Canvas8 - Beyond billboards: Part 2
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Report Beyond billboards: Part 2 28/07/2011 Daniela Krautsack
The 'Before I Die' project encourages people to interact with their environment Candy Chang (2011) Š
Scope As cities become smarter and more connected than ever, how will the multibillion dollar industry of out-of-home (OOH) advertising evolve? Yesterday's report examined the rise of 'artvertising' and 'mediatecture' as antidotes to OOH clutter. In part two, Daniela Krautsack wonders how the future aesthetics of our cities will be defined. Who is responsible for establishing a city's identity? And how do citizens relate to the urban spaces around them?
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Simon Anholt, policy advisor to governments worldwide, coined the term 'nation branding'. Traditionally this refers to the measurement and management of the reputation of entire countries, but it is equally applicable to cities. He explains: "99% of all the discussion about region branding is about logos and slogans and promotional campaigns, which I personally regard as being a shocking waste of taxpayers' money, because there is no evidence that it works. "Reputation, however, is very important for places, as it is for products. So if you've got a good powerful city image, then everything is easier, whether it's attracting foreign investors, talented immigrants, major events or tourists. Therefore responsible governors have to be aware of the value and importance of their place's reputation and do what they can to keep it good." (1) According to Peter Lammerhuber, CEO of GroupM Austria, "Citizens need to feel the identity of the place they live in to feel integrated and to act out their feelings in their individual culture. My observations have shown that many cities lack identity; many of them have a 'global look'. I would argue that their downtown areas often look the same, with the same shops, the same international brands. Terrible. International marketers might disagree, but an unconventional strategy to fuel city tourism would be to focus on the scarcity of brands. Imagine you could find Louis Vuitton only in Paris." (2) In future, we will interpret and market the individual districts of cities as brands, and not just the city as a whole. The result of this for residents and visitors will be a stronger perception of these locations, and investors and sponsors can use the broad, competitive communications platform of the city itself to integrate themselves profitably into particular districts' distinct aesthetics and characters. In October 2010, Hazel Borys blogged about Vancouver as a reflection of the idea of 'Spiritual Urbanism'. Officially the world's most liveable city, Vancouver is home to the Healing Cities project, which unites architects, planners and therapists to engage citizens at a deeper level. The project "finds inspiration in the human body's ability to rebuild, repair and regenerate, and asks what it takes for our cities to heal themselves – and in turn heal us."
The Gallup Soul of the Community survey also supports the case for 'emotionally connected cities'. Drawing on data gathered between 2008 and 2010, it found strong correlations between peoples' emotional attachment to the communities they lived in, and higher levels of local GDP. Along with the 'global cities' mindset, there is another important factor which strongly affects OOH and branding the city – that of regional or local pride. In the UK, numerous campaigns ask people what they love about their home, such as this celebration of London, numerous local variations of 'I heart...' t-shirts, or even these Adidas Birmingham kicks.
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Canvas8 - Beyond billboards: Part 2
http://canvas8.com/content/2011/07/28/beyond_billboards_part_two.html
Fortunately, both urban planners and marketing experts around the world have recognised that cities are not like chocolate bars and that their qualities cannot be reduced to one-dimensional terms such as 'trustworthy' or 'functional' – a subtle understanding of component parts is needed.
Self and the city In Michiel De Lange's extensive paper on mobile living and identity, he references Georg Simmel's The Metropolis and Mental Life (1903), which argues that the rapid ongoing impressions of city life lead to an "intensification of nervous stimulation"(3). Advertising images are a part of this. This creates what de Lange calls "the psychological basis of a typical metropolitan individuality", defined as a blasé, socially reserved attitude which is in fact "a protective measure to preserve one's autonomy and individuality against overstimulation of the nerves, and the anonymising and generalising forces of urban life."
"I do think there will be tighter regulation for OOH but it will never disappear completely... and less is more for OOH advertising" Xavier Dupre, MD, JC Decaux worldwide (5)
Considering this tendency to retreat from overstimulation, it is little wonder that there is a backlash against advertising imagery, and people are happy to navigate the city by staring down into their handsets, safe under the blanket of a technological oracle. The shift towards moving imagery in the advertising landscape, which once created instant shock experiences, is now a cause of withdrawal. The implication for traditional OOH is that the shoutier, flashier and louder your ad, the less likely people are to notice it. The emerging topic of secondary attention discussed here by Russell Davies considers how to design in a way that effectively 'leaks' information into the peripheral vision rather than aiming for primary, full-blown attention. And where primary attention is required, subtlety appears to work better, engaging the intellect rather than just the eye. The Economist's debate ads on the tube are a prime example. Auditory and scent branding are also being explored – perhaps there's an opportunity for branded city soundtracks? Emotion also has a huge part to play; so-called 'gladvertising' uses emotion recognition software to tailor adverts to the moods of specific consumers.
Cities have always been a place where people engage and get together, but smart cities threaten this serendipitous interaction. It is therefore important to reduce the amount of clutter and, away from billboards, open up city space for creativity, collaboration and learning. These initiatives can either take the form of home-like intimate spaces, or more playful spaces which draw on fun theory. For example, these 'learn with your child' billboards provide a focal point for play and education in a public space. The Plaza Movil moveable town square acts as a multi-use, portable community space for Buenos Aires residents. Candy Chang's 'Before I Die' project sought to make the city more comfortable for people by acting as a keyhole into others' thoughts and dreams, encouraging a sense of connection. The project acted as a city totem – people were seeking 'Before I Die' out and making a pilgrimage to it. Imagine doing that with a billboard. Conversely, allowing people to create their own personal experience of a city will suit the 'metropolitan mindset' referenced by de Lange. Both Nike's True City and mobile storytelling app '7scenes' allow individuals to 'connect their stories to the city'. Technology and social media also have a huge part to play in our experiences of the city, and in how we relate to it. Dietmar Offenhuber, Researcher at MIT’s SENSEable City Lab, says, "I think that technology can help us to become 'smart citizens'. Social media and urban APIs already have an impact on how cities operate. I think that the desired future of the city is not the super-efficient, Singapore-style omniscient city quietly operating without the citizens being aware of its workings, but a place where processes, infrastructures and decisions will have a higher degree of public awareness, participation and scrutiny." (4)
Insights and opportunities "Naming is the next advertising opportunity," predicts Xavier Dupré, Managing Director of JCDecaux OneWorld. "Nissan Stadium in Japan is a good example. I believe airports will follow soon."(5) The cash-strapped city of Ottawa recently announced that it would be selling the naming rights to 16 leisure centres – a public-private partnership edging ever closer to what Joanna Bakas, strategic head of LHBS Consulting in Vienna, sees as "the worst-case scenario… the Coca-Cola Village.”(6) Despite the critisicm about branding 'third places', citizens will have to cut a deal. We may demand certain city aesthetics and even be allowed to have a say when it comes to the architecture of future city projects. However, people need to realise the merits of certain forms of sponsorship. Glen Condie, Creative Director and founder of brand experience company Wonder in Sydney, says, "If not for advertising, a newspaper would cost 25 dollars. There would be no such things as freeware, there would be no bus shelters with roofs on them. As a society we have benefited greatly from all these things because of advertising. People don’t think about that. "Years ago I heard someone complaining about an advert in a bus shelter. Yeah, I thought, but JC Decaux paid for this bus stop. If it wasn’t here, you’d be standing in the rain. Do you want to stand in the dry and have to look at an ad or stay in the rain? Another example: a brand sponsors a stadium. Do you want to sit on a nice, clean seat, or do you want a sore bum?" (7)
Offenhuber adds: "The Disneyfication of many cities is taking on worrying proportions, as the adoption of rules set by the 'owner' and not by a public government undermines civic society." Bakas thinks ownership on an abstract level would be far preferable, uniting communities in a technological rather than a physical space. Inspired by Instagram, she imagines a platform "owned by a photo brand, claiming a cultural neighbourhood by enabling people to share places and things, spreading the beauty and interest of a district or a neighbourhood through the power of sharing. That in my eyes would make the brand a real benefactor and patron of city spaces rather than a mere commercial sponsor."
"I still think that subtle ambient displays that change their appearance based on real-time information can have a positive impact." Dietmar Offenhuber, Researcher at MIT's SENSEable City Lab (4)
Designers need to step back and rethink how new technologies, new media and socio-economic data contribute to people’s experience of the city, for aesthetic and experiential as well as environmental reasons. We must aim to define a framework for understanding and designing systems that link illumination and display requirements in urban contexts. From that, we will be able to develop future concepts for technology and urban design. As Vancouver's Healing Cities expresses on a broader scale, city design has a major role to play in influencing behaviour and wellbeing – and brands can play a part in this. Design cues and nudges have been used by city planners for years; persuasive computing installations such as those explored at the OU encourage people to walk rather than take the lift, and the planners behind HafenCity have used environmental psychology in every step of the planning process. Cities have become brands. Art has become a brand and so have its collaborators. But what do these paradigm shifts mean to advertising? Perhaps an awareness and understanding of branding will lead to a subsequent openness to collaboration, particularly for the public or cultural good (and transparency about public/private partnerships is key in
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Canvas8 - Beyond billboards: Part 2
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http://canvas8.com/content/2011/07/28/beyond_billboards_part_two.html
this process). Brands do have a role to play in building the city of the future, but it does not involve plastering logos everywhere. The monetary cost of having beautiful, thoughtful public objects is not more than having impersonal, unattractive ones; it simply requires intelligence and thought. Additional research and analysis by Debbi Evans
Related on Canvas8 Debbi Evans, 'Megahouse and collective living', 25 May 2010. Available here Sam Shaw, 'PlanIt Valley Portugal', 19 October 2010. Available here Annalisa Spencer, 'Reshaping the Arabian Gulf', 14 October 2009. Available here Debbi Evans, 'Atlas of the Habitual', 25 May 2011. Available here Sam Shaw, 'Holon: a children's city', 3 November 2011. Available here Sources 1. Interview with Simon Anholt, July 2011 2. Interview with Peter Lammerhuber, March 2010 3. Michiel de Lange, 'Moving Circles: Mobile Media and Playful Identities', 2010. Available here 4. Interview with Dietmar Offenhuber, July 2011 5. Interview with Xavier Dupre, July 2011 6. Interview with Joanna Bakas, July 2011 7. Interview with Glen Condie, July 2011
Daniela Krautsack Daniela Krautsack is MD of Cows in Jackets, an author and a journalist. She is a leading expert on ambient and unconventional media and works to bridge the gap between the advertising and creative industries in the public space. View full profile
Industry
Outdoor Art & design
Location
Global
Keywords
OOH Art & design Urban space Visual Democracy Behaviour Mobile Architecture Civic Brands
Canvas8 Ltd. Š 2012
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