Aap! - Alternative Advertising Possibilities

Outside of our office is a beautiful massive 40 floor wall scape that was just waiting to be covered with artwork. Using common vintage overhead projectors, a set of EVD 400V lamps, and artwork transparencies we were able to project large format graphics to create a fun, professional wall scape.

Want to see it person - visit the corner of Kearny / Pine in San Francisco on week nights.

Aap!Global is presenting @ Pecha Kucha - San Francisco August 29th on the topic of Legal Graffiti and New Media!

Come meet with us and others to talk about design, art, entrepreneurship and innovation.

New to Pecha Kucha?

Pecha Kucha (pronounced peh-chak-cha) was started in Tokyo, Japan in 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham Architecture, as a way to attract people to SuperDeluxe, an event space they had set up in Roppongi.

A Pecha Kucha night is an event format in which presenters show a slideshow of 20 images, each of which is shown for 20 seconds â?? giving a total presentation time of 6 minutes 40 seconds. Each event usually has 14 presenters. Presenters (and much of the audience) are usually from the design, architecture, photography, art and creative fields.

The event format has been replicated in 42 other cities, including New York, London, Mexico City and Shanghai. Events are usually limited to one each month per city.

More info @ http://www.pecha-kucha.org/

‘GATWICK Passengers landing at Gatwick airport are being greeted by a giant naked pole dancer. The 9,000 sq m (100,000 sq ft) image is painted on grassland under the incoming flight path

.

Planning officers are investigating whether permission was granted for the advertisement, which promotes a website. The Council to Protect Rural England said that the display was â??a tacky advert which set a nasty precedentâ??’

Expect copy cats to follow suit.

And yes - of course we took a peak at the site…

Illegal and a first for Japanese Politics - upper house member Kan Suzuki has opened a virtual office in Second Life in hopes of winning a 2nd term. Suzuki is using Second Life to discuss policy, field questions and to propose new policies with net citizens, deliver lectures and also hold meetings.

But Mr Suzuki, who is seeking a re-election in the upper house in July, could be breaking the electoral law. Japan’s Public Office Election law, which was drawn up more than 50 years ago, limits the distribution of text and images for use in election campaigns to postcards and pamphlets. Sounds like a great idea - but Japan’s fifty year-old Public Office Election limits election campaigns to using only postcards and pamphlets.

Officials have recently ruled that web pages cannot be created or updated during the official period of campaigning for elections.

While probably a PR stunt - Suzuki’s act bring up some interesting questions and points:

- Is Suzuki breaking the law if he passes out “virtual” postcards & pamphlets while “chatting” with citizens in Second Life an act he is allowed in the “real” world?

- Is Suzuki - an active upper house member actually trying to engage younger people instead of the usual practice of targeting the old - the only who vote in large numbers in Japan?

-Isn’t it time the entire Japanese political campaign trail went viral and virtual - letting us sleep in morning without hearing the campaign blasts of their loudspeaker equipped vehicles?

Well at least according to research that appears in June’s Journal of Consumer Research. The research paper “An Examination of Different Explanations for the Mere Exposure Effect” concludes that repeated exposure to a product via banner ads generates a positive feeling towards that product.

The research is based on previous experiments that revealed the repeated exposure to a stimulus, even one that is barely perceptible will lead to the viewer developing positive feelings and thoughts to an otherwise neutral object. These feelings can include a liking or more subjective and complex associations such as “fame, truth, duration, loudness, stimulus brightness and darkness.”

The authors hypothesized that banner ads should work in a similar manner, given that “most viewers pay minimal attention to banner ads.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Hakuhodo DY Group i-Business Center and IT DeSign have developed the â??movie QR code,â?? a new proto-type of the popular QR code that incorporates moving video into its design.

QR code is a type of two-dimensional barcode that has grown popular in Japan in recent years, because it provides a simple, automated way for users to enter data into their mobile phones. By using mobile phones to scan QR code that appears in an outdoor advertisement, for example, users may be directed to a website containing more detailed product information. [read about our work using QR Codes and other mobile technologies in out of home media]

The problem with printed QR Codes is their chaotic barcode like arrangement.  IT DeSign recently developed the â??Design QR,â?? which incorporates static images of logos, characters or photos into the code. Movie QR takes pushes the idea forward with incorporation of moving images into the design.  Movie QR Codes are optimized for use on video screens and will allow potential scanners to interact more effeciently with the codes.

There is great potential for this type of technology for media clips. A Coke Commercial could end with a QR code snap inviting users to scan the code and be taken to special download coupon areas etc.

As the blog Pink Tentacle adds this type of thing is already happending > “A commercial video containing a mock QR movie code has been circulating the web for a while. The video, called â??Kung Fu High School Girlsâ?? (Kanfuu Joshi-kousei), begins with two high school girls talking about Black Jack (the famous manga character). Things get nasty when the girls disagree about whether Black Jack is a foreigner or Japanese, and a full-on kung fu battle ensues. After a while, a boy wearing a giant QR code headpiece arrives on his bicycle and urges the girls to stop. By scanning his face, he explains, they can find the answer to their question and settle their dispute. (This is a cue for the viewer to scan the computer screen with a cellphone QR code reader.)”

For those with QR Code readers - try it out on the following clip.

Pepsi has started its largest ever Bluetooth based marketing campaign, allowing people to download video clips to their mobile phone from poster adverts, bus kiosks and other outdoor media locations.

The campaign to deliver viral video clips, which went live on April 2nd, runs for two months in outdoor advertising locations consisting of bus shelters in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Denver and Orange County, and pay phone kiosks in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

Each of the media networks has integrated Qwikker’s Bluetooth content distribution technology into their street furniture. Any consumer with a Bluetooth enabled phone can download free video clips from a Pepsi Smash advertisement. The viral video clips being distributed are five “Pass The Mic” clips of freestyle hip hop, provided by Yahoo! Music.

In the first week of the Pepsi campaign, opt-in rates to download content were reported to be 27% across the network.

Impressive.

Other Examples of Bluetooth Marketing Done Right:

1.Casino Royale does mobile content via bluetooth

2. Landrover tires Bluetooth Marketing

Why We Think Bluetooth Marketing Works!

• There are potential great uses of this technology for free content downloads
• Targets early adopters and the tech-inclined.

Where we think there are problems and challenges!

• BlueTooth Assaults and Messages almost always feel like spam
• Bluetooth messaging platforms don’t have memory - example - They will blast you a message even if you have recieved it already. Annoying.
• Users Don’t always have their bluetooth messages turned on but this can be solved with visual cues to ask users to opt-in.
• Slow Data Transmission Rates and distance issues. Most proximity servers only work at short distance
• Eventually WiMax or Wifi will replace Bluetooth for proximity marketing
• Complicated and cumbersome demands on users:

Step 1. Turn on bluetooth or infra-red
Step 2. Change your phone’s name to XXX
Step 3. Point your phone at the box and wait for up to a minute to receive a message
Step 4. Get content.
Step 5. Repeat and start again

Where to go for the next step!

While there are a variety of full services solutions (Hypertag, Proxmity etc). We recommend going open source with

Consola - the Open Source BlueTooth Proximity Distribution Server

Very easy to use and free! > http://www.consola.org/consola.html

We’ve used Consola as base of our Aap!Mobile BlueTooth Marketing Platform with great results.

We used server our proximity server in conjunction with an Aap!Stripes Campaign. Aap!Mobile’s Bluetooth proximity server sent free 10% discount coupons to cell phone users with Bluetooth enabled cell phones at coffee locations.

Read more about our efforts combining mobile marketing with alternative out of home media.

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

We just wanted to share a fun and fresh outdoor media campaign found.  Creatively executed - this campaign reminds individuals and corporations to spend on trainings or else staff will end up in the trash.
Enjoy.

More shots @ Flickr

While this has been a feature for several months in Japan, Google recently added AdWords ads to US mobile search service.

From an RCR News article on the topic we learn:

“AdWords customers can develop their own mobile advertisements and marketing campaigns, and can set daily budgets, establish scheduled marketing messages and pay only when consumers click the ad or call the business.”

Keep an eye on movement in this space.