Location, Location, Location! The Adage is true.

Hello creative souls!

A famous adage in real-estate from the early 20th century goes "The desirability of a property comes down to three things: Location, Location, Location.”

This holds true today for advertising as well. Not long ago, when people in advertising talked about 'media,' they usually meant print, radio, billboards, or TV. That's changed now. With the internet, social media, and new digital technology, any surface anywhere can be used to share a message, as displayed in this brilliant ad below.

If you were in that station, you’d have seen a static image of a woman…until a train passes by. You suddenly see the picture come alive(Like at Hogwarts, but I’m pretty sure this platform was not numbered 9^3/4 ). What is this an ad for? Pharmacy chain Apotek’s line of hair products, Apolosophy. The Stockholm Subway Commuters were caught by surprise at the real-life visual effects they were experiencing.

Now, you could be a long-time Stockholm resident and be someone that hasn’t even heard of the brand. But now you do - and the next time you want to buy a new conditioner, you’re probably going to head to the nearest pharmacy to pick up a bottle of Apolosophy.

Location-based ads have historically worked brilliantly for a simple reason:

• You’re reaching out directly to your target audience

• You're going exactly where they’ll be

• And, because you know all this information, you can talk in their language

“But hey, outdoor advertising is dead with a capital D. why can’t I spend all that money reaching more people? This sticks to one location and just the people there.”

Wrong. You do it right, using the right technology and storytelling, you can execute a campaign that gets you more eyeballs than any targeted ad. In fact, by doing this, you can reach more people, free of cost. Look at the number of people pulling out their phones and capturing the moment.

Think of every single brilliant outdoor campaign you’ve seen in the recent past. Chances are, you never actually saw the ad itself. You probably saw a picture posted by someone you don’t know that just circulated through the world and was delivered to you by an algorithm — and the brand that launched the campaign definitely didn’t pay for it to reach you.

Imagine a world where…

• a cute dog reacts to your presence? - Can it convince you to adopt one?

• Can a bridge display positive affirmations and stop people from taking a drastic step?

• Can you declare the biggest patch of ocean trash as a separate country and shame the UN into taking action?

YES. YES and YES. All of these have been done and without an iota of a doubt we can definitely call this as the most effective way to pivot boring advertising into impactful messaging.

Ending the newsletter by paraphrasing another famous adage from the writing world - “Show (at the right place), don’t tell” and nothing fits the adage more perfectly than using a location to show the messaging.

Figment is written by Abbhinav Kastura, a writer/producer who has spent a decade making impactful internet videos and Guru Nicketan, an advertising nerd, B2B Marketer, stand-up comedian, and a film buff.