(Today is the first of two guest posts by Ryan Kolbe, one of our star Client Service Managers who is helping cover for me over the holidays. In this first post, Ryan actually disagrees with something I wrote about Zappos airport security-bin ads a few months ago. But that’s OK; meaning can lie in the eye of the beholder, and I think we need some good, healthy debate about the Marketing with Meaning concept in order for it to succeed.)

I am one of the countless numbers of people who are annoyed with the current use of “traditional” marketing tactics. Traditional advertising is becoming less meaningful to consumers, and it’s more mental clutter than anything else. Marketing with Meaning is something that will be able to help reverse these tactics with time, but unfortunately, we’re not at rock bottom yet. All companies haven’t latched onto the idea of making advertising more meaningful so that people want to see and interact with it. Where else could it go?

Someday, toothpastes may have microchips in them so that after you brush, the advertising changes on digital posters you walk by throughout the day, congratulating you on brushing, and giving you a secret code to get buy one floss and get one free. How about paper towels that reveal hidden coupons for more paper towels after cleaning up the mess on the dinner table? What about lightbulbs that send off a “bat signal” message before they burn out, prompting you to buy more? Where will it end? Companies need to be trendsetters and reverse the downward spiral of traditional “push” marketing—enter Marketing with Meaning.

A great example of Marketing with Meaning presented itself to me on the way home from a quick trip to Denver. In the age of “current threat levels” and miniature toothpastes, the reality of traveling these days is much different than in the past. Gone are the days of getting to the airport an hour in advance, gallivanting around the terminal for coffee, and finally ending up going through the sleepy line of security to make it to your plane as they are beginning to call for boarding passes. People have come to understand that they will be waiting in lines and are planning accordingly more and more.

As is customary nowadays, the lines were horrendous. There were eight open lanes, each having about 20 people in them, and a thousand of my closest friends behind me. Without hesitation, based on prior airport visits, I started to de-security-risk myself. I took off my coat, hat, scarf, belt, watch, sunglasses, iPod, phone, and boots. By the time I was done with all of that, balancing everything precariously in between someone resembling my grandmother and a teenager with a skateboard, I was at the point where I could put my belongings into the plastic security bins to send them all through the X-ray machine, only to put them back on after passing through successfully.

I took out two bins: one for my shoes and the “extras,” and one for my coat, and I came to find some Marketing with Meaning waiting for me in the base of the bins. Two different ads from Zappos.com were lining the bins, directing me to “place shoes here” and “buy shoes here” with the website address, and in the other bin telling me that they “sell almost everything [I'll] put in this tray” with the Zappos.com link again.

At first I was annoyed, as my Pavlovian reaction to marketing where I’m not expecting it immediately took hold. But then I sat there for a minute and took in what they were accomplishing with these bin liners. As a traveler, I could have been in any kind of mood at that moment: I could have been happy because I was going home, annoyed that I was delayed again, tired because of lack of sleep, or whatever. Zappos.com realized that in their marketing, and played to the fact that the people who are waiting in line will not have their shoes on, and they will see the website.

At that point, people could see their shoes and think, “Wow, I could use a new pair; those have really seen better days,” or “Man, my feet are tired from all of this standing around,” or any number of other things, and then Zappos.com was on the mind. At the other side of security, that person could whip out a Web-enabled phone or laptop, browse Zappos.com’s selection, and maybe even purchase right there when waiting for a flight. Ahh, the relief of a new pair of shoes waiting at home after a trip—could it get any easier?

So what? The fact that I wasn’t expecting to see the ad in the base of the bin ended up grabbing my attention rather than deterring it. Coupling that with the fact that it didn’t interrupt my day made the marketing meaningful: I was in line already, I needed to put my shoes in the bin, and it added some color and thought into a monotonous, sometimes annoying task. If I didn’t already use Zappos.com, I would have remembered that ad and looked on the site the next time I needed new shoes or even to pass the time when I was waiting for my flight. Meaningful marketing doesn’t have to be interruptive, and it adds that much more when it flows with my day-to-day. Understanding that mindset will help companies learn to work with consumers, rather than pushing marketing onto those who aren’t as receptive.

I’ve railed against interruptive marketing time after time in this space. The purpose of this blog is to promote the need for us to stop finding new ways to just “get eyeballs” and instead create advertising that people actually find valuable. But to prove the concept, it is important to continually test it. Let’s see if Zappos can pass the test with air-travel advertising.

Air travel is becoming a huge target of brilliant inventors’ attempts to make a buck by bombarding us with more advertising. Air travelers are certainly a great target for their efforts; they have higher incomes and need to make frequent decisions about where they stay or visit. And, most importantly, they are trapped in small places like security lines and airplane seats for hours—with nothing to do but stare at advertisements. As a result, we’ve seen ads arrive on tray tables, overhead storage bins, and even barf bags.  A company called Ad-Air is buying up land near runways to host football-field-sized banner ads.

So it is no surprise that someone has figured out how to turn the lowly security bin into an advertising medium. A company called SecurityPoint Media has been written up in Advertising Age and USA Today for its new, growing service. The company splits the revenue with the host airport, and the bins are approved for TSA use. The company claims that several million people per month see the advertising, and they have received no complaints so far.

Research has proven that airport travelers consist of a highly sought-after demographic that includes early adopters and decision makers.  There is no other airport marketing platform today that ensures your message meets the eye.” — SecurityPoint Media

During a training I was giving this week, someone in the audience mentioned that they had recently seen an ad for the online shoe store Zappos.com in these bins. It was memorable because it included cute copy and seemed extremely relevant (see above image). After all, what better time to talk shoes than when you’re asking someone to take them off and put them into a tray? But let’s test to see whether or not this is meaningful marketing.

Marketing

While we cannot get inside the heads of management, one would suppose that Zappos.com, a releatively new online retailer, has a business objective of driving awareness. The company likely sees tactics like this as a way to make a big impact without spending giant bucks on TV. Zappos says that the program is a success.  According to its senior marketing manager, Andy Kurlander:

We feel that this is a highly targeted venue to promote our brand. Each person getting on a plane is guaranteed to view our message multiple times. Plus, with shoes in hand, it’s the perfect instance to remind them they’ve been meaning to make time to buy a new pair. Why not Zappos?”

Meaning

Here’s where I think the Zappos example breaks down. We believe that meaningful advertising must do two things: First,  people must choose to engage in the ad. The Zappos ads, though, are more interruptive than engaging. The Zappos ad is a kind of “gotcha” surprise ambush. Second, the ad unit itself must add value to people’s lives. This might hold true, but just barely. The Zappos ad offers very light humor with lines such as “Place Shoes Here,” which can be a welcome diversion in the slow death march through the scanner line.

Conclusion

Is the Zappos.com security-bin marketing successful? Probably so. Is it meaningful? Not really. I believe new media opportunities like this tend to have a very short life span. The first ad units surprise us, and if they are clever and relevant (like Zappos), they can even delight us. But companies like SecurityPoint Media are not restricting themselves to clever, relevant advertisers, so those of us who trudge through the aiport each week will see more and more of them until they, too, become just another piece of ignored wallpaper along our journey from City A to City B.