June 22, 2006
The BBC's "Develop A Point Of View" SMS 2 Billboard
As part of an expansive marketing scheme to celebrate BBC World's entry into the American market, the BBC put up a giant interactive digital billboard on the corner of 50th and Broadway. Justin Oberman gave it a try and reports on mopocket.
From the BBC press release
The "Develop a Point of View" billboard displays dramatic news photographs and invites people to text in their votes on key news issues. New Yorkers and visitors can vote whether illegal immigrants should be considered citizens or criminals; U.S. soldiers, occupiers� or liberators...
The votes will appear on the billboard in real-time and the updated tallies will be broadcast twice daily on WFAN's "Imus in the Morning" show, as part of the BBC World radio promotion.
Other Interactive Campaigns held in New York:
-- Disney Interactive SMS billboard in Times Square -To broaden “Everest in the City” beyond a traditional billboard, Visitors to Times Square can use their wireless phones to interact directly and in real time with the yeti by texting the word DISNEY to the short code "4YETI", which will make the yeti's eyes flash at a specific time.
-- Nike iD Billboard Invites Mobile Users - Nike launched an interactive billboard experience in May 2005. The effort let people use their phones to design a shoe on the Reuters sign in Times Square.
-- Yahoo! Billboard Goes Live in Times Square - To promote its automotive Web site, Yahoo! and interactive shop R/GA created a billboard in May 2004 that allowed pedestrians to play a video game broadcast on part of the 23-stories-tall Reuters sign in Times Square via their cell phones.
-- Times Square Billboard Asks New Yorkers to Vote - An interactive billboard in Times Square served as a public forum for New Yorkers in October 2004 to debate, "What is beautiful?". As they cast their vote via cell-phone, a running tally appears in real-time on the billboard and the website simultaneously, Campaign for Real Beauty.
Other Interactive Campaigns held elsewhere:
-- High Tech Billboard will respond to Text Messages - In October 2003 Coca-Cola unveiled one of the world's biggest and most sophisticated billboards, switched on in Piccadilly Circus in the heart of London. The 99-foot-wide neon colossus can respond to the weather and interact with people looking at it from the ground. It was also to recognize if people are waving at it from the ground below and be able to respond to text messages from mobile phones.
-- Ford Fiesta ad campaign combines interactive billboards with SMS - Advertising Agency Ogilvy, in a European first, launched a new ad campaign for the Ford Fiesta in July 2004 in Belgium, combining interactive billboards with SMS.
Passers-by could try their hand at winning a Ford Fiesta by sending an SMS with his/her first name to a short code and indicating the code on the billboard. The billboard then responded to this SMS, and sent another SMS with a question. If he or she answers correctly, the billboard reacted like a winning pinball machine and he/she is entitled to an "extra ball" meaning he/she will be included in the draw for a winner. For every incorrect answer sent by text message, the pinball machine displays a "tilt".
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2006/06/012730.htm
