Brands on a bench? Could ambient advertising help solve local government funding problems?

This week, Campaign magazine and the Outdoor Media Centre launched their 'Outdoor Hall of Fame' - a fascinating retrospective of the 'best' outdoor advertising created in the 20th and early 21st centuries.  Unsurprisingly, the 20th century work is dominated by poster work - posters and billboards have been, after-all, the mainstays of outdoor campaigns for the bulk of their history.

Scrolling through the decades shows a fascinating progression; visually there is a clear movement from illustration, to photography, bold typography and then a focus on symbolic imagery as we move towards the turn of the new century.  In the messaging there are increasing levels of subtlety and punnery - something which I'd argue is difficult to achieve an impact with in spots where dwell time is minimal.

What I find interesting (although perhaps unsurprising as the project comes from the trade body for outdoor media providers) is the lack of evidence of raft of alternatives to the billboard now available - particularly in the sections on the 90s and 00s.  The last decade has seen an explosion of creativity in terms of outdoor communications - particularly in the creative use of urban environments (see below for some examples), but the space-sellers are finding it hard to keep up.

Media organisations who sell outdoor space are facing a direct challenge.  In an age where ad clutter is at an unprecedented level and where it's increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd, it's unsurprising that creative solutions are being found- but those solutions often mean that advertisers are using space over which media companies have no control - pavements, park benches, zebra crossings...

This may be a controversial view, but for me, in the context of a massive national budget deficit, this presents a fantastic opportunities.  Local councils in some areas have been slow to wake up to the revenue generating assets they have in civic areas.  A managed approach to generating revenue through ad space sales is a fantastic potential income source for councils and could have a dramatic impact on the regeneration of urban areas.  I know there will be some who will argue that there is too much advertising around us already, but with careful management, licensing and reviews of the creative work I believe this could go some way towards alleviating local governments' budget woes without having a negative impact on our towns and cities.

Instead of bemoaning the cuts imposed upon them, I'd like to see local governments taking control by developing creative, enterprising solutions to the problems they are facing...

(steps off Persil branded soap box....)

Here are those examples I mentioned...