Ambient Media: A New Form of Advertising
A relatively new type of advertising is ambient media. It originated in the United Kingdom and it refers to non-traditional methods of advertising. This is also called alternative advertising. Ambient media includes billboards, grocery cart ads, point of purchase displays, and other creative advertising methods.
The purpose of ambient media advertising is to reach a specific targeted audience in a unique or unexpected way. This is typically when a viewer would not expect to receive an advertisement message. Many advertising agencies are ready to help companies build a top of mind awareness through the use of ambient media. Top of mind awareness is another phrase that refers to a consumer being exposed to an ad message over and over again until that product is the first thing that they think of when the need for it arises.
Ambient media is supportive of traditional advertising through the audience to aid in top of mind awareness. If the targeted audience for the product sees a specific ad on television or hears it on the radio, and then goes to a store with a point of purchase display, they will be more apt to buy the product.
The same is true if an audience sees ads for the same product displayed on a bus, vehicle, or broadcasted on the side of a building. They will see this ad so many times that eventually they will begin to correlate that specific ad and product with the topic that it is associated with. This is one of the key benefits of ambient media. You can display simple advertisements in inconspicuous places that will be seen numerous times.
The sales for ambient media are used much more frequently in today’s marketplace, where consumers are influenced the most during their every day lives. The Internet is a commonly used method of ambient media. This is due to the fact that ads are posted on very popular websites that have the ability to receive a large amount of traffic. The Internet is also the perfect way to reach the right audience for the advertiser.
Many of the larger advertisers purchase space on several different websites because the product has a much more broad appeal than a single market medium. The purpose of the ambient media ads is to gain an immediate response in large quantities, but to also build top of mind awareness for newer companies.
Even though ambient media methods are a non-traditional form of advertising, companies are already seeing how effective they can be in reinforcing traditional advertisements. They can be used to enhance regular ads, or as a creative alternative to the original styles of marketing mediums.
Many advertising experts are reporting that traditional media is no longer as powerful as it once was. In our world today, traditional media has to be supported by ambient media methods in order to achieve results. This might be due to the fact that consumers are not as hooked on television as the once were, or they are commuting much more than before. An ambient media advertisement will catch them off guard if it is located in normal everyday places where they would not normally expect to see it.
