What started out as an anti-advertising campaign by artist and art director Ji Lee in New York back in 2002 has now developed into an idea with the potential to take ads closer to consumers.
The original aim of the Bubble project was to “counterattack the one-sided corporate onslaught of marketing and advertisement messages that propagate public space”. But far from being subversive, it now it seems to be the way forward.
The Bubble project started when Ji printed 15,000 stickers, die cut into the shape of speech bubbles, and started pasting them onto posters. The passing public then started to add comments to these blank bubbles, of which he then photographed and posted on the web. Yes this could be seen as heavy socio-political stuff, but in our industry surely we need people to challenge us?
In 2006 Ji published a book on the Bubble project called 'Talkback', and rather than attack advertising, he embraced the new era of advertising. By filling in the bubbles, consumers were engaging in the idea and transforming “the corporate monologue into an open dialogue”. In the world of social networking and community engagement this is a brilliant idea. An idea which has now spread globally. In the UK you can join it through Facebook (or type in The Bubble Project (UK) into groups).
But as a brand, or a traditional agency, you could see it two ways. Old school – You are defacing my ad. New school – You are ‘enfacing’ my ad. (Enfacing is a new term for taking something dull, and making it more interesting). Those bubbles on the poster are designed to create social comment. And why not? Shouldn’t customers have a voice?
The idea that we just talk AT the public is fast becoming outdated and irrelevant, and will no doubt freak out many brands and agencies. But the few that want to be progressive will more than likely embrace this as a concept. Surely we should be looking to developed concepts that allow the public to make their message more important than the brands. In fact I think it’s only a matter of time before we see a campaign for a top brand that looks like it’s a victim of the Bubble project, but is in fact manipulating it.
These ideas are making the more innovative minds in adland think. We are living in a world of co-creation and collective thinking, so the idea that consumers can interact with ads has to be the way forward. The old style creative team can be replaced by consumer creativity and a creative director who filters, develops and manages the ideas.
The Bubble project may seem like a bit of fun, or even anarchist, but it’s more significant than that. What it really signifies is that the consumer is now in control, not the brands. And as a consequence the role of agencies as the ideas creator could now be questionable.
Showing posts with label Advertising Industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advertising Industry. Show all posts
Tuesday
Is it the end of advertising as we know it?
The trends toward creative populism, personalised measurements, interactivity, open inventory platforms, together with greater consumer control, is going to generate more change in the advertising industry over the next 5 years than it has experienced in the last 50.
Increasingly empowered consumers, more self-reliant advertisers and ever-evolving technologies are redefining how advertising is sold, created, consumed and tracked, so the traditional advertising players; agencies, broadcasters, and distributors will be affected unless they can successfully implement consumer, business model, and business design innovation.
There is no primary role for linear TV any more, and we are seeing the ‘neutral’ evaluation of all media formats meaning that many of the skills and capabilities that were the foundation of success in the past will need refinement, transformation, or even outright replacement.
The latest research from IBM Global Business Services points to four change drivers which are shifting control within the industry:
Attention
Consumers are increasingly exercising control of how they view, interact with, and filter advertising in a multichannel world. TV time is now rivaled by PC time as consumers continue to shift their attention away from linear TV and adopt ad-skipping, ad-sharing, and ad-rating tools.
Creativity
Thanks to technology, the rising popularity of user-generated and peer-delivered content, and new ad revenue-sharing models, amateurs and semi-professionals are now creating lower-cost advertising content that is arguably as appealing to consumers as the versions created by agencies. The survey suggests this trend will continue with user-generated content sites becoming the top destination for viewing online video content, and established players, like magazine publishers and broadcasters partnering with advertisers to develop strategic marketing campaigns – taking on traditional agency functions and broadening creative roles.
Measurement
It is expected that 20% of advertising revenue will shift from impression-based to impact-based formats within three years as advertisers demand more individual-specific and involvement based measurements, putting pressure on the traditional mass-market model.
Advertising inventories
New entrants are making ad space that once was proprietary, available through open, efficient exchanges. As a result open platforms will start to take more of the revenue currently flowing to proprietary incumbents such as broadcasters.
Increasingly empowered consumers, more self-reliant advertisers and ever-evolving technologies are redefining how advertising is sold, created, consumed and tracked, so the traditional advertising players; agencies, broadcasters, and distributors will be affected unless they can successfully implement consumer, business model, and business design innovation.
There is no primary role for linear TV any more, and we are seeing the ‘neutral’ evaluation of all media formats meaning that many of the skills and capabilities that were the foundation of success in the past will need refinement, transformation, or even outright replacement.
The latest research from IBM Global Business Services points to four change drivers which are shifting control within the industry:
Attention
Consumers are increasingly exercising control of how they view, interact with, and filter advertising in a multichannel world. TV time is now rivaled by PC time as consumers continue to shift their attention away from linear TV and adopt ad-skipping, ad-sharing, and ad-rating tools.
Creativity
Thanks to technology, the rising popularity of user-generated and peer-delivered content, and new ad revenue-sharing models, amateurs and semi-professionals are now creating lower-cost advertising content that is arguably as appealing to consumers as the versions created by agencies. The survey suggests this trend will continue with user-generated content sites becoming the top destination for viewing online video content, and established players, like magazine publishers and broadcasters partnering with advertisers to develop strategic marketing campaigns – taking on traditional agency functions and broadening creative roles.
Measurement
It is expected that 20% of advertising revenue will shift from impression-based to impact-based formats within three years as advertisers demand more individual-specific and involvement based measurements, putting pressure on the traditional mass-market model.
Advertising inventories
New entrants are making ad space that once was proprietary, available through open, efficient exchanges. As a result open platforms will start to take more of the revenue currently flowing to proprietary incumbents such as broadcasters.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
