A friend just shared with me a video showing a television set being installed on the floor in front of a WC in a public toilet. At first I looked at it with my conservative eyes and thought: “We have gone too far.” But soon after I started thinking from the point of view of an advertiser, and although I still maintain that yes, we have gone too far in taking advantage of people’s private space, from an advertisement perspective it makes quite sense. Let share why.
A few years ago I met a young American lady who just launched a new startup, aiming to bring innovation into supermarkets through animated ink. When — puzzled — I asked her what she meant to achieve with such innovation, she reasoned it in this way: Until the end of the last century, and perhaps the first half of the first decade in the 2000s, we used to stand in a long queue at the supermarket with nothing to do, except for looking at the display.
That is why all those yummy products were placed on display at the counter. Gums, chocolate, candies... and even useful things, like batteries for example. Nowadays, look at the queue in a supermarket: everybody has their eyes glued to the screen of a smartphone. Instagram has become the new entertainment. Therefore, the sales of the “last meter items” have gone down drastically.
This was her reasoning for developing stand displays printed with a special type of ink that moves around, so that the colour movement could catch the eyes of the queuers. Snatching a few precious seconds of attention of the distracted bypasser has become a huge challenge for advertisers. In the Singapore subway stations, the billboard contractor promotes static advertisement spaces by stating: “Too bad you can’t scroll this.” and “Zero followers, but 1.5 million commuters per day.” Many bus stations around the world add QR codes to the posters so that commuters can interact with animated content. A big part of the Augmented Reality frenzy was about keeping passive audience engaged during waiting periods of time. So I totally understand the intention of the American young lady and her startup about animated ink.
Talking about ink, I have seen countless people getting a tattoo of their favourite brand. I assume that none of them has been commissioned, paid or even subsidised by the “advertiser”, but it is rather a spontaneous declaration of loyalty to a brand by a consumer. I wonder however, if some celebrities would consider permanently tattooing their body with the logo of their sponsors. For instance, can you imagine a celebrity like Cristiano Ronaldo getting a tattoo with the logo of the manufacturer of his sportswear? Some may say “that is crazy, a tattoo is forever”.
Others would reply: “Now you can laser a tattoo away anytime... and perhaps get another sponsor on the same spot, when the contract with the former is over.” Both ways, if the TV set in the Chinese toilets is an invasion of the private space — that everyone should be entitled to — a logo tattoo would be an invasion of someone’s body, something even more outrageous I would guess.
Although advertisers are trying all sorts of ways to grab the attention of the audience, the traditional advertising is still very much alive. I often counterattack the usual statement about social media having destroyed traditional advertisement. It is not true in my opinion.
Also, even more incorrect, is to say that social media advertisement is free of charge. Not at all... Big brands pay a fortune to target and retarget users based on what they browse, what they are interested in, and more incredibly, what they talk about.
The other day I went to visit a friend who just bought a new property with a large terrace. But the previous owner neglected the maintenance of such a potentially beautiful balcony, therefore it presents itself as rundown and old. So my friend talked to me about his plan of renovating his terrace by changing flooring. I remember asking him if there is on the market such a thing as a type of waterproof synthetic material that resembled wood. He confirmed that he saw one and then we moved on talking about something else.
The very next day, while I was reading the news online, one of the designated banner spaces featured... guess what? You guessed right: a waterproof synthetic material that resembled wood. Our phones are always listening to our conversation. In a way it is comforting to know that we will always find what we are looking for, but in a way it is so scary to think that we have no longer any secret. The Big Brother Advertisement is always listening.
stefano@virgilli.com
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