Ambient Advertising: Dilemma of The Common
at 6/04/2006 • Advertising, Ambient, Ethics • View Comments
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Ungkapan Ambient Advertising mulai muncul sebagai jargon di media Inggris kira-kira empat tahun yang lalu, tetapi sekarang nampaknya sudah menjadi istilah standar dalam industri periklanan.
Ini mengacu pada hampir semua jenis iklan yang dibuat dan dipasang sebagai iklan luar ruang yang non-standar. Contohnya pesan pada bagian belakang tanda parkir, di dasar lubang golf, di tali pegangan gerbong kereta api, di pegangan troli supermarket, dan di sisi karton telur (beberapa tim kreatif yang cerdas bahkan mengeksploitasi teknologi cetak modern dengan memasang pesan iklan pada kulit telur itu sendiri). Ini juga mencakup teknik seperti memproyeksikan gambar besar di sisi bangunan, atau slogan-slogan di balon udara.
Istilah umum untuk objek-objek (non-media) yang membawa pesan-pesan iklan adalah media ambient. Ungkapan ini mungkin diciptakan karena terpengaruh saat-saat puncak popularitas Ambient musik, genre musik elektronik yang menciptakan suasana hati atau suasana. Karenanya, makna standar Ambient, yang berkaitan dengan sesuatu yang ada di lingkungan (luar ruang), menjadi sedikit kurang tepat.
Berikut adalah beberapa komentar tentang Ambient Advertising:
Ambient advertising contains the seeds of its own destruction, he says, because once the approach is copied and becomes commonplace, it ceases to surprise. [Guardian, August 1997]
The genuine impact of ambient media is difficult to measure as it often takes TV and press coverage to attract wider public attention to it. [Sunday Business, August 1998]
Ambient advertising refers to intrusive ads in public places. With the cost of traditional media advertising skyrocketing and a glut of ads fighting for consumers' attention, marketers are aggressively seeking out new advertising vehicles. Cars, bicycles, taxis and buses have become moving commercials. Ambient ads appear on store floors, at gas pumps, in washrooms stalls, on elevator walls, park benches, telephones, fruit and even pressed into the sand on beaches.Even some members of the industry itself are critical of this trend to slap ads on everything. Bob Garfield, columnist for the ad industry magazine Advertising Age, calls this plethora of commercial messages "environment pollutants." Others worry that this deluge of advertising will create a backlash with consumers [ via http://www.media-awareness.ca/ ]
Ambient Advertising is a one stop shop for a broad cross-section of ambient media. Our alternative media solutions cover the broadest range of advertising. Ambient Advertising reaches customers while they are in an active mindset and have the time to pay attention as part of their weekly routine. [ via http://www.ambientadvertising.com.au/ ]
Pro dan kontra seputar ambient, karena jenis iklan ini sangat minim pesan. Jika kita kembali pada fitrah periklanan, menyampaikan pesan-pesan kepada khalayak, Ambient Advertising bisa disebut sebagai iklan yang sumir. Ambient Advertising bisa menjadi polusi visual di lingkungan, karena penempatannya.
Ambient Advertising, kemudian menciptakan dilema tersendiri. Siapapun bisa memanfaatkan ambient advertising, sehingga di tingkat masyarakat, iklan jenis ini sungguh mengepung masyarakat, memaksanya tak berjeda dari pesan-pesan iklan, sehingga bisa menyebabkan banjir informasi.
Ambient Advertising, menyebabkan pergeseran besar dalam hal komunikasi periklanan. Iklan tidak lagi menjual barang karena kelebihan produk atau jasanya. Kita tidak lagi membeli sebuah Handphone karena sebenarnya kita sedang membeli saluran komunikasi verbal. Kita tidak lagi membeli CD, tetapi membeli suasana hati yang ditimbulkan oleh isi dari CD audio tersebut. Pergeseran ini menyebabkan perubahan besar, terutama jika kita lihat dari sisi hukum dagang.
Seseorang membeli sesuatu, berdasarkan "Proposal" yang diajukan. Proposal itu tentu bicara tetang obyek yang diperdagangkan, sehingga kalau ia setuju membeli, maka terjadi kontrak antara pembeli dan penjual. Kontrak ini akan berdampak pada hak dan kewajiban masing-masing.
Jika iklan kita pandang sebagai proposal itu, maka Ambient Advertising memang menyampaikan sedikit sekali pesan, yang oleh penulis artikel ini dianggap sebagai degradasi nilai dari iklan itu sendiri. Jaman dulu seorang sales bahkan perlu mendemonstrasikan kemampuan sebuah produk agar konsumen yakin tidak tertipu dengan apa yang akan dibelinya. Sementara dengan ambient, pelencengan pesan itu sangat mungkin terjadi.
Ambient Advertising, seharusnya bisa provokatif dan menarik, secara visual bisa melibatkan pengunjung/pembaca, tetapi yang terpenting dari semua itu adalah menciptakan pengalaman bagi calon konsumen. Pengalaman ini sangat penting, karena dari situlah diharapkan keputusan calon konsumen mengkonsumsi produk/jasa yang dipasarkan. Bayangkan, pengalaman apa yang Anda rasakan jika melihat ambient seperti di atas? Jadi lapar? Atau malah pengen muntah?
Kritik lain tentang ambient, dapat juga dibaca dari artikel di www.stayfreemagazine.org. Judul artikelnya sendiri sudah sangat provokatif, As Advertisers race to cover every available surface, are they DRIVING US INSANE? Saat ini, menurut artikel itu, sangat sulit menemukan ruang publik yang masih bersih dari iklan. Di setiap sudut jalan, Anda bisa menemukan billboard dalam beragam ukuran, ambient di berbagai elemen kota, mulai dari halte bus, bagian belakang mobil, dan lain-lain.
Ledakan ambient, dipengaruhi oleh mulai menurunnya animo penonton TV karena berbagai sebab. Mulai dari keberadaan internet, saluran TV Kabel berbayar yang bebas iklan, dan kecenderungan untuk menjangkau target pasar yang spesifik.
What these explanations miss, however, is that the forces behind ambient are inherent in the advertising process. Advertising works somewhat like bacteria: After its hosts (consumers) are exposed, they become immune, so new strains of ads must develop and grow. These new strains are quickly copied, adding clutter, requiring new strains to emerge. Over time, advertising clutter leads to diminishing returns for individual campaigns. The more advertising grows, the more it must grow. The cycle accelerates and what was formerly considered unethical, offensive, or gauche is gradually mainstreamed out of necessity.
Periklanan bekerja seperti bakteri. Semakin mudah berkembang biak dan semakin cepat, serta selalu mampu bermutasi untuk meningkatkan kemampuannya menembus daya tahan konsumen. Konsumen, yang terpapar "bakteri" dalam waktu yang panjang, akan melahirkan generasi yang kebal iklan. Dan karena itulah mutasi metode iklan menjadi bagian alamiah perkembangan periklanan. Ambient, menjadi salah satu artefak mutasi itu, menjadikan strategi iklan kian ampuh menjangkau setiap sudut kehidupan masyarakat.
Belum lagi kajian tentang pengaruh ambient terhadap kalangan anak dan remaja, yang bisa Anda baca dari artikel ini: Kids Are A Captive Audience With Ambient Advertising.
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VERSI ASLI dalam Bhs. Inggris:
This phrase started to appear in British media jargon about four years ago, but (to judge from a recent article in the newspaper Sunday Business) now seems to be firmly established as a standard term within the advertising industry. It refers to almost any kind of advertising that occurs in some non-standard medium outside the home. Examples are messages on the backs of car park receipts and at the bottom of golf holes, on hanging straps in railway carriages, on the handles of supermarket trolleys, and on the sides of egg cartons (some clever souls have even exploited modern printing technology to put advertising messages on the eggs themselves). It also includes such techniques as projecting huge images on the sides of buildings, or slogans on the gas bags of hot air balloons. The general term for the objects that carry the advertising messages is ambient media; someone using the technique may be called an ambient advertiser. The phrase was presumably coined during the peak of popularity of ambient music, a genre with electronic textures that create a mood or atmosphere. As a result of such coinages, the standard meaning of ambient, relating to something that is in the immediate environment, is becoming slightly less precise.
Ambient advertising contains the seeds of its own destruction, he says, because once the approach is copied and becomes commonplace, it ceases to surprise. [Guardian, August 1997]
The genuine impact of ambient media is difficult to measure as it often takes TV and press coverage to attract wider public attention to it. [Sunday Business, August 1998]
Ambient advertising refers to intrusive ads in public places. With the cost of traditional media advertising skyrocketing and a glut of ads fighting for consumers' attention, marketers are aggressively seeking out new advertising vehicles. Cars, bicycles, taxis and buses have become moving commercials. Ambient ads appear on store floors, at gas pumps, in washrooms stalls, on elevator walls, park benches, telephones, fruit and even pressed into the sand on beaches.Even some members of the industry itself are critical of this trend to slap ads on everything. Bob Garfield, columnist for the ad industry magazine Advertising Age, calls this plethora of commercial messages "environment pollutants." Others worry that this deluge of advertising will create a backlash with consumers [ via http://www.media-awareness.ca]
Ambient Advertising is a one stop shop for a broad cross-section of ambient media. Our alternative media solutions cover the broadest range of advertising. Ambient Advertising reaches customers while they are in an active mindset and have the time to pay attention as part of their weekly routine. [ via http://www.ambientadvertising.com.au/ ]
An alternative development is the explosion of advertising by ways and means previously little used or unheard of, often referred to as ambient advertising.
It conveys little if any useful information and therefore erodes what value there is in advertising to the consumer. What it certainly risks is saturation. This saturation has the detrimental environment effect of creating noise and visual pollution. It has the commercial hazard of devaluing advertising messages and diluting them so much that consumers can extract very little value from them.
Ambient advertising represents a true 'dilemma of the commons' issue. If one marketer does not move another surely will. So inevitably the dominos fall, even if there is doubt whether this is a good and useful thing to do. In this case, industry loses the ability to self-regulate - creating a risk for the whole advertising industry. There is no logic for players to abstain from spoiling empty common ground. This dilemma is at the core a major problem in clamouring for the attention of the consumer - everyone else is doing it too. Consumers are increasingly time-poor, information-overloaded, decision-challenged.
The integration of contract and product show the critical importance of linking the representations made in advertising, pre-sales hype, in the contract and in post-sales delivery. The advertisement is nailed to the contract, which is nailed to the goods and services actually received. Consider the impact of traditional phrases that promise much and are difficult to come up with - things like 'unlimited access', 'zero cost', 'life-time warranty'. Say them and they are nailed to the brand - and when they cannot be delivered, brand damage ensues.
If this is the case in traditional media, it should give pause for thought to those using 'alternative' methods. What control do they have over the representations that will flow from their campaign? Are they integrated with the product, the contract and the post-sales environment? Will the messages stay that way in, say, a viral campaign?
There is no point in building a hugely successful campaign, of whatever nature, if it creates brand awareness and expectations that are then contradicted in the behaviour of sales staff, the nature of the actual package of goods and service offered, or the contracts people are expected to agree to.
Consistency throughout all business activities could be the most effective advertising campaign, by producing the best message of all - satisfied customers. Now that would be a great alternative! This is consistent with industry consultants' advice on how to get it right. It would seem self-evident. Of course, if it were, there would be no need for consultants to peddle it! This is the classic dilemma of self-regulation - if it was so obvious and easy to do the right thing, why isn't everyone happy?
This article last reviewed May 2003.
[via http://www.choice.com.au - dead link]
