Picture this, you’ve been on a flight for the last few hours and your restless as you land. Like most people you are looking out the window to take a look at the city you are flying into. But wait, what is that on the ground? If British based Ad Air has their way it will be a giant 5 acre sized billboard. That’s about the size of 4 football fields.

The concept is an interesting twist on the growing field of outdoor advertising, where we are seeing ads on everything from car wraps to coffee cups. They say that it is unlike roadside billboards that are seen by a large field of people day by day. Air Ad advertisements are to be seen by a much more unique demographic. Reasoning suggests that very few people fly on a daily basis and thus it will make a much lasting impression on them.

The company has the go ahead in a handful of major airports, including Heathrow, Dubai International, Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, Denver International, Los Angeles International, Suvarnabhumi in Bangkok, Haneda in Tokyo. Ad Air is still negotiating so that they will ultimately have 30 ads placed in the world’s busiest airports. Next month an ad in Dubai will debut as the first site.

Costs for one of these big boys range from $80,000 – $150,000 a month. They will be printed on plastic mesh and will sit on metal frames.

Is this just a desperate attempt to utilize every possible space that isn’t already being used? Ad Air makes claims that the viewers will be drastically different in demographics, which may be true. For the first few times I look down at a huge billboard I’m going to remember what I see. But will this become a novelty? Another buzz in the sea of noise that constantly surrounds us?

I want to see gorilla campaigns come to life by using these ads creatively. Very edgy marketing would work well with this type of product. For instance, instead of boring crop circles you could always step it up to make people believe aliens really have landed there. Don’t worry, two weeks later you can tell them it was all a hoax, but to still go see the next Alien movie out in theaters.

[International Herald Tribune]

Radio isn’t dead, but it is dated and lacking innovation. The proof is in the numbers. For the first time in history there were more advertising dollars spent on Internet ads ($21.7 billion) than on radio ads ($20.4 billion), says eMarketer.

We are flooded with enhancements such as satellite radio, Internet radio, HD radio and podcasting. Yet terrestrial radio continues to broadcast at the same medium and with the same lack of features. Not only do we crave niche artists in the long tail but we want recommendations and individualization that social networks provide.

Here in sunny San Diego I have a choice between a few types of FM music stations, one news FM station and three AM talk radio stations. The music is often not my taste, the news channel gets old and unless I want to listen to 3 minutes of talk radio followed by 7 minutes of ads I don’t dare turn to the AM. So where did I go? Audio books, podcasts and Internet radio.

I, like most of my peers, just simply want to be entertained. Radio is losing significance in our lives because it lacks choice and hinges its industry on invasive advertising. Interactive options based on past experiences and social trends may be off for FM/AM technology but the permission to market to it’s audience isn’t.

Seth Godin in his book Permission Marketing would say to stop interrupting us. Don’t be the guy to walk up to us in a bar and ask for marriage. Get to know us first. Offer us a drink, gain our trust and with our permission we’ll eventually get in bed with you.

EDIT: Jay Ehret, the Small Business Marketing Guy at The Marketing Spot just wrote an excellent article about how radio may have the ability to innovate and why it has gotten itself in such a slump in recent times.

[Mashable]