Category: Billboard and Balloon Advertising

Coke goes 3-D in Times Square

Coca-Cola’s Times Square 3-D Billboard

Check out this new Times Square billboard!  It’s the world’s first 3-D Robotic sign with more than 1,500 LED screens.  Coke has been advertising for 97 years in NY’s Time Square, this is the biggest and best billboard of all time. Check out the YouTube video below and see the stats under the Vid.  What do you think of it?

300,000: Number of people who pass by the sign each day
240,000: Pounds that the sign weighs
1920: The year Coke’s first Times Square sign displayed
1760: Number of Moving LED screens
2004: The last year that Coke updated their Times Square Sign
68: The Signs Height
42: The Signs Width
35: Number of Engineers involved in design, testing and construction of the billboard
4: Number of Years it took to design and test the sign
*Numbers courtesy of AdAge Magazine September 11, 2017

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Amazing Interactive Billboard

The Social Swipe for Charity

Swipe a slice of bread with your credit card and instantly donate $ to people in need. Swipe the ropes on wrists, immediately give to the disadvantaged. This interactive billboard is entitled the Social Swipe. It’s a dual screen electronic billboard that has a credit card reader in the middle. As your card runs through the slot, the video syncs and slices a piece of bread or cuts off the ropes on wrists.

The Social Swipe is produced by the relief organization-Misereor, with help from stripe.com, a mobile payment provider. Each swipe on the animated billboard delivers an instant 2Euro donation to those in need. It’s an extremely engaging interactive and fun way to donate.

When donators receive their CC statements, it gives the user the option to turn the one-time donation into a monthly one. Increasing the funds to further fight against poverty and injustice in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. These billboards are presently located in various International Airports.

Check out the video below and see how fun it can be to donate. Or if you see one of these around the world, give it a swipe for me and let us know if it’s as fun as it looks!


What else could we do with this or something similar?

  • Swipe your card to slice a piece of juicy steak. Increase sales for Omaha Steaks.
  • Cut through some carrots. Join the Fruit and Veggie gift box of the month club. Portions of the proceeds go to the Food Bank and you get the healthy foods each month.
  • Slice quick and fast on the coconut, add some sound as it cracks open. Gives you a case of Coconut milk and another case sent to those in need.
  • Push your card through the middle of the billboard, swipe it on the moving arrow with numbers on it. Whichever number you get. Take it to the Department store and get 10, 20 or even 50% off your next purchase.
  • Have all sorts of hamburgers, fries, shakes, etc floating around the screen. Swipe at the correct moment to receive a coupon good for your favorite fast food treat.
  • Chop up some noisy notes to purchase more credits on your Amazon or iTunes account, right before you jump on the plane.
  • Easy one:  Change all those self serve Walmart swipers to something fun like this and more people would use them. And would enjoy the sometimes very confusing and frustrating self-check-out activity.
  • Have water in the background, float your card through the fish and coral to donate to local fishery’s and aquariums. Like fishing for funds.
  • Put some kiosks at the beach. Swipe your card, instantly donate to skin cancer centers and just as fast receive a sample size of SPF 60, when the transaction is complete.
  • Use it as fun ATM. Each day you slice through a fortune cookie. Everyday, the cookie cracks open and gives you a brand new fortune. The bank also earns a fortune from the many increased transactions.

The ideas and usages are endless. What would/could you do with this technology. Let me know in the comments section.

AdvertisingInHawaii.com-What’s Hot in NYC

I’m over in NYC this week and whenever I come here I totally dig seeing the advertising and marketing that’s happening here in person. It’s so much more fun and interesting for me to see it in person, then through a blog or on a website. It also brings you a totally non-biased report on who’s doing the best and coolest stuff in town!

Here’s a sampling of What’s Hot Now in Advertising and Marketing in NYC! As witnessed live by advertisinginhawaii.com

1.  Times Square Billboards:  Oh, I can stand for hours and look at the billboards and snap pictures of them.  Back in the Day-The real looking smoke rings that came from the Marlboro man was really good and so was the Chock Full O’ Nuts Coffee Billboard.  Now-a-days T-Squre feels like it’s on mega steroids, with Hollywoodesque art happening everywhere.   Some of the billboards basically show crisp, clean snippets of TV shows that are clearer than the TV I watch at my house!  I saw a :60-:90 billboard snippet of some fun reality show where the ladies were partying and having a great time ala’ NYE, then they got in a cat fight.  I’m not quite sure of the show, but it was really fun to watch on the Mega-Mega-Mega-Tron.  And I really like the girl with the blue lips as seen at the top of this post, she really stands out from the clutter and clatter of the rest of the Billboards. I would say the color palette does if for them. And the boldness of the vision of the art director.

Bloomingdale's makes you an instant Celebrity!

2.Bloomingdale’s Window Display:  OH the FUN that I had here!  Basically I walked along from window to window, pressed the star button next to the window, it took a picture of me, then within seconds, my picture appeared above the window!  It was so much fun, I did it at all 3 windows!  I felt like a star right in the center of the universe (BTW: that’s what I call the area around Bloomingdale’s in NYC).  And what I liked is your/my picture stayed on there for three slots, thus, it gave me lots of time to take a picture of it.  Everyone down there was having a great time! So much fun, I busted out the Bloomie’s card and bought a couple of things. 15% discount on purchases with a  Bloomingdale’s card all day long and lots of things were already 40-50% off.  Here’s the picture of me in the window display at Bloomingdale’s-December 2011-Mid Town NYC.

Me in the Window Display at Bloomingdale's Mid-Town Dec NYC

3.  In Cab Advertising:  As you know, I totally love QR codes and lately I’ve been looking for the best practices on how to use them well.  When I arrived in NYC, I got in the cab and a TV screen came on that told us about some Celebrity Gossip, sports scores, then a really cool ad came on to win Sunglasses.  What I liked about the ad is the lady in the spot, told us at the beginning of the spot, “Get Ready to scan the QR code to win a pair of Sunglasses”  this gave the rider plenty of time to locate their QR code on their phone and by the end of the :30 seconds you would be ready to scan it to win. I scanned it and it took me to their site and told and sold me on their sunglasses and they had a really easy to fill out form to win the prizes-especially wise when using a smart-phone.  Congrats!

4.DESIGUAL Stores NYC:   A Couple of years ago I noticed how fun and exciting this store seemed to be from the mix of dark lighting and bright colors inside the store. Now their marketing is proving their vibe to be true and in synch with their brand’s funness. In their store in Soho, These guys actually had a real red carpet outside on the side-walk, then as I walked in I was treated with bright balloons and thumping yet not overly banging house music and a free red bull!  How fun is that!  They made me feel special and gave me a bit of caffeine to wake up from my non sleep I usually get when I vacation over here in the big city. Note:  the only thing that did NOT match up with the marketing was the people working there.  They could care less about giving me a drink or a balloon or even asking me if I needed any help. So, You guessed it, I bought nothing. Two years ago I bought my first pair of what I would call expensive jeans ($220), at that time they were nice to me and the jeans were really nice and different, fun and exciting like their marketing.  But mainly they were attentive and helped me with my needs. Little did they know, I was back to do some shopping, but nope, not if you’re not going to be friendly forget it!  Double Note:  at Union Square I saw a shirt I was for sure going to buy-I actually still want it. But I asked the lady at the counter a simple question of “do you have any more of these?” she snapped and shouted “NO” so  once again, no sale. I do still want the shirt. But I just can’t buy from employees that suck! I forget her Kiosk name, but do hope she reads this blog sometime. Triple Note to lady:  It was a Black and grey and blue plaid shirt with buttons with X’s on them.  Back to DESIGUAL, here’s a picture of what they had going on this past weekend in Soho in NYC. Their marketing was good, just not their sales people or sales training.

 

 

With APEC in Town, You Might want to skate to work?

If you need to get around Waikiki, Why not try some alternative methods from your usual car? You could walk, Bike, jog, Rollerblade, hoverboard, sail or boat, Heliport, teleport or even skateboard your way around town. Any of these modes might help you ease your stress of getting stuck in traffic in your car or truck.

Actually, Since I write a few different blogs, I run into many different trends, New gadgets, lots of modes of advertising, and many really cool new exciting things. While I was checking for something to write about on streetzblog.com I found this video. And I decided it was much better for advertising in Hawaii.First-It gave me the idea of alternative ways to get around town this week during APEC. Second and most importantly This Vimeo Video matches my advertising blog the best because, lately I’ve been seeing some GREAT video work coming out on YouTube and Vimeo. These video’s are like mini movies, they are professional looking, usually come with great music and sound effects and give the viewer a great vibe of the brand being portrayed. Like this video, one can totally breathe and feel the brands vibe in less than 3 minutes. I actually bought a pair of Jump sneakers after watching a really cool Vid done by them. I’ll try to dig it up on the net if it’s still there.

The video above is for a skateboard company in NYC called 5Boro. It has a real nice NYC vibe, plus some pretty awesome tricks and I totally love it when they show the guy skating while filming the other skater, that just plain amazes me every time I see something like that. And for once, someone actually does wipe-out in the Vid!It adds some real cool reality to the vid and Not everyone is a perfectly awesome street skater and Yes, they do fall..at least sometimes.

I’m still a big believer in using traditional media to get things done for you, to direct people to take action, promote a concert or event, and TM is especially effective as the best way to let people know that you or your website, blog, Facebook, vimeo or YouTube sites actually exist! I suggest trying a radio campaign with enough frequency on the right station to fit your brand and I will tell you right now-it will work in getting people to your other means of advertising. We recently did a campaign for Bespoke Custom Tattoo and their Facebook likes increased each day the spots ran. We also included a pretty topical Wiz Khalifa promotion to go with it, but that’s what we do and that’s another reason it worked.

As I continue to write these blog posts, I am finding that the quality on the videos are getting better and better and are quite a nice way to brand your product. The point here is it’s another great tool to use or add to your arsenal. And I like it!

Note: From a Blog I wrote a few weeks ago. I still think it makes sense to pick 3-4 modes of advertising and do them well. Like Radio, Facebook and Videos. Or TV, Facebook and twitter. Or newspaper/billboards, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. As you noticed, for now at least I have Facebook in everything-that is the one constant I would use no matter what. Last I checked 800 Million ++ people are using it, the numbers are just staggering. And at least as of today, November 8, 2011-I don’t think you want to do 11-12 different modes, unless you have a really, really big passionate staff or no life. Things change so quickly, but for now, I’d go with the 3-4 modes of advertising and do them well.

If you’re looking for some marketing ideas or want my team to work on a campaign for you, just call or text me at 808 479-9928 or email me at scott.mackenzie@coxradio.com ..Hey and if you decide to skate to work this week, wear some safety gear, I don’t want you getting hurt from something I recommended. Peace!

Big Blow Ups Rule in Seattle Advertising!

Yo Vinnie "Pass me the Salt"

I’m in Seattle for about 4 days this week and I’ve been noticing a lot of Balloon/Blow Ups Advertising in Town.

I Saw Vinnie over at the Duck Tours,  a GIANT purple ape and a Paul Bunyan at a used car dealership, Huge Ice cream cones on top of an Ice Cream Store and Big Yellow Hot Air Balloons tethered to the ground at another used car dealership and some pretty usual yet very High in the sky Yellow, Red and Green circular balloons.

It seems Seattle is pretty infatuated with these big balloons. My thoughts on them are:  They seem to catch attention IF and only IF you are driving by them. And they seem to catch my attention.  The only thing that is really wrong with this type of advertising is many places let their balloon shapes get dirty and kind of ugly which can give your business a worse image instead of more customers. they are pretty expensive, thus if you do this type of advertising, please budget in for a new one every few months or at least once a year so that they will look good.

The Radio Advertising in Seattle was pretty good, the good spots that I heard told a topical story and I could picture the scenarios happening in my mind.  The spots that didn’t do to well had way too much copy in them and too many cluttered words read way too fast.

A billboard I noticed Said “Advertise here..250,000 people see this Billboard each Day” I liked that a lot, many times us in media forget that one of the best places to advertise about ourselves is with our own media.  A few years back I let my employees run 20-30 ads  a week about themselves and also during their “ad” week they were spotlighted on our internet sites.  Each Account Executive received an additional 1-5 calls each week that they were on and we had a 20% closing ratio, thus we DID make money from running ads on our own medium. Congrats to the Billboard company!

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