During my daily commute I go through the Union Square 14st MTA subway station. I have noticed over the past few weeks a new installment similar to some things I have seen in movie theaters. Broadcasting onto one of the subway walls in a high traffic area that connects all the trains in that station was a big blue square. I knew immediately that it had to be some form of advertising as when people walked past the image interacted with the shadows that interrupted the projection. After doing some digging I did manage to find some more information about this new advertising.
A little while later I saw “CBS Outdoor” being broadcast on the wall with the same level of interactivity as you walked by. It gave the appearance of liquid or as if the wall was made of water or blue gel.
A few days ago the first true ad went up with the new projection system from Asics. I took a picture which is below:
It is all part of a Union Square subway takeover by Asics also taking advantage of traditional ads that are up in what seems to be EVERY location in the station. See this Flickr picture for an example.
Below is another shot of the same ad. The concept behind this is actually pretty cool. It seems CBS Outdoor is responsible for the installation which appears to be a very serious projector and some form of computer with it then they sell the opportunity to advertisers.
As far as execution I think it was well done. I notice many people speeding through the crowded hallways checking out the ad, but not too many people actually stop to interact with it. In fact, I witnessed more people stopping and interacting with the blue wall, before anyone knew it was CBS Outdoor or Asics.
I think as with many new and innovative ideas, Asic’s is missing out on some opportunities with this ad. They should have more information available at their website. Its fine if they bury it somewhere under press and corporate info, but why not have a living example of all advertising done to date? I mean you have paid millions to get it to this point – why not let people enjoy it online also? Heck, let people embed pictures and video of the content so it spreads further! You have a bunch of niche marketing bloggers out there like marketing.fm and tons of others – give us content:)
For those really interested here is a Google Map of where the ads can be found: (Look for Union Square Park in the map – thats the location for you non-New Yorkers)
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October 25, 2007
Advertise Different, Marketing 2.0, Marketing.fm, New Markets, Out of Home