Following a multimillion pound refurbishment, and using little more than seawater, SEA LIFE London Aquarium ran a (close to) zero-impact advertising campaign in the streets of London earlier this week.
You might recognize the masterminds behind the campaign: Curb, the media agency that uses natural materials to build brand awareness for its clients. (We previously wrote about their sand sculptures, turf cutting and snow tagging innovations.) Dubbed 'sea tagging', Curb's newest tool simply entails spraying seawater through custom-made stencils. Salt water evaporates more slowly than fresh water, and the stencilled graphics are visible for 5–15 minutes up to two hours.
For Monday's SEA LIFE campaign, over 2,000 images of sea turtles, sharks and seahorses were sprayed on streets, walls and sidewalks in 300 locations by a team of taggers dressed in scuba diving gear. Since the adverts are temporary and consist of nothing but water, Curb didn't have to worry about permission or permits.
Considering the amount of visual clutter in public spaces that's created by non-stop marketing efforts, a campaign that leaves nothing behind but a dusting of seasalt is as appealing for aesthetic reasons as it is for its low impact on the environment. While it may not work in hot cities, we expect to see sea tagging appear (and disappear) in other parts of the world soon.
Website: www.mindthecurb.com
Contact: info@mindthecurb.com
I'm confused, because your article says, "...so the stencilled graphics are visible for up to two hours" yet Curb's site says, "Although each seatag only lasted about 5 minutes before evaporating..."
That *is* confusing, Brandon. I got my information from a message from Curb. Will check with them and find out how long it really takes before the images evaporate. Maybe they tested on a cloudy day (2 hours) and it took 5 minutes on a sunny day? Weather in Northern Europe has been unusually nice, so that might be the case...
Very true. I imagine the variation in weather was cause of the discrepancy in time.
Either way, very creative ad placements, and thanks for bringing it to my attention!
Hi Brandon
I am from CURB and was on the ground executing the campaign, so I thought I would clear up the confusion. The seatags lasted between 5-15 minutes dependent on the time of day they were placed, whether they were in shade and how hot the pavement surface was, before gradually fading and leaving a visible watermark which lasted about 20 minutes before disappearing completely.
The sea water itself was collected from a tiny English coastal village called Mablethorpe, myself and the team braved the freezing North Sea to collect it. For more pictures on the campaign and collection visit our gallery here:
http://www.mindthecurb.com/our-gallery-images.asp?ID=25
Anthony
Are you telling me that taggers dressed in scuba gear didn't attract swarms of police/security people? I thought England was turning into a place where even taking a photograph could brand you a suspicious character! I'm relieved to see otherwise!
This is such a sustainable way of advertising. I love it! I'm definitely going to use this for my campaigns, although I'm just abit wary incase it annoys street cleaners, police or the councils.