4 - Internationalist

Daniela Krautsack
Managing Director
Magic Moments
a MediaCom subsidiary
(Austria)
Ambient media represent everything that is
non-traditional and involves the consumer
directly.
But there is still so much to be done in its
development because several creative agencies
do not want to focus on non-traditional media.
Fortunately, there are some who are
employing young people who understand how
to speak to their peers.
At Magic Moments, we sit at the same table
as our (marketing) partners to brainstorm and
think about our clients’ needs for an entire year,
before returning with the best ambient ideas.
Marketers employ agencies to tell them
about the latest trends, and the latest
consumer behavior; we invite these new
consumers to speak to us at our own
in-house media laboratory.
The regions that embrace ambient media
the most include South America. The agencies
there have been very keen to embrace the format
since 2005. They are always eager to adopt
concepts that originate from their East (that is,
Western markets).
The irony is that the development of
ambient media is hampered by regulations in
the West, especially in Europe and the United
States. The (privacy) laws are very strict as you
need to ask the consumer’s permission to
involve them in ambient media.
Yet, the commonwealth countries, such as
New Zealand, have been employing the format
for many years. Other markets, including China
and India are very enthusiastic about it.
You need to implement strategies at the local
level. Even in Europe, people tick differently.
A teenager in Hungary is totally different from a
teenager in Austria. The same media might
unify them, but the decisions they make as
consumers are influenced by the local culture
they grew up in.
Even with music application, a marketer
might use a digital-download platform in one
country, offer concert tickets in another, while
buying traditional airtime around music-TV
programs in a third.
Getting the humor right is always welcome.
When you speak to consumers in an
entertaining way, they interact, they participate,
and they engage. They don’t like to be
embarrassed or shocked.
In the future, I see great media
presentations thanks to new technology.
Imagine using a mobile-phone camera to take a
photograph of a billboard advertisement. The
camera features downloadable or pre-installed
software that connects with a two-dimension
barcode embedded in the billboard and
automatically links the consumer to a mobile
Web site to buy concert tickets or order CDs.
Such a format will drive the marketing
industry to be much more creative and less
text-driven. In German-speaking countries, for
example, there is far too much text on
billboards. People do not stand in front of
billboard to read brand messages.
At some catwalk fashion shows in Japan,
a consumer interested in one of the clothes,
which features the same barcode, is able to
make an order by using the mobile handset to
take a photograph of the apparel on a model.
You can reach Daniela Krautsack:
daniela.krautsack@mediacom.com
“ ”
You need to implement strategies
at the local level.
22 inter national ist magazine