Not sure how i feel about this!

(http://9gag.com/gag/aMbEq36)

Came across this picture while I was scrolling 9gag one morning. 9gag titled the post " Best. Marketing. Ever." Yet, while I was thinking about the picture I had just seen, I recalled how my lecturer talked about something called ambient marketing in lecture earlier this week. He explained that ambient marketing refers to marketing which is put in unusual places to create humour and surprise. Although I have to admire the marketers cleverness, I question myself whether such a marketing technique is acceptable or if there should be standard that restrict marketers in this field. Is it acceptable to trick people like this

The concept of ambient is defined as something which exists in our environment. Earlier ambient marketing was basically to advertise outside as opposed to inside buildings. For instance billboards were acknowledged as typical ambient marketing. However, the meaning of ambient has completely transformed during the latest years (Thorson & Duffy, 2012). Today ambient marketing is advertising which is surprising and unexpected. To create such ambient adverts a lot of creativity is required.

Why is such ambient marketing so powerful? Well, ambient marketing will entice the consumers, give them something to talk about. The marketers does not merely rely on the number of people who actually see their ad, because ambient ads will drive the consumer to help in the marketing process. They are likely to tell their friends about it, thus create discussion and further interest. Moreover, if the advertisement was truly unexpected and clever it could perhaps lead consumers to even take photos of it and upload on social media.

In my opinion, ambient marketing is a effective marketing tool. Still, I would argue that if ambient marketing is over-used or appear too often in our environment it would loose its power. The power of ambient marketing is that it is not everywhere. If it was, people would expect to see something surprising every time they went outside of their own home, thus ambient marketing messages would not be unexpected anymore, but rather expected. In that case, to entice the customers would be a greater challenge than it is now, as the message would have to be VERY clever to differentiate itself and give the consumer something that overrides all the other adverts.

References

Thorson, E. & Duffy, M. (2012) Advertising Age: The principles of advertising and marketing communication at work. Mason: South-Western Cengage Learning.