Think different. Make it memorable. Just don’t offend or be too intrusive.
Fast Company posted a fascinating article on the potential future of advertising this month. Advertisements can now be found next to electrical outlets in airports, ads can talk to you when you’ve parked your car in a store’s parking lot, and of course you’re attention is captured by any message in the urinals of the mens’ room. I’ve struggled with this sometimes. I will see the ads on the poles in the Times Square subways station – noting that its good that they’re there because people will avoid bumping into them, and I’ll say “that’s a genius place for an ad,” but I’m also annoyed that the world is becoming less simple, and we’re being innudated with jargon and eye clutter everywhere we go.
Inc magazine took a different spin on this advertising future a year ago. This guy has a nice perspective, too.
But the messaging I’m most interested in is not mass related. Its targeted. Targeted marketing and targeted advertising. Hit the optimal people on the mark. Find the realtionships and use them. I LOVED Ray Bednar’s approach, as outlined in Wired awhile back.
“I have seen manners that make a similar impression with personal beauty; that give the like exhilaration, and refine us like that; and, in memorable experiences, they are suddenly better than beauty, and make that superfluous and ugly. But they must be marked by fine perception, the acquaintance with real beauty. They must always show self-control: you shall not be facile, apologetic, or leaky, but king over your word; and every gesture and action shall indicate power at rest. Then they must be inspired by the good heart. There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us. ‘Tis good to give a stranger a meal, or a night’s lodging. ‘Tis better to be hospitable to his good meaning and thought, and give courage to a companion. We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a picture, which we are willing to give the advantage of a good light.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Comments on this entry are closed.