Airports are a mecca for creative and innovative advertising. That makes sense. You've got planeloads of people moving through hallways, sitting in trams, waiting at gates and shuffling through tunnels and into their aircrafts. From baggage claim belts stylized to look like roulette spinners to shoe advertisements placed conveniently in the box you put your shoes in ("Place shoes here, buy shoes at Zappos"), people have rituals at the airport. These rituals are the same for everyone: going through security, picking up your baggage, taxiing, reading departure signs, listening to your ipod, reading a book. The list goes on.
If there is one thing Bavaria does well, its cars. And wursts. And beer, pretzels, and lederhosen. But cars are king. Why not advertise those cars in the one place through which EVERY Munich visitor or citizen has walked: the airport. Audi. You can see the picture above. You see their ads everywhere. But one stuck out. A single platform in a converging intersection of hallways leading to security. You stand in front of a motion sensing camera, and when it sees you standing in place, you are given to option to choose from other cities around the world in which Audi has placed these interactive camera platforms. Within three seconds I was waving at a guy my age in the Piazza Navona in Rome, one of the largest city squares in the world. The tag line was simple: Audi Connect. The purpose was clear: we are more than just a car company. We are a means by which the world can be connected. With Audi's multi-media driving interfaces, computer controlled cars, and recent collaborations with Google Maps, this is a campaign that will resonate in my mind for a long time.
It seems like Audi is always at the forefront of technology and their advertising greatly showcases this. While BMW advertises their classic look and brand, Audi is making more modern looking cars for the future and reflecting that in their advertisements. Audi’s unique headlight design is just one example of how they have done this. Since the 1980s, they have used the slogan "Vorsprung durch Technik", which means "Advancing through technology". These airport ads seem to fit perfectly with this campaign that seems to be doing well.
ReplyDeleteThis campaign reminds me of the Coca Cola campaign we watched in the Google Project Re:Breif documentary. Like Audi, Coke set up vending machines with cameras that allowed people in one city to connect with others in another. As consumers, we perceive this new technology to be so innovative that we find it amusing and utterly entertaining. It would seem that advertsiers are moving in a new direction, away from highlighting the benefits of a product and towards global communication. Advertisers are discovering that consumers like the feeling of global connection and sharing, so they are now incorporating it into our ads. With the development of new technology and social media, the world is really becoming smaller. As technology progresses, it will be interesting to see how new advertising trends emerge.
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