White Christmas Not Everyone's Dream

by 10 Best Design

How can a company get noticed without advertising? One creative agency did it by not advertising. They bought $10,000 worth of advertising space and left it blank. Wunder, a Canadian creative agency, bought print and digital ad space and left it completely blank. There are blank billboards in Halifax, Nova Scotia, social media ads and even radio ads filled with silence followed by a brief explanation of the company's idea of give consumers a break from the deluge of ads the holidays bring. This has got the agency noticed.The campaign, titled White Christmas, brings soothing white space according to Creative Director Stephen Flynn.

Despite the agency not promoting themselves, even with a tiny line of text saying the blank space brought to you by Wunder, they are still getting a lot of online publicity out of their spend. The stunt is being widely reported on YouTube, Pinterest and blogs about advertising.

Wunder's blank billboard drew a lot of attention. It made people ask if billboard advertising was still an effective way to reach people in their vehicles. Despite opponents claiming billboard advertising is distracting, more than 35 percent of drivers claim they read billboards they pass.

Canadian businesses spend over $4 billion in ads each year to reach citizens consuming about nine hours of media each day. According to GroupM, a media investment company, Canada's consumption numbers are steadily rising due to online consumption while non-digital media consumption is on the decline. Unfortunately for digital advertisers, 17 percent of Canadians use adblockers, which slightly higher than the worldwide average. The people who block ads the most are young men, a prime demographic. The use of adblockers shouldn't deter digital advertisers though; Canadians average more time online than Americans. No surprise, Google's search, YouTube, Facebook and Netflix are among Canadians favorite ways to consume media online. For more information click here https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/wunder-white-christmas-advertising-171219.