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Thermosensitive Furnishings | Hi-Res LED Panels | 2-D Bar Coding | Fogscreen | Online Hospitality | Live Viewing
Visual Reference Studio has taken its heat/touch-sensitive architectural panels and applied them to furniture. The coolest part—the interactive furnishing don’t come to life until attendees sit down or touch the materials. Seating and pillows change color when touched.
Hi-res images are now a reality in the realm of LED panel displays, and the images just keep getting crisper and clearer. As fixtures get smaller, brighter and more versatile, designers and marketers are dreaming up new applications.
Mega-Lite has created a compact panel—the Enigma Matrix Pro Panel—that assembles quickly. It’s a building block-style set-up that two installers can handle. It’s small and that’s a plus—the panels can be arranged in a variety of ways, to create long banners, gaps and custom forms.
How it works:
People use their camera phones to take a picture of a bar code, which can be placed on signage, billboards, fast food wrappers or even stitched into a pair of jeans (more on that later). The picture triggers the download of a message onto the phone. This can be anything from mobile videogames to promotional codes to complete conference schedules or even nutritional information. (In Japan, McDonald’s puts a code on its food wrappers and consumers download nutritional facts for the hamburger they’re eating, as they’re eating it.) The technology is not officially available in the U.S. yet but that didn’t stop the U.S. Air Force from previewing it during its recent Do Something Amazing mobile tour. There, they allowed attendees to borrow phones with the code already downloaded. By clicking on the 2-D images throughout the exhibit, they were able to download Air Force-themed videogames, streaming video and the locations of recruiters near their homes. Why aren’t the codes available yet? Cellular carriers need to agree on a standard so that all phones can read all codes. There are still some issues to be hashed out, but most insiders are optimistic that standardization and adoption will happen. “Within the next six months you’ll see trials and in one year, applications,” says ScanBuy ceo Jonathan Bulkeley, the company that provided the codes to the Air Force.
Application: Your entire message, using video, audio and online, can literally leave the event with the attendee, right on their mobile phone. Remember that code stitched into jeans? Why not clothe your brand ambassadors in code-encrusted gear? Let’s talk conferences: Attendees walk in, take a picture of the code on the welcome signage and have the entire conference program loaded into their PDA in an instant. Sponsoring the transportation at a big festival with multiple pick up/drop off points? Outfit the vans with GPS and put a code on your signage. Attendees can download the code and find out that the next van is two minutes away so there’s no need to hoof it. (The French are already doing it on selected bus lines in Paris.)
How it works:
A walk-through projection screen made out of, well, dry fog. It uses a tank of tap water blasted ultrasonically into very small water droplets. These are pushed up by a set of fans into a thin central channel. As those water particles fall under gravity, a very thin wall of fine mist or fog is created. On either side of that wall of fog is another set of fans that keep the fog bound almost invisibly, by a wall of air. The fog, sandwiched between these air currents, becomes a thin screen on which video can be projected. Why don’t you get wet when you walk through it? The water droplets are so small that they move around your body as you walk toward it and any moisture that hits your skin evaporates instantly. So the feeling is a sense of cool. “It’s funny for people because they can tell they’re walking through something, but they feel nothing,” says Jorden Woods, president-U.S. operations at Fogscreen.
One popular application of the technology is as an entryway that allows guests to walk right through the video projection in order to enter the event. “People walk right through that image and in walking through, it’s like they’ve arrived and are officially part of the event,” says Woods. Dell recently used Fogscreens to kick off its Urban Challenge, a treasure hunt it held in 10 cities to kick off a new line of laptops. Teams ran through the screens as they started on the hunt.
Application: By incorporating tactile visuals like Fogscreen, you can give attendees something they can’t experience in their own homes. “People are getting tired of plasma screens and LCD walls,” says Woods. “The beauty of the Fogscreen is you can walk through it, you can play with the fog, you can project the image on yourself as you walk through it. It’s an immersive experience.” That’s something people can sink their teeth into.
How it works:
A customizable online, interactive database allows companies to organize, streamline and track their entire inventory of hospitality assets used to host customers. Beyond that, this system can measure return on investment for hospitality events in a way never before possible. AT&T recently adopted such an online database (called AT&T Virtual Box Office, created via The Marketing Arm, Dallas) and according to AT&T corporate event area manager Maureen Casey, it has been a huge success.
Authorized users request tickets through an online system and must input information such as who will be attending, what the business reason is for the meeting and what he or she hopes to get out of it. After the event, the user is required to fill out a post-event form that includes questions like, “Did it meet the objectives you outlined up front?”
“The analysis we get out on the backend has been extremely helpful,” says Casey. “It’s the first time we’ve been able to identify what’s working
and what’s not.”
Let’s talk productivity. Before, Casey’s group had to input each set of tickets manually. Now what once took a full-time staff member three or four days can be done with a couple hours of setup time and an eight-minute import.
McDonald’s and Valvoline have implemented similar systems designed by TSMGI, Chicago. “The question is always, how do you track it,” says Jordan Bressler, president of TSMGI. “This lets us put evaluative reports in front of marketers. We can tell them, ‘You spend so much on tickets but it contributed to this much in incremental sales.’”
Application: Whether you get those tickets through sponsorships, partnerships or just buying them outright, your investment in hospitality is substantial. What are you doing with these resources? And what are you getting out of them? These are important questions in today’s budget-squeezed times. Online ticket tracking allows you to set out clear objectives for sponsorship and hospitality-related business and share them with your entire organization. Then, measure the return on objective using hard data. It’s a whole new way of looking at hospitality dollars.
How it works:
The latest and greatest way to enhance the experience at live sporting events is by allowing fans to watch all the action on handheld LCD video players. These aren’t televisions. Instead, the arena sends video and audio signals directly from the camera feeds into the device. It replays action on demand from any camera angle at full speed or slow motion, allows users to zoom in, and shows stats, not to mention important tidbits of information such as where to get food. How does this fit into event marketing? C’mon, it’s easy. What better way to reward your customers on site than with a free handheld video display to use during the event. That’s what American Express did at this year’s US Open. It gave out 2,000 devices free to cardholders. Fans just had to walk up to the American Express booth and have their cards swiped (there was a $350 charge if the device wasn’t returned) and then dial in and watch the action on six courts. A great way to get more out of the event.
Application: More and more consumers expect perks with membership. And everyone expects to be able to customize the experience. Devices like these allow fans to do just that. And if it’s with the help of your brand, all the better.