Media and advertising will be everywhere

“Add this to the endangered species: blank spaces,” opens an article in today’s New York Times on pervasive advertising. Some of the innovative ways it mentions in how advertising is filling the blank spaces in our environment include:

* Eggs in supermarkets are being stamped with CBS TV show titles

* US Airways airsick bags and seatback trays

* Chinese food cartons promoting Continental Airways

* Examining table covers in doctor’s surgeries

* Video screens in taxis

* Turnstile gates

* Interactive floor displays that respond to people walking on them

* Toyota and Unilever projecting ads on building sides

* Dry cleaning bags

Absolutely. This is how we described Media is Everywhere, one of the five ideas transforming media that we included in our Future of Media Report 2006:

In the future everything from walls and table-tops to cereal packets and clothes will be screens and video will be everywhere. E-paper will add video and audio functionality to the formerly static pages of newspapers, and books will play commercials for the author’s latest novel. If the advertisers have their way, there will be no respite outside your front door.

Implications: Consumers may respond aggressively to the commercial invasion of public and private spaces. Devices such as TV-B-Gone will be used to shut off or shut out clutter.

Opportunities: Getting messages closer to consumers. For example, since 70-80% of purchasing decisions are made in-store, ads will be in shops and malls rather than on TV at home. Producers of quality video content will reap a bonanza.

Of course there will be pushback from consumers and local government. But within whatever boundaries are created, there will be more experimentation, especially in micro-spaces, which will gradually be filled with moving images. And in time we will grow to accept media and advertising being literally almost anywhere we turn our attention.

http://cbrayton.wordpress.com Colin Brayton

I think there are countertrends to consider. For example, in São Paulo, Brazil, where I maintain a second home with my wife, the city has now severely restricted outdoor advertising,shop signage, and many other elements of visual clutter, including multimedia advertising. The Av. Paulista is not, and if these people have their way never will be, Times Square.
And this is not just some passing lefty conspiracy either, mind you: These folks are reformist conservatives, hooked into the same network of major metropolitan mayors as Michael Bloomberg in New York.
Also, the advertising industry in Brazil, once almost completely “self-regulating” — and which prides itslf on being on the cutting edge of all these trends you mention — is now being forced to formalize its relationship with the local equivalent of the FDA, which is showing signs of a new activism.
So viral marketers, do not make your reservations for hog heaven just yet. In Brazil, the local governments, which are in the process of consolidating a new federal framework on regulatory cooperation, as part of a general political reform, can push back damned hard. Harder than you think, I would bet.
http://www.rossdawsonblog.com Ross Dawson

Absolutely Colin, this is a story of countervailing forces – on the one hand unfettered (or so they hope) advertising, and on the other social and governmental response. It will play out differently in different locations, particularly for large signs, but always the unregulated gaps will be filled, accounting for most of our attention. I was actually in Sao Paolo just after they banned smoking in restaurants – one of the first cities in the world to do so – so I’ve certainly seen that Brazil can be progressive in social legislation….