What is Ambient Marketing
Ambient Marketing is marketing through unusual locations and environmental elements, which people do not expect that the place is or is used as a medium for advertising. Marketing in this way is included in guerrilla marketing. Because it is done using unusual ways. Usually this marketing strategy is carried out outdoors, which is often crossed or seen by many people.
Ambient marketing strategy, also known as ambient advertising is not a new practice. This marketing technique was first carried out by a British advertising agency in 1996, named by Concord Advertising. The development of this marketing strategy was driven by client requests from Concord Advertising due to the increasing competition in advertising. So they want something new, which can be a breakthrough in their marketing. To fulfill this request, Concord Advertising creates advertisements that are placed in unusual places, but can attract the attention of the audience. The practice of placing advertisements in unusual places has become the hallmark of ambient marketing.
Ambient Marketing Goals
The general goal of ambient marketing is to market a product to the public, this is the general goal of every marketing strategy. The specific purpose of ambient marketing is to attract the attention of the audience. At the beginning, we explained that the reason for the emergence of ambient marketing is because the competition in advertising is getting tougher. Due to the increasingly fierce competition, advertisements are considered disturbing. So people are not interested in seeing the ad, and the ad doesn’t make an impression on the audience. This causes conventional advertising to be ineffective, in addition to causing expensive advertising costs.
With advertisements placed in open spaces and in public places, advertisements become easier to see. To attract attention and give a deep impression, advertisements are made in a confrontational manner, to provoke emotions and audience curiosity. Ads from ambient advertising can have a disgusting effect, make people angry because the message provokes emotions, gives negative reactions. but this is okay because the main goal is to get the attention of the audience, and arouse curiosity.
Advantages of Ambient Marketing
The following are some of the advantages of ambient marketing, including:
Low cost. The marketing strategy of this method only requires a low cost. Because it does not depend on traditional advertising media.
Wide reach. Traditional advertising uses certain media. Meanwhile, ambient marketing is carried out in open places that are often passed by many people.
Gives a deep impression. A well-crafted ambient marketing ad can make an unforgettable impression, one that the audience will remember for a long time.
Do not disturb. In conventional advertising, the appearance of advertisements often makes the audience feel disturbed. For example, advertisements on favorite TV shows irritate the audience. In ambient marketing this does not happen because the ad is displayed in a public area that does not disturb the audience.
Get Viral. Because the ads used are unusual, creative, and full of surprises, they can go viral, become the talk of social media, conversations, and even get into mass media news.
Weaknesses of Ambient Marketing
Ambient marketing has advantages over conventional advertising. However, this marketing strategy also has several drawbacks, namely:
Can have a negative impact. The main purpose of ambient marketing is to attract attention and arouse curiosity. The negative reaction from the audience is less of a concern, so it is possible that the advertisements made have a negative effect on the advertised product.
Must be creative. Placement of advertisements and forms of advertisements in this ambient advertising strategy requires high creativity. So not everyone can do it.
Potentially breaking the law. Not all public places can be advertised. If this is not a concern it could violate local government laws.
Ambient marketing is a type of guerrilla marketing. Guerrilla marketing is a marketing tactic that adopts surprise as its spearhead so that it makes a strong impression on anyone who sees an advertisement for a product or company. Well, ambient marketing is guerrilla marketing that emphasizes placing ads in unusual locations. So that it gives a unique, interesting, and creative impression.
The term ambient itself comes from England, precisely in the 90’s. This term refers to a visual advertisement that takes an unusual promotional location. So as soon as people pass by, they’re likely to stop and admire the weirdness of ambient advertising, then tell others about it.
What the reasons a companies implement ambient marketing?
There are a number of reasons that encourage companies to adopt this type of marketing, namely:
a. Attention-grabbing: ambient marketing is able to hold attention longer than conventional visual advertising. Various studies have shown that ambient marketing can hold a person’s attention for up to 1 minute.
b. Viral potential: The uniqueness of ambient marketing makes this type of advert potentially viral. People who see ambient marketing tend to share stories about their uniqueness with those around them, or take photos of them and then share them on social media.
c. Low cost: ambient marketing is much cheaper than conventional advertising. Because the company does not need to spend on advertising continuously, just once.
d. Do not disturb consumers: ambient marketing does not use sales as the spearhead, so consumers are not bothered by the promotion of the company’s products.
d. Broad audience reach: companies usually adopt strategic locations in ambient marketing. This allows more people to see it.
e. Effective: promotional messages are always packaged as attractive and unique as possible to leave a deep impression on people who see it.
Ambient Marketing is one type of strategy from Guerilla Marketing. Where Ambient Marketing is known as “Out of Home” or OoH where this marketing is a special advertisement outside the room that gives a surprise effect to the audience. Ambient Marketing itself was developed in the 1990s with the aim of giving a surprising impression that stands out from conventional advertising methods. Ambient marketing was first used in advertising by Concord Advertising, an advertising agency specializing in outdoor advertising, in 1996. Ambient marketing was created because of the encouragement of client requests to do something different in advertising. This is done because of the density of advertising, so it requires a new and different breakthrough in outdoor advertising. Another reason is because we know that today’s intense competition and decreasing effectiveness have made audiences less attracted to advertisements that make their clients want more “biting” or even “crazy” ads from their advertising agencies. From this, it makes advertising agencies realize through placing advertisements in unusual places to attract the attention of audiences and this has become the hallmark of ambient marketing itself to this day.
In ambient marketing, the choice of place and the form of advertising itself is very different from conventional advertising, even ambient advertising will make the audience feel that there should be no advertisements in that place but instead we see advertisements in that place. For example, let’s see on this road, this zebra crossing which usually only has a white line for crossings but there is an advertisement for a fast food. Of course it will make the audience interested and give attention.
