Bill Steinbicker, a retired marketing executive who supports his city's fight against Clear Channel, the nation's biggest outdoor-advertising company.

Link: Some fear billboards distract drivers | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle.