Earned media: solution of traditional outside billboards
Recently, Hong Kong actor Raymond Lam has once again become a hot topic on the internet, but this time not because of his movie Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, but rather due to an activating oil(活絡油) advertisement. In the image, Lam strikes an "eagle spreading its wings" pose, remind
people of Osaka's famous landmark - the Glico billboard. The advertisement, located near the Star Ferry pier in Tsim Sha Tsui, has attracted numerous locals and tourists to take photos and share them on social media, quickly becoming a popular checkpoint.
Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, world-renowned for its waterfront skyline, features many eye-catching billboards. However, under the impact of digital advertising, physical billboards no longer shine as brightly as before, with many of Hong Kong's famous large-scale billboards being taken down.
Nevertheless, this "eagle spreading wings" advertisement featuring Raymond Lam has gained tremendous exposure, not only capitalizing on the celebrity effect but also showing us a new direction for large outdoor advertisements. Simply put, these advertisements attract passengers through extremely eye-catching visual effects, who then take photos and share them on social media, creating earned media and forming an online-offline media closed loop.
Why has it received so much attention? Let's take Osaka's Glico advertisement as an example. Large outdoor advertisements are first and foremost massive in size, with content that features minimal text and numerous design-focused images. These characteristics have made the Glico billboard one of Osaka's landmarks. Additionally, the Glico advertisement has significant historical value, and this cultural accumulation has attracted many tourists. The "eagle" advertisement similarly features large dimensions and exaggerated character poses, displaying with the Star Ferry - one of Hong Kong's attractions - thus attracting numerous tourists.
However, while the Glico advertisement focuses on enhancing brand awareness while carrying substantial cultural and tourism commercial value, the "eagle" advertisement is a successful imitation but primarily carries its own brand's commercial value. Without examining its conversion effects over a longer timeline, it's difficult to determine its true significance.
Passengers, including locals and tourists, take photos, making it a checkpoint. Combined with popular attractions, it creates highly engaging content. The application of earned media in this situation has both advantages and disadvantages. On the positive side, this type of advertising is essentially free, and after the large advertisement raises brand awareness, it leverages social media's clustering effect and social impact, leading to secondary promotion and huge growth in views. Most of the time, people develop trust in content due to emerging trends, especially when recommended by friends. After seeing such an eye-catching billboard at Victoria Harbour, one will naturally and actively search for related information online.
The shortcomings cannot be ignored - the effectiveness of earned media is based on extensive consumer engagement. For traditional products like activating oil, which typically don't generate much traffic on new media platforms, achieving viral exposure is challenging. Moreover, compared to owned and paid media, businesses find it difficult to control the subsequent spread of earned media.
If I am an advertising agent, I would try to apply the "eagle" model by first designing large-scale advertising content with landmark qualities. While such content can involve celebrities, what's more important is its potential to become a trending topic online. By incorporating hashtags and internet campaigns, encouraging people to take photos and share them on social media, we can expand online interaction volume and truly achieve the promotional effects of earned media.
In conclusion, while traditional large-scale advertisements remain necessary, their effectiveness isn't as prominent as before. To rejuvenate traditional brands, it's essential to fully use online social media resources, creating an offline-online media closed loop to maximise advertising effectiveness across multiple domains.
references:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6F9cdNi-Tg
https://hk.news.yahoo.com/林峯新廣告「飛鷹出爪」動作引關注-媲美大阪地標「固力果跑跑人」-網民：唔係個個carry到-072558117.html
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