ANALYSIS: Media - Is new medium on track with consumers? Can MotionPoster emerge from the clutter as a major medium?

<p>Another day, another ambient media opportunity. This one, though, </p><p>might be a bit more significant than all those schemes you hear about to </p><p>put ads on food packaging, bar urinals, the back of people's eyelids and </p><p>so on. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>A new company, MotionPoster, is trying to sell the world's metro </p><p>operators a system that allows short, silent, TV-style commercials to be </p><p>shown in the windows of trains as they pass along tunnels. Images are </p><p>projected by a series of back-lit boxes along the walls of the tunnels. </p><p>Thanks to some pretty clever technology, that predicts how fast the </p><p>train will be moving and adjusts the projection of the images </p><p>accordingly, the effect is like a short film being shown within the </p><p>window. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The system has been installed in Athens and Budapest, with Frankfurt and </p><p>Munich also signed up, and three or four more metro operators just about </p><p>ready to go, according to the company's chief executive Charles </p><p>Holden. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>He says six of the 20 operators the company is in "serious talks" with </p><p>are in Asia, and adds that he expects to sign one up "in the very near </p><p>future" and have the system in every continent by the end of the </p><p>year. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In Europe, the first two advertisers are Adidas and Coca-Cola. Adidas </p><p>has already gone live with the first execution in its campaign, created </p><p>by Leagas Delaney and bought by Carat, which depicts an athlete running </p><p>alongside the carriage, waving at the passengers and then accelerating </p><p>out of view. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>When you consider that 30 billion journeys a year are made on metro </p><p>systems worldwide, and 600 million are made, for example, on Hong Kong's </p><p>MTR, the potential is clearly big. As with any new media opportunity, </p><p>however, it poses as many questions as it answers. Yes, it's a new way </p><p>of reaching people, but soon it won't be new any more - it'll be just </p><p>another aspect of the ever-more fragmented media landscape. And with the </p><p>spiralling growth of media sites, there's the accompanying danger of </p><p>ad-bombarded consumers becoming ever more weary with marketers' attempts </p><p>to communicate with them. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This last issue affects all ambient media - especially those that are </p><p>more intrusive than moving metro posters. Hong Kong's Kowloon Motor Bus </p><p>(KMB) and Citybus, for example, have TV screens, complete with sound, </p><p>pumping both programming and advertising at passengers on 2,100 </p><p>buses. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>A spokesman for the companies' sales representative Roadshow said the </p><p>companies surveyed passengers for their opinions on an ongoing basis, </p><p>and monitored sound levels carefully. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Holden refutes the idea that MotionPoster will be seen as intrusive: "I </p><p>don't think it'll be any more intrusive than other metro advertising. </p><p>It's silent, which is important, and people have the option to watch it </p><p>- it's not forced on them." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>He claims that achieving cut-through won't be a problem. "I have no </p><p>worry about dilution," he says. "It's a great product, which delivers </p><p>the audience, and does it in a fresh way. We're going for the </p><p>mainstream; we want this to be a major advertising category worldwide. </p><p>We're positioning this as a premium product, as you can see with our </p><p>first two advertisers." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Holden adds that media and creative agencies are being educated about </p><p>the system's merits; it'll mostly be sold by the major outdoor and </p><p>public transport sales houses: "The CPM will be competitive with </p><p>cross-track, because we've got a much, much bigger audience. Everybody </p><p>on a train passes from one station to another." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Not all agencies are convinced that ambient media proliferation is </p><p>necessarily a good thing. New opportunities have to be approached with </p><p>caution, according to Ogilvy & Mather China vice-chairman Joseph </p><p>Wang. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"People are already deluged by tons of commercial material every day," </p><p>he says. "Those messages have to be managed so that they are </p><p>consistent. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"Consumers are going to become irritated. You have to be very, very </p><p>careful if you're going to do this sort of thing. The person is captive, </p><p>so you have to get their permission, or it's an invasion of their </p><p>privacy. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"The content really needs to stand out. You need to do something that </p><p>entertains people. So people will have to design creative that's </p><p>appropriate to the environment." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Creative cannot easily be adapted for the system from other media, so </p><p>appropriateness is a big issue. So is the non-permission-based nature of </p><p>ambient media, argues Leo Burnett regional managing director Richard </p><p>Pinder: "The mechanism we're all increasingly proud of in our industry </p><p>is people choosing to view. We're moving from a monologue to a dialogue </p><p>with the consumer, and that's true in everything we do - direct </p><p>marketing and the internet, but also advertising. If you force your </p><p>advertising on people when it's inappropriate or not wanted, they'll </p><p>vote with their feet." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Introducing new types of ambient media addresses the problems of </p><p>advertising with more advertising. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Reaching the jaded consumer becomes more difficult as each advertising </p><p>execution becomes a slightly fainter voice in the cacophony. The acid </p><p>test for something like MotionPoster will be whether the cut-through it </p><p>will undoubtedly initially achieve has any staying power, or if it's </p><p>based on novelty value. If it gets anything like as big as the company </p><p>claims, it won't be another slight dilution, but a major new medium. We </p><p>shall see. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>