01/07/2007 09:02:00 AM 
Now the TSA is selling its "space" to Sky Media in a pilot project.(via Boing Boing). Allowing Sky to tell this space to clients looking to reach the captive affluent traveler. Perhaps a brand can find a way to do something good in this space, but it looks like yet another example of exploitation.
Most of the interesting marketing discussion this year has revolved around the need for companies to get closer to the people who buy their products; by engaging them in the marketing process more directly.
However, at the same time there is a war for attention that often runs counter to that trend.
On the frontline of this war for attention are media companies looking to exploit the desperation of brands and offer them more and more space and time to reach those consumers.
Advertising clutter generates consumer resistance and ad avoidance accelerates. Often, this battle is reduced to the most basic elements of exposure, rather than providing any opportunity for engagement and the effect is one of ubiquitous visual pollution; every space and place becomes an advertising message.
Now it looks as if other non-media entities are also looking to exploit the space they have available and offer it to other brands. Clearly, they see it as an untapped revenue opportunity. This last week, both Verizon and Hallmark cards (NYT registration required) announced plans to allow advertisers into their "space".
The problem is that both these moves have been done by thinking about how best to exploit consumers for corporate gain. No one is thinking about the impact of adverse consumer reaction to having their personal space invaded by corporate messages, especially in two of the most "personal" of all spaces-the greeting card and the cell phone screen.
Leave it Seth Godin to sum up the problem rather nicely in a letter to Verizon's CEO.
Marketing 2.0 has to be a pervasive idea that impacts all elements of marketing, moves driven by short-term financial goals that negate this thinking, will in the long-term, be detrimental to the brands that choose to play that game, that means Hallmark, Verizon and the advertisers who choose to work with them.
Agency media and account planners need to consider not just the content of the messaging, but also the context. Simply filling up spaces with brand logos and messages doesn't constitute smart communication thinking. Consider the consequence of the context, don't just cross your fingers and hope it works. Media, not just the advertising, also has a responsibility to engage.
Look at it from a personal perspective, would you want to see in ad message on your cell phone screen or receive a greeting card with an ad in it?
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