The white cliffs of Dover, on the south coast of England: a striking natural landscape of botanical interest, or a giant, if slightly craggy, advertising billboard?
During the 1998 World Cup, 100-foot images of the English soccer team were projected onto the cliff face, garnering television coverage on Channel 4's Planet Football, Channel 5 news, The Big Breakfast and BBC Newsround. The stunt was sponsored by Adidas.
"Nothing has really happened on that large a scale in Ireland," says Mr Charlie Cummins, business development manager at PML Ambient, an advertising agency specialising in new forms of outdoor advertising. "The most notable has been the Heineken bottle on the Liffey to coincide with the Heineken Green Energy Festival."
Ambient is a term applied to outdoor advertising through any non-traditional media: the backs of cinema and parking tickets, petrol pump nozzles, point-of-purchase screens, the underside of escalator steps and entry-exit barriers to car parks all provide advertising space.
"The UK market is ahead of us," says Mr Cummins. "They are much less hesitant to use ambient media." Earlier this year, a British agency, Mother, received a "gold pencil" award for its marketing campaign for Britart.com, which consisted of putting stickers on paving stones and lamp posts and describing them as though they were works of art. On the Cliffs of Dover scale of stunt advertising, FHM magazine projected a naked image of television presenter Gail Porter onto the House of Commons while Becks planted a wheat field so that a huge bottle of beer appeared on it - a branded crop circle.
Taking consumers by surprise is the philosophy of ambient advertisers, who aim to make an impact by placing ads in unusual, unexpected places. "People are getting busier and there is a fragmentation of TV, radio and newspaper audiences," says Mr Cummins. "The whole idea of ambient advertising is to catch people at new points during the day: it is surprising advertising."
But shock tactics lose impact over time: the novelty value of particular forms of ambient advertising may propel a product onto news bulletins one week but pass by unnoticed the next. The amusement of seeing inflatable soft drink cans on motorway roadsides or a creme egg-shaped mini car trundle along with the rest of the traffic wears off pretty quickly.
"Ambient can become mainstream," confirms Mr Cummins. "Shopping trolleys, for example. You almost expect to see an ad on a trolley now."
Bus shelter advertisements have also become unremarkable, although recently advertisers have used the roofs of shelters to appeal directly to commuters looking down out of upper deck windows. "You can see down their top, but they can see up your nose," according to an ad for Sprite.
But some innovations have run into problems even before the surprise factor vanishes. Floor tile advertisements in supermarkets have failed to take off, due to concerns over damage to flooring. Golf clubs in Ireland have resisted approaches by advertisers for the use of the bases of golf holes as ad space, club members presumably sharing the belief of civic and environmental groups in Britain that ambient advertising can be intrusive clutter.
The success of an ambient campaign can also be difficult to measure. "One of the difficulties for advertisers is how to evaluate the impact and the benefits of this kind of advertising," says Mr Michael Caraher, chief executive of the Association of Advertisers in Ireland. "Major advertisers want instant feedback on how well their campaigns have done," says Mr James Byrne, a marketing executive for JC Decaux. Since it took over David Allen in 1999, the company has the biggest share of the outdoor market in Ireland, and focuses most of its business on traditional billboards - 48 and 96 sheets - as well as illuminated "cascades" at garage forecourts for the "cash rich - time poor" market.
"Ambient is not an alternative to traditional formats, but it can be an add-on," says Mr Byrne, citing a Heineken campaign in Ranelagh, where a billboard was surrounded by a tent to further a circus theme suggested by the tagline, "the amazing, travelling Heineken Green Energy extravaganza".
JC Decaux provides street furniture such as seating, shelters, waste paper bins and bicycle racks to local authorities worldwide, from which it earns advertising revenue. "It is more ambient than billboards but less ambient than, say, lighting up Westminster Bridge," says Mr Byrne. The company hopes Dublin Corporation will follow the pattern of cities such as Paris, Sydney and San Francisco by allowing ad space on street furniture. "Dublin Corporation is becoming more pro-active in a controlled manner," agrees Mr Caraher.
"We don't necessarily see ambient media as a threat," adds Mr Byrne. "It has increased as part of the overall strength of the outdoor market. Advertisers are still going to look for research on coverage and audience and quality of location: those things aren't going to change."
Another marketing principle that isn't going to change, however, is the push for new ideas: Advertisers are encouraged to be creative not just with content, but with the entire medium. Washroom advertising, for example, requires advertisers to "be a little tongue-in-cheek", according to Mr Cummins at PML Ambient. "Advertising in this medium would be aimed at the 18 to 34-year-old market: the younger, outgoing, sociable crowd," he says. Companies who have exploited ambient media - Becks, Adidas, Heineken - cater primarily for this age range. Washroom advertising, as Mr Caraher notes, is "nothing new", with poster ads appearing in cafe, bar and nightclub toilets for over a decade. But in northwest England, the Rocket media agency gained press publicity for its client, Emap Radio, by developing its own literal interpretation of toilet humour. They placed heat-sensitive stickers in the men's lavatories which, when urinated on, revealed pictures of either David Beckham or Liam Gallagher.
In May, amid jokes about the "new bottom line in advertising", a hoax press release claiming to be from Procter & Gamble alleged that the group was testing a new variant of its Charmin toilet paper that would carry electronic ads on the tissue.
The hoaxers may view the trend towards ambient as laughable, but specialist groups like PML Ambient are focusing on overcoming hesitancy in the market. "The more people who use it, the more people who use it," concludes Mr Cummins. Mr Byrne at JC Decaux is more sceptical: "Ambient advertising had a surge last year but, a bit like dot.coms, it remains to be seen if its fashionability will last."
