About three weeks ago we showed you NASA’s travel posters for destinations around our solar system called Visions of the Future. And although mankind won’t be able to reach these destinations in the near future, BBDO Düsseldorf has managed to perfect the poster itself – a medium which has been displayed in public places all over the world for over two hundred years. According to French historian Max Gallo posters have been “designed to attract the attention of passers-by, making us aware of a political viewpoint, enticing us to attend specific events, or encouraging us to purchase a particular product or service.” And to do exactly so – to promote a launch of a recent Soundlounge event in Düsseldorf, the German agency has created the first printed poster that reacts to sound and makes noise visible to the audience.
When you take a first glance at the poster, it appears to be like any other: just a simple sheet of paper. But hidden underneath, you will find audio receptors that are linked to micro-rear projection technology. When expose to any sound, an algorithm analyses the sound frequency and volume to create the perfect reaction to ambient noise, transforming it into graphical impulses to reveal the message hidden within the poster. Simply put, the amount of information which lights up on the poster is dependent on the volume of the sound it picks up.
These posters were cleverly situated within reception areas of prominent sound studios and production houses across Germany, directly influencing its key target audience. The innovative medium automatically caught people’s attention, inviting them to interact with the poster.
BDDO group agencies – BBDO Düsseldorf, Proximity Worldwide and CraftWork – cooperated with IT experts IOX Lab, who “develop concepts for smart products and services to help companies enter new markets or disrupt existing ones”. Together they created a truly unique invitation that really expressed the essence of the first-time Soundlounge event. The event managed to bring a lot of attention and was greatly successful, as it attracted eminent personalities in the sound and advertising industries. Moreover, it also managed to reconfirm Düsseldorf as the place for sound professionals and ad agencies to be.
Wolfgang Schneider, Chief Creative Officer of BBDO Germany said in the press release: “the way in which we used this technology to transform a traditional print medium into a digital one was innovative. Which brought both our audience and the message alive“. As the word spread beyond Germany, to Austria and Switzerland, BBDO managed to do so, because since the event it was approached by dozens of professionals across the media industry to talk about how they could adopt and use the technology themselves.
Credits:
Chief Creative Officer: Wolfgang Schneider (BBDO Group Germany), Darren Richardson (BBDO Düsseldorf), Ton Hollander (BBDO Düsseldorf)
Creative Managing Director: Kristoffer Heilemann (BBDO Düsseldorf)
Creative Director: Fabiano Oliveira (Proximity Worldwide)
Production Company (Film): CraftWork
Producer Film Production: Michael Koch (CraftWork)
DOP: Niklas Lemburg (CraftWork), Alexander Link (CraftWork)
Audio Production: TRO Music