coming to a bus stop near you: motion posters

Here's a new add-in for your media mix: the motion poster. Thanks to GIF technology, it's a cross between a poster and trailer. Foxsearchlight Pictures is using it to promote a film opening in October starring Mary-Kate's twin sister Ashley Elizabeth Olson. (Click on ad to the right to make GIF work in Blogger. Or, just imagine the girl in the M turning to you and opening her eyes.)

The studio is also making ingenious use of QR codes which few have devised ingenious use for. Instead of slapping a code onto the base of an ad, they're making it the visual and linking it to exclusive trailers that can be seen only by scanning the code. Sudden impact.

Thanks to @IanSchafer for finding it first.

billboards that work without CTR

The disturbing billboard shown on the front page of today's New York Times reminds me of the power of an analog medium that (because of slashed budgets?) seems to be enjoying a creative revival of sorts. We all know what outdoor did for Ashton Kutcher. And there was good showing this year in Outdoor Category at Cannes.  (Though my own Grand Prix would have gone to BBDO's ingenious cross-platform idea.)

Here's a few more examples of creative use of the medium, in case you're looking for concepts to steal today. (Thanks, GardenBroad.) Sorry, no attributions. Please comment if you've got credit info.

must ambient ads be omnipresent?

Nothing against practitioners of our fine profession, but do we really need posters under our feet for products in view on a shelf right in front of us?


Today's NY Times reports rapid disappearance of ad-free zones, citing several examples you might not have noticed:

*The airport baggage carousel. Adclaim Inc. of Irving, Tex., has ads at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and hopes to expand into entertainment-oriented cities like Las Vegas, Nev.; Orlando, Fla, and Miami. Local restaurants and limousine services especially like the location, said Hank Arendt, Adclaim's president. A 5-by-5-foot ad can be had for about $875 a month, he said.

*The cash machine in your neighborhood. The Electronic Data Systems Corporation of Plano, Tex., began testing talking ads on automated teller machines in the San Diego area in November. Such ads may one day play nationwide, with advertisers paying perhaps 40 to 50 cents for each shot at a newly flush customer, said Dale Dentlinger, director of product management at EDS.

*The local gas station. Rio Network Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., has installed television-like screens and speakers in gas pumps that gab as you fill your tank. The company's ads play outside 600 convenience stores around the country, with half the ads for products inside the store, said Louis Williford, president of Rio Network. His company gives grocers 20 percent of the revenues from advertisers, which average $300 to $700 a month per location.

*The rental car. A New Jersey company, Kallet & Grant Associates, is preparing to roll out cassette-tape ads that will play in Avis rental cars picked up at airports, first in Philadelphia and, if the test goes well, expanding nationwide. Along with an overview of the city, new arrivals will hear pitches for local restaurants, hotels and other vendors, said Geoff Grant, president of Kallet & Grant. He said his company would give Avis perhaps 10 percent of the take from advertisers, who will probably pay about $1,500 a month for spots in a single city.