Anyone with a computer can create content. Sure a lot of what we see is creative and entertaining, but we now live in a world where messaging surrounds us, how is anything supposed to stick?
Art is all about the message, it’s intrinsic to communicate through art, dating right back to the first cave dwellers’ painting so it’s not surprising that the focus of corporate art has shifted as communication goals have changed.
Street art in advertising is fast becoming a mainstream medium for brands to get their message to customers. With the advent of the Internet and advanced technology, the world of public and private are merging, making it harder to separate one’s work world from personal life.
Technology made the world much more accessible, but at the same time omnipresent, especially as email has allowed one to be readily available at all times. This pervasiveness can now be seen in advertising methods of today, with websites running off advertising revenue flashed before a viewer’s eyes without one even noticing. With so much stimuli being thrown at consumers, many individuals simply stop paying attention.
Street art has the visual and cognitive effect of commercial advertising, and many of its brand dynamics, but carries messages of enjoyment rather than of commercial consumption. The public is bombarded with so many commercial forms, but there is something about the rawness, the natural beauty and entertainment value that street art has to offer. By adopting this form of ‘ advertising’, advertisers and brands can promote their products under the guise of public-produced artwork.
Brands looking to engage their audiences in a non-pervasive, yet effective manner would benefit from examining street art. By using the power and publicity street art has received in the past, this form of promotion can, if treated correctly, have more of an effect in the long term than a one-minute commercial. Subtlety is key, so what better way for brands to promote than through advertising disguised as street art produced for the people, by the people….?
Examples shown include ‘Don’t be A Tosser’ campaign for City of Canada Bay and NRMA’s Demand Better Roads campaign. Read the NRMA case study to find out more.