Smart Posters
We see them every single day. Most of them we don´t even recognize. Advertisement in forms of posters haven´t changed over the past hundred years.
Lets turn the time back and see what advertisement looked like hundreds of years ago …
Already in ancient Rome, posters were used to make legal texts and official announcements easily accessible to the public. At the same time, barker also played an important role in the distribution of news and information. Their “reclamare” has finally become what we today call “advertising”. The poster is likely to be the oldest advertising medium used. Depending on the definition, there are differences regarding which is the oldest poster. But for most, the poster has taken its beginnings in ancient Rome, where gladiatorial battles where announced.
The first poster containing a picture was an announcement for the appearance of the Dutch translation of a French poetry in 1491. Gutenberg was able to produce the image posters already around the year 1450, when he invented the technique of book printing, which is described as miracle and changed the world of advertisement. This invention was for many people the initial incentive to produce posters “en masse”. The first color poster was introduced in 1874, and in the nineteenth century the invention of the billboard by Ernst Litfaß, which is also known as the “Litfaßsäule”, was particularly important. With the invention of the “Litfaßsäule”, placing randomly posters around the streets was forbidden and posters for advertisements were only allowed on the intended places.
Nowadays the advertising medium poster competes with the medium television, but in many aspects the old fashion poster stands out against the much more modern commercial advertisement channel. In contrast to a TV spot, an advertising poster is usually alone without competition around. The better the location for a poster is chosen, the more unlikely it is that next to the advertising space, the competition tries to sell their product. Therefore, a poster can, in contrast to a TV Spot, stand out much better from the crowd. Of course the position of such a poster has to be chosen carefully. An advertising poster in the inner city of Madrid is probably more prominent, because of the fact that it can distinguish itself from the boring looking streets. A major disadvantage of a TV spot is that it is broadcasted in the context of many others. This can quickly lose its uniqueness and you can even miss the TV spot in commercial break –because you are maybe hungry and went to the kitchen to get some food. One of the biggest advantages of an advertising poster is probably the fact that it is present around the clock over a certain period of time and can thus be seen by a large number of people.
But how do companies use this amazing advertisement tool for their advantages. How can you make this old tool, smart?
IBM´s technology helps to make cities smarter –there is no doubt. And now IBM launched a campaign with smart advertisement for even smarter cities, by making simple improvements to the landscape. To spread the word, Ogilvy created outdoor advertising with a purpose: a bench, a shelter and a ramp that are not only designed to be beautiful, but to be useful to city dwellers as well.
The project runs under the name: “People for Smarter Cities” project. Wonderful work … smart idea … smartly done
Beautiful to see how innovativ and creativ companies act when designing there advertisment posters.
