Aap! - Alternative Advertising Possibilities

An interesting art project sparked our interest on the popular blog “We Make Money Not Art”

Sascha Pohflepp is a new media artist based in Berlin.

His Buttons (aka the “Blind Camera”) captures a moment at the press of a button. However, the device doesn’t have any optical part instead memorizes only the time of the picture and immediately searches the net for other photos that have been taken in the same moment.

Essentially, it is a camera that only takes photos that were created by someone who pressed a button somewhere else at that very time as its own button was pressed.

Sascha Pohflepp writes.
After a few minutes or hours, depending on how soon someone else shares their photo on the web, an image will appear on the screen. In a way, it belongs half to the person who had pressed the button and still remembers that moment. Because of that connection, the photos are never dismissed as random, no matter how enigmatic they may be.

Video.

We share a similar attraction to the project as lead blogger of “We make money not art” writes:

“Brilliant stuff, Sascha! I’m sure i’ll still want to take my own pictures but i’d love to have another one that allows me to do on the spot what i can’t help doing when i upload my images on flickr: snooping around to check the photgraphies of other users who attended the same event as me or know the same person or happen to be in town that day.”

Well worth a look, Blink, the other chapter of Sascha’s project.

An associate of mine here in Santiago, Chile has forwarded me information on the Santiago advertising industry.

Information for the world.

Inversion Publicitaria (en Dolares).

  2004                2005
Tv Abierta        1.276.964.623    1.254.992.720
Prensa             644.974.919          710.353.395
Revista            77.943.424              81.603.689
Vía Pública        43.887.876             46.135.314
Metro                    10.805.961        23.439.399
TV Cable               175.236.083     192.296.485
Total                2.229.812.885    2.308.821.002

Great to see out door media growing! -

Notice the spark in the metro where we are working from 2004 > 2005!

Sao Paulo is South America’s Tokyo - a massive jungle of concrete - layers and layers of people mashed through out door media, neon and matching grafiti, movement, layers of systems of transportation, eras of buildings growing off each other like wild mushrooms.
We love Sao Paulo for its intensity and color. We’re inspired by its people and its creativity and as an outdoor media company we sometimes focus on the visual that is communicated by and to its residents. In Sao Paulo - the impact of advertising is impossible to ignore – giant sky scraper walls are covered in massive space, screened street posters line favala walls showing the uninhited nature of Brazilian society. We’re inspired by how far marketers are taking outdoor media in the city – an inspiration for our work globally.

But Sao Paulo’s mayor, Gilberto Kassab, takes a dim view of this non-stop barrage of product promotion - much of which, admittedly, has been put up illegally.

From a BBC article on the topic we learn:

Mr. Kassab calls it [advertising] “visual pollution” - and if he has his way, all big public advertising displays will soon be banned from the city.

Mr Kassab has submitted a bill to the Sao Paulo city council that would completely change the urban environment, prohibiting practically all outdoor ads in their present form. “I know the bill is radical, but it’s emblematic,” he says. “It’s controversial, but necessary for the city.”

“Ordinary Paulistanos are not too keen, fearing that the city’s grey concrete would look even greyer without the generous splashes of colour provided by advertising.

“It would be like New York without Times Square,” said one. “No, it would be like eastern Europe before the fall of communism,” said another.

Others have dismissed the initiative as a publicity stunt by Mr Kassab, but Brazil’s advertising agencies are worried.

Back on the streets of Sao Paulo, Mr Kassab wants to replace the hoardings with “street furniture” - bus shelters, information panels and kiosks like the ones in London or Paris.

Our take - Remove the colors and splash that the graffiti and advertising offer the city and you’d be lined with a concrete drab of brutal grey. More – remove advertising and you’ll remove a steady stream of revenue share from advertisers with city governments.

Anyway one know of an online petition to keep color and creativity in Sao Paulo?

[ Source: Img #1, Img #2 ]

Geisai 10
Hours: 10 AM to 6 PM
Location: Tokyo Big Sight East Hall 4
Tokyo International Exhibition Center 3-21-1 Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0063, Japan

アート作å“?ã‚’ã?¤ã??ã?£ã?¦ã?„ã‚Œã?°ã€?ã?„ã?šã‚Œã?¯å€‹å±•ã‚„グループ展をä¼?ç”»ã?—ã?Ÿã?„ã€?ã?¨ã?„ã?†äººã‚‚多ã?„ã?¯ã?šã€‚ ã?¨ã?“ã‚?ã?Œã€?個展やグループ展ã?§ã?¯ã€?準備や資金繰りã€?集客ã?ªã?©ã?Œå¤§ã??ã?ªè² æ‹…ã?«ã?ªã‚Šã?Œã?¡ã€‚ ã??ã?†ã?—ã?Ÿåˆ¶ç´„ã?®ã?Ÿã‚?ã?«ã€?ã?„ã?¤ã?¾ã?§ã‚‚展覧会を開催ã?§ã??ã?ªã?„ã?®ã?§ã?¯ã?¤ã?¾ã‚‰ã?ªã?„ã?§ã?™ã?­ã€‚

ã??ã‚“ã?ªäººã?«ã?¯ã€?ã?¯ã?˜ã‚?ã?®ä¸€æ­©ã?¨ã?—ã?¦GEISAIã?«å?‚加ã?™ã‚‹ã?“ã?¨ã‚’オススメã?—ã?¾ã?™ã€‚ ã‚‚ã?¡ã‚?んベテランã?§ã‚‚å?Œã?˜ã?“ã?¨ã€‚低予算ã?§æº–備もラクラクã€?ã?—ã?‹ã‚‚1æ—¥ã?§1万人もã?®äººã?¨å‡ºä¼šã?†ã?“ã?¨ã?Œã?§ã??ã‚‹ã?®ã?§ã?™ã€‚ ã?“ã‚Œã?¯å¤§ã??ã?ªãƒ?ャンスï¼?利用ã?—ã?ªã?„手ã?¯ã?‚ã‚Šã?¾ã?›ã‚“。

More info > http://www.geisai.net/

“Paul Curtis aka Moose is no regular graffiti artist. In fact, he’s the reverse-graffiti artist. He created his street art by *cleaning* the dirt and grime off of surfaces!

Authorities are baffled: is selective cleaning a crime?

From an NPR interview we learn :

The tools are simple: A shoe brush, water and elbow grease, he says.

British authorities aren’t sure what to make of the artist who is creating graffiti by cleaning the grime of urban life. The Leeds City Council has been considering what to do with Moose. “I’m waiting for the kind of Monty Python court case where exhibit A is a pot of cleaning fluid and exhibit B is a pair of my old socks,” he jokes.”

We’re big fan of the layers that make urban centers and Graffiti one of those layers is of motivation to us working in outdoor media.

But do a little more research on Paul Curtis the man behind Clean Graffati and you see that he’s started a small boutique agency using his signature style graffati in urban centers for advertising clients like Microsoft XBox, Size?, Smirof and a few others. Check out his agency Symbollix if you are interested.

Here is some work he did for the television series Big Brother. Should he be fined? Should he share his profit from the project with the city as would other more conventional bill boards and other outdoor advertising?

Helen Keegan of BeepMarketing explores some of the usage of Mobile Marketing on Vending Machines in Japan. Here is an excerpt of her conversations with Jan Kuczynski of W2Forum on the matter.

“Coca Cola uses the mobile phone as a loyalty point system for their Cmode mobile-enabled drinks vending machines in Japan. consumers can use NFC (near field communication) or a QR code generated by an application installed on their phone to purchase drinks at Cmode vending machines. For each purchase, consumers earn loyalty points which are stored on their mobile phone. As the number of loyalty points increases, the consumer’s loyalty ranking ‘levels up’ and the number of loyalty points earned per drink purchased also increases. Consumers can redeem loyalty points as free drinks at a vending machine, or on digital content such as screensavers and wallpapers at the Coca Cola mobile site. To use the loyalty scheme, consumers must first register to become a member of “Club Cmode”. Club Cmode provides Coca Cola with the opportunity to interact with their consumers as well as promote new products and sell mobile content.”

Mobile technologies can add levels of interaction to static media.  Read some of our work in the area using our Aap!Mobile platform.

An interesting form of marketing is explored by Regine of We-Make-Money-Not-Art, who write about propanda films used to spark internal US consumption in the 1950s.

Design for Dreaming is one of the key Populuxe films, showing futuristic dream cars and a “Kitchen of the Future.”

In this surreal musical, a lovely brunette is introduced to the joys the “Kitchen of Tomorrow” furnished with a machine that reads recipes off computer cards, a glass-walled refrigerator, and an hemispherical glass oven that seems to be able to make a cake complete with lighted birthday candles on top.

Watch the film and read some of the commentary assocaited with the project.

Moleskin is about to launch a new series of guidebooks called City Notebook, giving travelers and city dwellers the opportunity to write their own guides.

Very, very fun.

More on the books:

The custom guidebooks feature a map of the greater area as well as smaller detail maps, a metro map and station index, a filing system for food, people, and places, 48 adhesive labels for personalizing, detachable sheets for quick messages, and tri-color ribbon bookmarks the City Notebook is a way to explore a place you’re just getting to know or to catalog a place you already love.

What’s really cool about the little books are the included stick-on translucent overlays which make it easy to trace one’s own path along the maps or to design a custon walking tour. Held secure by the standard elastic closure and sewn bindings, sturdy construction makes Moleskine notebooks steadfast travel companions—not to mention that the classic nondescript black cover doesn’t scream “tourist.”

Launching this October in London the City Notebooks will be available for Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Dublin, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Prague, Rome, and Vienna, with books for Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal, New York and San Francisco slated for 2007.

Why are we interested in this? Well we think there is a unique and fun possiblity in retaking cities, in rescoping them with personalized added levels of content - new levels of dimesion and fun.  Even more exciting to us is how these new levels of information can be shared to add even more levels of depth.  In Japan we’re working with QR Codes to intergrate the real world with the digital world.  (read about our work using QR Codes in Mobile + Outdoor media campaigns).  Imagine if personalized diary guide books could record your navigation and store the information to be shared with family and friends.  The future is even more exciting - we’re visualizing a world when walking by hot spots pushs content to users.  Imagine walking by an historical building and learning that Coke sold its first bottle there in 1956).  From geo-coding locations via photo sharing sites like Flickr, to accessing sites in real life via your cell phone - we think the future is definitely interesting.  While we don’t yet see the future like the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report in which billboards flash custom advertisements to individuals who pass by - we see a present and future where the role is reversed - where individuals can pull information from sites using cell phones, computers, and other gadgets just like they are in Japan via QR Codes.

Stateside - we’re impressed with what Counts Media has been doing.

They’ve rescoped DC with an interesting information from a documentarian Punk type perspective.  Very interesting indeed.

“ Yellow Arrows Point the Way to D.C.’s Punk Past  “
Watch carefully in the coming weeks and you may see them. People roaming the streets of Chinatown, Adams Morgan, Mt. Pleasant. They’ll stop to check their cell phone, punch the keys, wait, check again, then move walk down the street looking with strange interest at empty buildings, houses and random Starbucks. Yellow Arrow’s Capitol of Punk tour, which we previewed in May, kicked off this week, turning D.C. streets into an impromptu museum for a look back at the city’s storied punk rock history, from back in the days when “harDCore” was spelled with a capital “D.C.”

Read more about the project retaking the streets of DC

Here’s a list of 20 great Japanese TV commercials, with inline YouTube video. Seriously funny stuff.

Newborn monkeys, like infant humans learn by imitation. Researchers at the University of Parma made faces at newborn macaques who then responded in kind. According to the biologists’ paper published online along with some amazing video in the freely-accessible Public Library of Science Biology (PLoS) journal, the experiments suggest that this kind of imitation with a purpose, as a form of social learning, is not limited to apes and humans as previously thought. Rather, it evolved more than 25 million years before the monkey ancestors diverged from the human lineage.

Implications? For us - this type of research proves again why advertising is so effective. Advertising invokes imitation, and just like the monkey sticking out his tounge - when individuals see something interesting a desire to mimic insues.

Is advertising simply way to socialize, to create a group think, to impart social norms?
Your thoughts?
Read more about the research