Week 7: Good vs Bad mobile advertising

Good Mobile Ad: San Francisco Modern Art Museum's 'Send Me' SFMOMA Campaign

This is a smart advertising campaign launched by SFMOMA to promote their museum collections. Normally, public do not get a chance to see all the masterpieces (35,000+ works) without visiting the museum. In this campaign, members of the public will get a chance to see an artwork remotely. When someone texts the Museum an emoji, the museum will text a related art piece back. Through this engagement, brand awareness and brand love are promoted via one simple message on the phone. It is also an art education programme for anyone with a mobile device.

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Bad Mobile Ad:

Mobile communication allows a message to be disseminated at viral speed. If it’s a political campaign, even a small mishap could be devastating. What happens in this case a few years back was nothing more than a spelling mistake. Yet it turns out to be a “teaser” for everyone to meme and people starts posting silly photos behind the failing template.

References:
Amercia Fail
https://www.wired.com/2012/12/memorable-apps-of-the-year/

Week 6: New forms of traditional media

Apart from digitizing the originally static posters by animating them with motions and short videos, there is this flourishing trend of AR print ad with built-in video and navigational aid. What you need is to install the AR application from App Store and use it with the brand’s print ad. You can then experience the sounds and animations on your mobile device. The kind of interactivity also goes beyond the traditional “online magazine,” whose electronic format resembles that of a print magazine, but it allows you to flip through the content with a tap or click of the mouse.

With the increasing popularity of the ever-advancing AR/VR technology, we shall see more ambient advertising campaigns that criss-cross multiple media to engage the audience. It also allows the real-time transmission of data for a more customized user experience. The possibilities for marketing are endless. Imagine two stations using AR technology promoting a product or experience, say, automobile, two players at the two stations that are miles apart can play a race car game competing with each other at the same time and the brand or product is promoted in an immersive way as a result. The players’ interactive experience can also be streamed online and elicit real-time responses.

Week 5: Do traditional measures still make sense for our fragmented audiences?

Even living under the same roof, everyone enjoys contents on different media and devices. In a typical nuclear family, while the mom is watching her favourite drama on TV, the dad is reading The Guardian on his Kindle. Upstairs, the son is riveted to a Star Wars movie, and his little sister next door is sweeping through her Instagram pages.

Although the number of media channels increased tremendously in recent years, traditional broadcast such as television is still indispensable in many households.  Let’s take the recent World Cup event as an example. Fans still enjoy gathering in front of a big screen (TV) at a bar or pub for matches while drinking beers because such collective experience – the atmosphere, camaraderie, and communion – is completely different from watching games alone with one’s mobile device. This also explains why figures generated by BARB are still essential for media planners and advertisers.

Don’t forget that more mature age groups are still resourceful financially and are the core consumers of many high-end products. When a brand targets this segment of the market, insights from BARB should not be neglected.