Right after publishing a post on the topic of mobile interactivity in Times Square this New Year's, I headed over to wired.com and came across a terrific article that highlights the same campaigns. Rather than just adding an excerpt to my existing post, I feel the article is worth reading in its entirety (I've highlighted my favorite parts):
New York's Times Square has been loudly ringing in the New Year every December 31 since 1907. But as technologies change so do the opportunities: Advertisers can now change their messages on a minute-by-minute basis and, more importantly, they can interact with the people looking up from the street.
"We've had the technologies for awhile, but you need that return path. You need the immediacy of the cell phone," says Meric Adriansen, managing partner of systems and engineering at D3 LED, a company that manages and maintains many of the square's LED signs.
This year, the space has made big strides from its life as a three dimensional advertising surface to an outdoor, interactive entertainment center.
Advertisers pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a month to display their brand in the prime locations that grace the square, and on New Year's Eve, those names and products are beamed into millions of homes as the nation greets the coming year. But this Wednesday, the crowds standing out in the cold will have more to occupy their time.
"It's really our first year with interactive elements," according to Jason Barak, managing partner of sales and marketing at D3.
The area's multiple video capable billboards will broadcast the night's entertainments into the square, with advertisements and other specific entertainments aimed at the people crowded onto Broadway and the surrounding streets. Revelers can text their picture to the JVC billboard and see themselves beamed onto the sign in high definition when they're not playing a DVD quality trivia game sponsored by the makers of the Scene It? DVD games. People in Times Square can also text NYE to 66333 to submit messages to appear on MTV's HD Times Square Screen and the Spec HD sign will have games to entertain viewers who often begin their time in the square around noon on December 31st.
"Any time we get consumers to interact with our brand, it's a good thing. That's the ultimate thing we want to do," says Karl Bearnarth, senior vice president of marketing at JVC of America.
And in the past year, engagement in the area has grown exponentially. Five new landmark signs have brought the number of major electronic billboards up to 42, including the first high definition billboard, created by JVC, and the digital 17-story exterior of the new Walgreens at One Times Square, which is the largest outdoor advertising space in the world.
Several new marketing tricks have made their way into the north end of the square, where crowds of people line up every day to purchase half price tickets to plays and musicals at the TKTS booth. Brands are taking advantage of that captive audience with their advertisements as well as signage elements that require engagement.
The Spectravision sign deploys word games that viewers can play by texting to the sign. The sign plays a television feed that can be connected with audio through a telephone call. And advertisers can now interact with viewers through Bluetooth, distributing coupons, songs or other content to the phones of people viewing their signs.
Brands have long been at home in "The Crossroads of the World," and this New Year's will be no different. Nivea is sponsoring the midnight kiss. The Charmin bathrooms will be very busy accommodating the crowds piling into the square all night. 3 Musketeers is collecting wishes from individuals that will shower down as confetti at midnight, while Pepsi plans to drop 1,000 balloons on the square just before midnight, creating the illusion that Times Square is carbonated.
But brand name sponsors are learning that engagement is what they're looking for.
Thanks to efforts started by Rudolf Giuliani and the Disney Corporation in the early '90s, Times Square now attracts over one million visitors a day to check out the neon signage, take pictures with Elmo and generally clog the sidewalks. The trick for advertisers is to capture and maintain their attention amidst information overload. For audiences used to the online experience, that involves programming beyond simple brand promotion and user generated feedback.
In the coming year, billboards will display content that resembles entertainment more than advertising and requires feedback from people on the street. The signs on the square are increasingly capable as digital displays, and while traffic officials may not be excited about it, their goal is to get people to stop and watch what happens on the buildings.
"There are 1.6 million people walking through Times Square every day," says Andriansen. "You have six seconds of their glance. The question is: what do you do to get people to interact?"
(via: Wired)
Sphere: Related Content
New York's Times Square has been loudly ringing in the New Year every December 31 since 1907. But as technologies change so do the opportunities: Advertisers can now change their messages on a minute-by-minute basis and, more importantly, they can interact with the people looking up from the street.
"We've had the technologies for awhile, but you need that return path. You need the immediacy of the cell phone," says Meric Adriansen, managing partner of systems and engineering at D3 LED, a company that manages and maintains many of the square's LED signs.
This year, the space has made big strides from its life as a three dimensional advertising surface to an outdoor, interactive entertainment center.
Advertisers pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a month to display their brand in the prime locations that grace the square, and on New Year's Eve, those names and products are beamed into millions of homes as the nation greets the coming year. But this Wednesday, the crowds standing out in the cold will have more to occupy their time.
"It's really our first year with interactive elements," according to Jason Barak, managing partner of sales and marketing at D3.
The area's multiple video capable billboards will broadcast the night's entertainments into the square, with advertisements and other specific entertainments aimed at the people crowded onto Broadway and the surrounding streets. Revelers can text their picture to the JVC billboard and see themselves beamed onto the sign in high definition when they're not playing a DVD quality trivia game sponsored by the makers of the Scene It? DVD games. People in Times Square can also text NYE to 66333 to submit messages to appear on MTV's HD Times Square Screen and the Spec HD sign will have games to entertain viewers who often begin their time in the square around noon on December 31st.
"Any time we get consumers to interact with our brand, it's a good thing. That's the ultimate thing we want to do," says Karl Bearnarth, senior vice president of marketing at JVC of America.
And in the past year, engagement in the area has grown exponentially. Five new landmark signs have brought the number of major electronic billboards up to 42, including the first high definition billboard, created by JVC, and the digital 17-story exterior of the new Walgreens at One Times Square, which is the largest outdoor advertising space in the world.
Several new marketing tricks have made their way into the north end of the square, where crowds of people line up every day to purchase half price tickets to plays and musicals at the TKTS booth. Brands are taking advantage of that captive audience with their advertisements as well as signage elements that require engagement.
The Spectravision sign deploys word games that viewers can play by texting to the sign. The sign plays a television feed that can be connected with audio through a telephone call. And advertisers can now interact with viewers through Bluetooth, distributing coupons, songs or other content to the phones of people viewing their signs.
Brands have long been at home in "The Crossroads of the World," and this New Year's will be no different. Nivea is sponsoring the midnight kiss. The Charmin bathrooms will be very busy accommodating the crowds piling into the square all night. 3 Musketeers is collecting wishes from individuals that will shower down as confetti at midnight, while Pepsi plans to drop 1,000 balloons on the square just before midnight, creating the illusion that Times Square is carbonated.
But brand name sponsors are learning that engagement is what they're looking for.
Thanks to efforts started by Rudolf Giuliani and the Disney Corporation in the early '90s, Times Square now attracts over one million visitors a day to check out the neon signage, take pictures with Elmo and generally clog the sidewalks. The trick for advertisers is to capture and maintain their attention amidst information overload. For audiences used to the online experience, that involves programming beyond simple brand promotion and user generated feedback.
In the coming year, billboards will display content that resembles entertainment more than advertising and requires feedback from people on the street. The signs on the square are increasingly capable as digital displays, and while traffic officials may not be excited about it, their goal is to get people to stop and watch what happens on the buildings.
"There are 1.6 million people walking through Times Square every day," says Andriansen. "You have six seconds of their glance. The question is: what do you do to get people to interact?"
(via: Wired)
proud to say that I worked with the great folks at Play Megaphone in the conceptualization and launch of a mobile game at the Sixers arena that allowed fans to control on-screen players through key pad and voice activation. The average interaction time was over 5 minutes. That is amazing when you really think about it. People participated in a branded Sixers experience for ten times longer than the average commercial spot, which we all know viewers avoid these days like the plague.
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