Ambush-style ads score big

By IRENE CHAPPLE marketing writer

A penis on a toilet door ensured that young DDB creative Gavin Siakimotu trod the AXIS Awards' podium more than most.

He had created a look-alike graffiti picture of a penis and plastered it on bars' toilet doors.

Only, unlike most toilet door scrawlings, it was anatomically correct. It was also advertising.

If they had looked twice, bar patrons would have noted the blurb: "Get Smarter. Sky documentaries."

That, in industry speak, is ambient advertising. It scored Siakimotu a bronze in the esteemed ONE Awards, a bronze at AXIS and helped him to take the AXIS for emerging talent.

But, although it has been around for about five years, the title "ambient advertising" is usually met with blank looks outside marketing circles.

Ask Lynne Clifton, of Communication Agencies Association of New Zealand, to describe it and she chuckles ... and keeps chuckling. Finally, she says: "I'm tempted to say it's of no fixed abode."

Others also struggle, coming up with examples rather than a clear definition. At AXIS, ambient came in under Guerrilla Advertising.

Ambient, for those who don't know, is advertising that is usually found where you'd least expect it.

It rejects the traditional media of television, radio or print and becomes part of consumers' surroundings.

Some examples: The red dye put in Queen Elizabeth Square's fountain to promote the television screening of the movie Scream.

Or the car, riddled with bullet holes, that was placed around Auckland to promote The Sopranos on TV2.

Or, more recently, chip packets stuck to the ground with an arrow to a nearby bin that promoted a campaign against waste.

According to British research by outdoor specialist Concord, spending on ambient advertising grew by 12 per cent to top £100 million ($330 million) last year, while outdoor declined 3 per cent to £766 million. (Ambient advertising is not tracked in New Zealand.)

Even more impressive, the ambient figures are totted up from advertising that is often done on a budget.

"[The penis advertising] cost Sky a basket of fruit for the bar owners, some Formica and our time," says Siakimotu. "That was really cheap - billboards and stuff cost a bucket."

He has no idea how many people saw the penis advertising, and it was scrubbed off by the cleaners within a couple of weeks.

"Some people discount it because not that many people saw the ad, but ambient can be more effective than billboards," he says.

"People tend to go through life trying to ignore advertising - they flick through magazine ads and fast-forward television ads ... [Ambient] can be effective that way."

Ambient's increasing popularity has produced specialist agencies such as Isite and Adz Up, both established in the past three years.

Adz Up director Nigel Shanks reckons his business has increased by up to 300 per cent in 12 months, and while Isite's Paul Kenny is a little more cautious with figures, he agrees it is a booming industry.

Ambient's success is often judged by the publicity it creates. Colenso's Bug Clothing advertising, which trapped live cockroaches in an Adshel in quasi-ambient style, was covered by the print media and both television channels and became a talkback topic.

The client was ecstatic, the cockroaches were reportedly happy and Colenso BBDO collected eight AXIS awards.

"We got criticised but they sold out [of jeans]" says Colenso BBDO's creative director Mike O'Sullivan.

He believes ambient has to be clever enough to attract media attention. "Then," he says, "it moves beyond just a stunt."

But if it remains a kooky idea that does little for the client, ambient advertising attracts criticism for being nothing more than an outlet for creative ego.

DDB executive creative director Paul Catmur says the importance of ambient advertising has been overestimated because of its dominance in creative award annuals.

"To get the best out of it, it needs to be quite thoughtful."

Saatchi & Saatchi creative director Andrew Tinning is also sceptical, saying there has been some blatant award chasing.

"[Ambient] did have a period of fashionability, and there have been a few incidents in recent times when it's been really obvious that it was opportunist, and that has tainted [the medium]," he says.

"I can take something and stick it somewhere where only five people might see it ... Good ambient is when it generates a lot of public attention."