« Prospero First Meeting and Architecture | Main | Spreading the Prospero Word »
January 17, 2007
The New York Times on digital displays
This is precisely the kind of thing that projects like Prospero strike
a blow against.
-Sayan.
NY Times, January 15, 2007
Anywhere the Eye Can See, It's Likely to See an Ad
By LOUISE STORY
[Excerpts below. For the full text, click here.]
[...]
Old-fashioned billboards
are being converted to digital screens, which are
considered the next big thing. They allow
advertisers to change messages frequently from
remote computers, timing their pitches to sales
events or the hour of the day. People can expect
to see more of them not only along highways, but
also in stores, gyms, doctors' offices and on the
sides of buildings, marketing executives say.
The trend may lead to more showdowns as civic
pride is affronted. "They're making our community
look like Las Vegas," said Barbara Thomason,
president of the Houston Northwest Chamber of
Commerce, of the scores of digital signs she has
noticed popping up in the last few years. "The word
'trashy' has been used."
Some advertising executives say that as long as
an advertisement is entertaining, people do not
necessarily mind the intrusion — and may even welcome it.
In some office buildings, for instance, video
screens in elevators provide news and information
as well as ads. This year video screens will be
placed in about 5,000 New York City taxicabs,
where passengers will see both advertisements and
NBC programs, according to Clear Channel Outdoor,
which is installing the screens.
"If you do it the right way, you actually win
points," said John McNeil, executive creative
director at McCann Worldgroup San Francisco. His
agency designed ads for Microsoft that appeared
on tray tables in US Airways planes last spring.
But advertisers are still trying to determine
exactly what the right way is, and that has led
to some intriguing experiments.
At the Amway Arena in Orlando, Fla., for
instance, an interactive floor display for
McDonald's last year showed the head of a teenage
boy with small Big Mac burgers flying past; when
people stepped on the ad, the burgers bounced
away from their feet.
An interactive ad for Adidas appears in the
Herald Square subway station in New York City.
Passers-by last week said they liked the sign,
which looked like a static picture of a sneaker
until someone walked past it, triggering a motion
sensor that sent a spray of miniature sneakers flying.
"It makes me interested in the sneakers," said
Roscoe Evans, 36, a personal trainer from
Waterbury, Conn. "I'd rather have it in here
than out on the street."
Andrea Mendez and Julie Wheaton, both working in
New York for a year for Teach for America, said
the sign was "cool" and suitable for its
location. "But I wouldn't want to see it back in
Spokane," said Ms. Wheaton, who is from the
state of Washington.
Toyota projected ads for its Scion cars on the
sides of buildings in 14 cities, including
Chicago, Atlanta and Dallas. Unilever also
projected ads, for its Axe men's fragrance, on
buildings in places like Tampa and Milwaukee. But
this tactic does not always go over well: last
month, when branches of Chase Bank and Commerce
Bank projected ads on New York sidewalks, the
city told the banks to turn off the unauthorized beams.
[...]
Posted by bhattach at January 17, 2007 08:54 PM