119 Howth Road, Clontarf - Guess Marketing at it’s Brightest?
On the drive home the other night, I could have been forgiven for thinking that there was an alien abduction or a rock concert taking place as one stretch of the Howth Road in Clontarf appeared to be fully illuminated as if someone were shining a huge torch at it from the other side of the road.
Driving past the illumination revealed that it is a display with a long conversational-style sentence written across it.
“Patrick! You are absolutely perfect!”
“Thank you Mr. W., I see it more a vocation than a position, it will be an honour.
When does it all begin?”“All in good time Patrick.”
At the start of the advertisement is a separate block with the numbers “119″ across it. A google search of “119 Howth Road” a few weeks ago turned up the following link to a PDF document containing a planning application made in December 2006:
http://www.dublincity.ie/Images/MINUTES%20January%2007_tcm35-48345.pdf
The above application is from the WSM Partnership for permission at the site 119, Howth Road, & part of rear gardens to construct a “four level apartment block comprising 9 no. one-bedroom units, 45 no. two bedroom units and 5 no. three bedroom units totalling 59 units with balconies to most apartments on east, west and south elevations and balconies/terraces to the northwest and to the south east elevation all over basement accommodating 110 no. car park spaces and 59 no. bicycle spaces plus gym facilities area and swimming pool with glazed pyramid above with surrounding water feature in landscaping roadway footpaths walls railings and associated site works.”
On the way home again last night, I noticed that the display has been updated with a new conversational-style sentence and is no longer quite as bright as the white background has been replaced with a red patterned background and white text.
“Merry Christmas Patrick!”
“And Many Happy Returns Mr. W!”
“Enjoy the festivities Patrick
But leave some room for a very special surprise in 2008!”“Vague but exciting Mr. W!”
A google search of the term “119 Howth Road” today revealed the number one site listing to be http://www.119howthroad.com .
The website contains a flash animation of the conversational-style sentence above in the same style of the display with snowflakes falling around it.
Further investigation of the website reveals that the keywords used in the pages source code are “119, Howth, Road, 119 Howth Road, Clontarf, Dublin, Dublin 3, Ireland, Hotel, Spa, Luxury, Stylish, Upmarket”. On www.aboutus.org the website has been placed in the following categories: hotel, spa, dublin and luxury.
Digging even deeper reveals that there is a flash countdown timer on the website that at the time of writing this, had yet to be launched. (http://www.119howthroad.com/swf/countdown.swf).
The Irish property sector has certainly become more competitive and developers and estate agents are looking to innovative marketing techniques such as this for that added appeal and intrigue. It is still not clear what the cryptic theme and dialogue mean or refer to but I would imagine that there will be further updates to the campaign closer to and during the “countdown”. So… whatever the campaign is intending to advertise it is “stylish” and “upmarket” but is it an apartment complex or a hotel… or both? And more importantly, what kind of advertising/ marketing is this and does it have the desired outcome?
The campaign to my mind could be described as a combined form of ambient, viral, guerilla and guess marketing.
Ambient because it somewhat fuses with everyday surroundings and complements the behaviour of the target audience - it is located on a main road in an middle-class area that experiences heavy traffic in the mornings and evenings with commuters having to wait in traffic and are therefore, well positioned to notice and read the dialogue on the display.
Viral because some people living in the area or driving past the display will talk about it.
Guerilla because the campaign cannot be missed as you drive by (the first version of the dialogue was so bright that one resident in the area commented that it could potentially cause a crash; but then again it could be argued that most outdoor advertising could potentially cause a crash; remember the case of the advertisements for Wonderbra in 1998?), it is somewhat unconventional and it involves minimal cost for maximum impact (so far the campaign has consisted of one illuminated road-side display and one flash web page though I would imagine that further updates to the campaign may include an expansion of these probably into print, radio and television but the again maybe not).
And finally, guess marketing because most people would guess that yes, this is an advertisement for a new apartment complex or a hotel but that is not being made clear through the campaign itself and the cryptic dialogue only adds to the intrigue.
The success of viral marketing campaigns often rely heavily on “getting personal”. However, this can for some be an irritating and intrusive form of selling. Ambient media that works, however, can show intelligence and creativity. Ambient communication ensures that the emotional bond between the brand and the consumer is stronger as the consumer has chosen to actively take notice of the message and can decide to find out more about it rather than having it forced into their environment.
In ethical terms, viral marketing is less desirable because it is more pushy whereas ambient marketing is often static but exhumes creativity. A combination of the two then, done in the right measure and in a stylish and classy way must almost certainly achieve the desired outcome.
The secret to any successful marketing campaign, to my mind, is to simply create a great product, service or user experience. Once there is a product out there worth talking about, people will do just that! Letting the masses know that that product is available is one of the main challenges and certainly this campaign has aimed to do just that. Whether or not the campaign will have the desired outcome remains to be seen. However, they did succeed in getting me to write about it and I would imagine that there wont be too many that far behind me!
Related links:
- Shaping Youth: Kids Are A Captive Audience With Ambient Advertising
- brand dna: Freshly brewed urban spam
- Advertising objects for baggage claim belts: Excellent Ambient Marketing campaign at Venice Marco Polo Airport - *Read this: great idea (and more about it here).
- Is Ambient Marketing Good for Customers? « Customers Rock!
- Read between the Ps: Guerilla Marketing – Latest Campaigns using Ambient Media
- Ambient media - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia