Advertising surrounds the transit commuter. It's wrapped around trains, back-lit on bus shelter panels, glowing atop taxi cabs, and staring down from billboards. Amid all that noise, what really caught the eyes of people waiting for rides in downtown Minneapolis one day last December were the shapes in the snow.

Maikel van de Mortel and Bjorgvin Saevarsson had made tracks along Nicollet Mall, by the light rail line, and in other areas, using metal stencils to stamp the name and logo of St. Paul nonprofit Fresh Energy into the snow about 1,000 times. It was the first local project of van de Mortel's and Saevarsson's Element Six Media, a green advertising firm that builds its campaigns around the use of "earth materials"--snow, sand, water, plants--as well as social media. It didn't take long for fresh snowfall to bury the duo's work, but not before they'd made an impression on an estimated 75,000 people walking past.

But that was just phase one. The unusual marketing technique generated news coverage, as well as YouTube videos and Facebook posts. Element Six estimates 1.8 million people were eventually exposed to the campaign.

"It snows, it's gone. It melts, it's gone," says van de Mortel. "All of our campaigns are short-lived, but yet they enjoy a great afterlife on the Internet."

Each one of their campaigns is unique, but what they all have in common is that when they're over, there's nothing to tear down and throw in a landfill. The no-impact philosophy stems from the values the Element Sixers grew up with in Europe. (Van de Mortel is from Holland and Saevarsson is from Iceland.)

The pair recently sat down with The Line to talk about how Element Six started and we're it's going. We met them under the spiral staircase at the Open Book literary center in downtown Minneapolis, at a wide table that they've made their home base. (They have a symbiotic relationship with the Open Book's coffee shop--they buy all of their meals and beverages there in exchange for a rent-free workspace.)

From Old Media to Aqua Ads

Van de Mortel and Saevarsson moved to Minneapolis separately a little over a decade ago after each of them fell for a girl from the Midwest. Van de Mortel worked in marketing and advertising and co-owned a local firm, Fresh, for about six years. Saevarsson started a sustainable food distribution company, which he sold in 2004 before becoming an M&A adviser and broker.

The two met a few years ago, and as the recession took its toll on their previous work, they both found themselves at a crossroads and looking for something new. They knew they wanted to do something green; they'd had conversations about growing up in Europe and how green values are so much more mainstream and pragmatic there than here.

Meanwhile, they observed how a growing number of companies were attempting to green their operations, but their marketing efforts still revolved around the same old tactic of "bombarding the universe with all these wasteful methods of marketing, boasting about how green they are, which kind of seemed a little bit backwards," says van de Mortel.

They launched Element Six Media in May 2009. Their first campaign involved the use of "aqua ads," a sort of anti-graffiti in which they use a stencil to wash clean portions of a sidewalk or wall, leaving an image or message behind. They've since done about 25 projects, working with a team of "eco-artists" whose canvases include snow banks, sandy beaches, dusty windshields, dirty sidewalks, flower gardens, even volcano dust, which was used in a recent campaign in Turkey. (Most of their clients are in Europe or on the coasts.)

Its most recent project was for a Nutrilite convention in southern California. The company was expecting about 50,000 attendees from China and wanted to offer the travelers a breathtaking view as they stepped off the buses. Element Six created a large garden with the company's logo recreated in flowers.

Another tool in Element Six's belt: something called Earth Ads, which look like spray-painted graffiti but wash away the moment they come in contact with water, thanks to a secret, non-toxic formula developed through the company's R&D work. When we spoke, van de Mortel and Saevarsson were preparing to roll out an Earth Ads campaign in August in Chicago for Virgin Mobile.

It's green advertising, but more importantly it's positive advertising, they stress. "It is extremely affordable. It's very cool. People take notice. It's positive marketing," says Saevarsson. "They tend to want to touch everything we do. They take pictures of it and start looking at the brand in a different way."

Eco-Skeptic Marketers

That may be the case with media and consumers, but marketers, at least in the United States, have been hesitant to shift spending from traditional methods.

"Marketers operate very risk-adverse, unfortunately, which is the last thing this economy needs," says van de Mortel. "We're seeing a big difference between Europe and the U.S. We don't [market our work] in Europe at all, but a lot of our requests are from Europe simply because they understand that the PR splash makes a world of difference. Here, it's much more of an old-fashioned 'show-me-the-ROI.'"

That said, they understand why a marketer would be nervous suggesting to their boss that they cut back on print and instead put their money into a snow-stamping campaign. So in this country, they've spent a lot of time on dialogue and education, trying to get companies comfortable thinking differently about advertising.

That's not to say they would think about relocating. Minneapolis-St. Paul, besides being centrally located, has all the assets it needs to be a global leader, with the exception of a larger percentage of risk takers, they say. "A lot of creativity in this town. A lot of hard-working people. Smart people, and willing to take chances, but we need more," says van de Mortel.

All Bets Are Off

With the world economy now at a crossroads, the Twin Cities, the Midwest and the United States have an opportunity to leverage their creative assets and become leaders in the new economy, but it won't happen if we wait around for things to return to how they were, says van de Mortel.

"We don't talk in terms of things turning around," he says. "This is the new reality, and we're at ground zero. The question is: how are we going to build up? The problem is that not everybody has come to peace yet with that new reality, and as long as that doesn't happen, if you're not at that point, then you're going to struggle.

"The truth of the matter is, it's not going to go back to what it was. We're not going to see profit margins as high anymore as they used to be. We're not going to be able to charge those dollar amounts we were used to. Every single industry is going to have to face some realities. It's just part of the new economy. Every day that we talk about how things were, waiting for things to turn around, is time wasted. We can't afford it."

As for what's next for Element Six, van de Mortel will only tease:

"We're working on something that--if we can do this one particular project--not only the country but the world is going to take note. It's going to change the way that advertising is looked at, single-handedly. This is not an exaggeration. It's the complete opposite of everything that we know and see nowadays. It will right away make a statement, and people will say, 'Okay, we have to rethink every single thing.'"

And you can stamp that in the snow!

Dan Haugen is Innovation and Jobs editor of The Line.


Photos, top to bottom:

Bjorgvin Saevarsson and Maikel van de Mortel, the earthy admen of Element Six

The Element Sixers at work in the coffee shop of the Open Book literary center, which is also home to a book-arts center, a literary publisher, and a writing school

An "aqua ad," anti-graffiti that makes a mark by cleaning the sidewalk in an ad pattern

"Dust designs" can be created on shop windows as well.

"Snow branding" for Fresh Energy, a Saint Paul-based eco-advocacy nonprofit.

Photos of Saevarsson and van de Mortel by Bill Kelley; other images courtesy Element Six Media