Just recently in New York, pedestrians looking up at night saw shark fins projected on office buildings. The fins were moving. It was for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. In San Francisco, folks looking up at the Golden Gate Bridge saw the silhouette of a baseball player, also in motion, in a promotion for the All-Star game.
Images have long been projected onto walls and other outdoor surfaces, even water, but the big thing these days is projecting images that move on those night surfaces.
To find out how to get your client’s message moving across urban landscapes, read on.
This is one in a Media Life series on buying the new out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.
Fast Facts
What
Ads projected as moving displays across buildings and other surfaces.
Who
Several media companies have the technology to offer moving projection. For this article, Media Life spoke with two that have recently created buzz with their programs: BlueBlastMedia working with National Media Services in New York and Technique Mirage in Monterey, Calif.
How it works
Ads are projected onto buildings and other surfaces from a vehicle. As the vehicle moves through traffic, the images leap from building to building.
“Rolling projection lends itself to moving images that have a sense of speed up and slow down. For example, cars can drive along a wall, athletes can do the long jump. That’s why a shark fin works. It comes out of the water, then drops back into it,” says BlueBlast CEO J.P. Freeley.
National Media Services calls the program Streetmosphere DLP Rolling Projections. Technique Mirage calls it Mobile Mega-Images.
“It works on every surface except glass,” Freeley says. “Even on trees.”
Technique Mirage’s images are large, up to 200 feet high. The Streetmosphere projections are up to 10 feet high.
The advertiser provides creative.
“We recommend a headline approach,” says Technique Mirage founder Robert Collier. “These images can be seen from blocks away, so we stress boldness as opposed to a lot of detail. For example, a full-sized car is excellent projected across buildings.”
Images are in full color. Audio is also available. Moving projections are used for both branding and promotions, and both vehicular and pedestrian traffic are targeted.
Local advertisers as well as national brands use the program.
Projections are also used for events. “We’ve done Olympics and Super Bowls. We projected an Olympic torch onto the Sears Tower in Chicago,” Collier says.
Moving projections can stand alone but are often used with other media. For Shark Week, there were also shark-wrapped taxis and window displays.
Markets
The programs are up and running in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, among the top DMAs, and can be set up in other major markets.
Campaigns can run simultaneously in multiple markets.
How it is measured
Like many guerilla programs, rolling projections aren’t very measurable, Freeley says, but one measure that can be used is traffic estimates.
What product categories do well
Automotive, airlines, transportation, beverages, entertainment, and sports and energy products do well.
Demographics
Audiences can be targeted by market, zip code, neighborhood or event. “It has a pretty broad reach,” says Matthew Grosse of Outdoor Media Alliance in New York.
Discovery's Shark Week program targeted New York neighborhoods populated by a young, active audience, says Brad Feinberg, director of media planning for the Discovery Channel.
“For Shark Week, we were targeting a little bit younger, a little bit male,” says Andy Von Kennel, vice president of the New York office of PHD North America, the agency that designed the Discovery Channel campaign.
Making the buy
Technique Mirage: Lead time is two weeks. Cost is determined by variables including length of campaign and number of markets.
BlueBlast/National Media Services: Lead time with creative in hand is four weeks. The cost is $6,500 per driving unit per night plus a $3,000 per market setup fee.
Who’s already on rolling projections
The Discovery Channel recently used BlueBlast/National Media Services, while Major League Baseball, Nike, BMW, Mercedes and DuPont Carpet have used Technique Mirage.
What they’re saying
“On the most basic level everyone gets an ‘oh wow’ moment. And it’s fun. People pull out their cell phones to get photos to pass along. It makes a kind of happening.” – Andy Von Kennel, vice president for the New York office of PHD North America
Web site info
Technique Mirage at http://techniquemirage.com
BlueBlast Media at www.blueblastmedia.com
National Media Services at www.nationalmediaservicesinc.com
Etc.
Read about the basics of projection media in the April 18, 2005, article “Flash your client’s image way up high.”
