AMBIENT ADVERTISING

Ambient Advertising is: The placement of advertising in unusual and unexpected places (location) often with unconventional methods (execution) and being first or only ad execution to do so (temporal).

Newness, creativity, novelty and timing are key themes in ambient advertising. This definition is deliberately narrow and attempts to exclude ‘mainstream’ advertising Implicit in this definition are that Ambient is a moveable and somewhat subjective term and will shift according to the advertising norms of the day.

One of the fundamental premises of Ambient is that the world is an advertising stage. Everything is a potential advertising medium—sides of cows, rockets, golf-hole cups etc.

Ambient was first used in relation to advertising in 1996 by Concord Advertising, a UK agency specializing in outdoor campaigns.

It evolved from a need to apply a single term to what was an increasing request from clients for ‘something a bit different’ in their advertising. Clients, concerned with issues of cut-through, competition, decreased effectiveness and disinterested audiences wanted (and still want) advertising ‘with bite’ from their agencies.

This push by clients for something different saw agencies placing ads in unusual places, such on as floors, petrol pump handles and backs of toilet doors - previously not considered as locations for advertising.

Such campaigns did not fit neatly into existing categories like out-door, print, radio or television and hence anew term was coined. Unusual locations are considered a defining characteristic for Ambient advertising.

However, ‘unusual locations’ lose their point of difference with repetition and time, and so cease to be something different.

This suggests two things. Unusual location is not the only point of difference for Ambient. The method of execution is often unusual as well.

Holographic projections, role-plays and graffiti are a few examples of this and certainly fit within the ‘something different’ imperative

 Messages on the backs of car park receipts

 Hanging straps in railway carriages and on the handles of supermarket trolleys

 Projecting huge images on the sides of buildings

 Slogans on the gas bags of hot air balloons

 Ambient media in the field of advertising are often mixed with ambient media developed based on ambient intelligent technology

 

Ref: Dr. H. Lakdawala's Media Planning & Buying Notes