Ad interaction gaining traction
Sandra Guy
Sun-Times
December 16, 2007
Sears' virtual Wish Book -- its downsized online
catalog -- appears larger-than-lifesize suspended in
mid-air, with snowflakes moving around it.
The unusual sight is part of a new advertising
technology greeting shoppers at the Golf Mill Shopping
Center, the Ford City Mall, River Oaks Mall and seven
other Chicago area shopping centers.
The Wish Book's page opens as soon as a passerby
gestures over it. Watches spring out of the display and
follow the shopper as he walks away. When a passerby
gestures over the Wish Book again, the next page
appears, featuring a woman modeling the retailer's
latest fashions.
The projected images and their similarity to Star Trek's
holodeck tend to attract a crowd.
"Today, when consumers have become skeptical about
anything they're told in advertising, having them
discover and learn about a brand on their terms, along
with other people around them, drives credibility and
consensus," said Mike Ribero, CEO of Reactrix, the
Redwood Shores, Calif.-based media company that
introduced the interactive ad campaigns to Chicago a
year ago.
The company's Computer Vision Technology, developed six
years ago by Reactrix Chief Scientist Matt Bell, 27,
uses a visioning system that operates outside of
people's range of vision. Yet the camera "sees" people
interacting with its projected image, digitizes the
people's images, and feeds the information through a
processor.
The processor uses patented software to re-project the
image, complete with the appropriate effects that the
people would have on the object if it were real.
"[The technology] takes the story-telling power of TV,
the interactivity of a videogame, the information
delivery of the Internet and the proximity to the cash
register of a retail display, and brings it together in
a single medium," Ribero said.
People spend an average of 9 minutes reacting to or
watching the displays.
For Sears, the company is working on a promotion that
would display washers and dryers until the computer
system says a storm has dropped more than 4 inches of
snow in the area in the last 24 hours. At that moment,
the promotion would change to snowblowers.
Reactrix can handle such changes because its 185 sites,
including 160 malls and 25 movie theaters, are wired to
a central network that automatically updates promotions
based on outside information. The weather information
can be automatically pulled from Weather.com or similar
RSS feed, Ribero said.
To retailers, the beauty of the projected images is
their ability to wow people who are already near the
store and project a message that time is of the essence
to grab a great deal.
Jeff Diskin, senior vice president of brand management
at Hilton Hotels, headquartered in Beverly Hills,
Calif., said Hilton has used Reactrix's system to show
off its hotels as revitalized and family-friendly.
Hilton is planning to mount virtual clouds on a hotel
wall, rather than on the floor as in most malls, so that
people could touch a part of the cloud to open a place
of restoration (hotel spa), a place of luxury (a suite)
or a place to eat (restaurant).
Hilton's research showed the people who interacted with
its mall-based displays remembered the Hilton name and
recalled the brand as friendly and accessible, Diskin
said.
Erwin Ephron, a partner at Ephron Consultancy, a New
York media consulting firm, said Reactrix' system
associates a brand name with fun.
"Likability is one of the strongest points of difference
a brand can have," Ephron said. "It taps into the
experience the consumer has with the brand, and makes
the consumer smile. That's a very big deal."