Aap! - Alternative Advertising Possibilities

Nielsen is utilizing new GPS enabled mobile technologies to better and more accurately measure the relationship between audience and out door media.

Nielsen has developed a small, cell phone-size device to provide highly accurate reach, demographic and frequency data for interactions with out of home media.
In early tests in Chicago Nielsen recruited 750 volunteers who agreed to carry the device, called the Npod, or Nielsen Personal Outdoor Device, everywhere they went for 10 days.

Pre-screened participants defined into statistically representative demographic profiles, allowed their every movement to be tracked and recorded – like an automated digital version of those Nielsen diaries of old. Every 20 seconds, the Npod captured each user’s latitude and longitude, while a computer system compared the data with the coordinates of 12,000 “geo-coded� outdoor signs in Chicago, including bus shelters, standard posters, billboards and overhead signs.

The user’s experience and exposure to outdoor media is the matched and set into a matrix of other variables including speed of movement, distance from geo points, and display times, illumination, time of day etc to map the impact and impression of each interaction.

This data is then matched to established impression data to provide marketers, media owners and advertising agencies with a more detailed map of the interaction between viewer and media.

Definitely exciting stuff and explosive.

With out of home media continuing to grow at the fastest rate of all media aside from the internet - we’re looking forward to more details and results of this data.

Via Digital Signage News

Onitsuka Tiger of Japan has recently launched a promotional mini-sitelet displaying a mosaic shoe made of thumbnails and image links to Japanese sites.  Clicking on tiles takes teh visitor to one of hundreds of sites craweled by flash engine.  Images and links appear to refresh to reflect different models of brand.

Definitely fun and fresh - plus a unique way to explore the web.

While a bit nationalistic for our tastes with the “Made of Japan” slogan - we commend the agency for their creativity.

Visit the site - you’ll have fun

Okay even this shook us by surprise. We present another totally useless but fun innovation from Japan - the Fishtank/DeepFryer!

Its difficult to describe - a Japanese restaurant has combined a deep-fat fryer with a functional goldfish tank — the boiling oil floats on the surface of the cool water, and the fish get to eat all the crumbs of batter that dribble down.

Why? - Well it seems to us - just because they could. Watch the video for a better understanding of this truly “amazing” device.

Read more…

How’s it work you ask?

Well it appears the laws of chemistry hold true - even at 163 degrees Celsius oil floats on water creating a barrier in which goldfish happily stay away from the surface. The amazing part is that as food is fried overhead small crumps fall through the oil/water barrier to the surface.

Maybe afraid of the shock to viewers - the tank/fryer is stored away from customers providing entertainment and enjoyment to the cook.

Developed by the WaterFryer company - the device took more than 10 years to develop.

Our take? We love it - its funky fun and totally useless.

UPDATE! WE WERE WRONG - Its funky and USEFUL!

We’ve taken the liberty to do some reading about the WaterFryer company. The fish aren’t part of an evil torture device or a strange marketing campaign - but instead part of a demonstration of a rather unique solution to a common problem for chefs and cooks worldwide. As demonstrated by the video with the wok example. Food or items with water will create explosive dangerous splatter. This frying machine with its underlying water tank limits the splatter effect by causing the potential splatter to be released into the water below. AMAZING!!!

In its efforts to foster talent among young artists from Japan and abroad, Tokyo Wonder Site has held street painting sessions and Hip Hop projects, treating graffiti and club events as familiar and important parts of our culture. For this exhibition, together with Agnès B, TWS Shibuya is exhibiting a set of collaborative works made by two internationally active artists, Shephard Fairey aka Obey Giant and WK Interact.

With both of these artists coming from a background of making works filled with visuals that transcend the already visually saturated, sign-filled urban environments they both come from, the works on show in this exhibition have been made to the theme of “propaganda”.”

So states Tokyo Art Beat on the Obey Giant vs WK Interact “East/West Propaganda Project”

We’re big fans of the Obey Giant “global” brand and other similar Banksy like outdoor graphics.

In Tokyo check out the show on some of the most successful propaganda/ guerrilla grafitti campaigns in history @

Venue: Tokyo Wonder Site, Shibuya

Schedule: From 2007-03-23 To 2007-04-22

Address: 1-19-8 Jinnan, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0041

Phone: 03-3463-0603

We’re not really sure what to make of Justin.tv - the streaming reality web show portraying the life of Justin Khan 24/7 - but we’re betting this might be something that could explode in popularity. Is this the natural progression of video online? Will “you” be the next Big Brother? Are we gonna see a network erupt of other Justin’s or other streaming video loggers? I can’t wait for a hot girl 24/7. I’ve always wanted a human fish bowl.

Congrats to the guys @ Justin.tv from fellow monkeys at Aap!Global

A student interested in advertising contacted us and asked:

“Dear Aap!? How do you guys come up with all your crazy ideas? - Seriously where did you come up with the idea to put advertising on handrails? And more importantly how do you get the permission to do them? “

Our response? - Just one word - Coffee.

Drink enough of the canned Japanese variety and you too will be thinking up random and fun exciting thoughts.

To find the perfect blend to your need - we recommend the wonderfully delightful Canned Coffee blog - a review site of sorts covering the world of canned (Japanese)? coffee.

Go drink and be productive.

As for getting permission to do some of the things we do - we attribute it to persistence - as our friends at Nike would say - “Just Do IT!”

“OUT-OF-HOME ADVERTISING CONTINUED ITS METEORIC progress in 2006, growing 8% or $500 million from 2005, for a year-end total of $6.8 billion, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA). It outpaced every other medium except the Internet, which enjoyed 17.3% year-over-year growth, according to a new report from TNS Media Intelligence.”

Read the full report on the growth of out home media

Kapitaal is an amazing animated video illustrating the overwhelming amount of advertising we [face, enjoy, encounter] (choose your verb) every day in our urban cities…

Via - Wooster Collective

“Enhances your memory.
apotheca.com.sg“

Agency: Crush Advertising, Singapore
Creative Director: Kelvin Pereira
Art Director: Luke Tay
Copywriter: Omar Marks, Annette Lee

With there being over five billion player minutes a month dished out in CounterStrike - its no wonder that in-game advertising is finally live in some of its environments.  The new version makes adverts non-optional.  Ads are appearing in levels including Dust2 and Aztec.

I just hope in the name of realism - that players can interact with the adverts in all the many ways as non virtual world including defacing, adding graffiti etc.

Reactions to the news are mixed with player comments including:

Player Equalizier offers

“Now onto the adverts… Well I just hope they stay as apart of maps and not huge popups through your game, if that happened that would be a travesty.

Hmm, so if they are advert/sprites stuck to maps, does that mean the bsp files are going to be updated, or is there some technology out there, server side etc that just sticks sprites to certain objects in a map.

If the advertss are just like this, then I wouldn’t be too bothered, but still the community are disapointed.”

Player PIstachio Offers more criticism:

“What a crock this is. Is nothing sacred anymore? Am I the only one who has a problem with bringing corporate interest into our games? Wake up people, in-game advertisements exist because big-industry executives need to make their Lexus payments. And before anybody says “BUT PISTAHCIO! IT’S JUST A SUNGLASSES AD? WHATS THE HARM??! LOLZZ!!!11″ Shut-up. Its not just the ad, it’s the principle of it.

Call me crazy, but when I play game, I do it to go places and do things I can’t do in the real world. Its fun ya know? I don’t need to see a Pepsi billboard or a Dell banner in my games, it takes you out of the game. It reminds me of how the developers sold-out.

I know, here it comes: “BUT THE DEVELOPERS NEED TO MAKE MONEY TOO ROFLMAO!!!”

No shit? Of course they do. But why not make money by developing good solid games that people want to play? That people want to go out and buy? It subtly says something about the quality of the game if you have to sell-out to advertisers. If you made such a good game that you’re sure everyone will enjoy, then what do you need more money for? Did you put out a half-assed game? Let’s say the game is good. Is the expense of ruining a good game with greedy corporate interest worth the extra money?

The world wide web might has long-gone been one big mall where every site tries to sell you something any chance they get, but I’ll be damned if thats going to happen to my games.”

Player Peagle in response states:

“If there are ads in real life, why wouldn’t there be ads in a simulation? If anything playing cpl maps takes you “out of the game” because they don’t seem “real”.

More comments and reactions @ CS Nation