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  #1  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2014, 3:11 PM
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No, These Ugly LED Statues Will Not Revolutionize the Streets of Philadelphia

No, These Ugly LED Statues Will Not Revolutionize the Streets of Philadelphia


APRIL 9, 2014

BY BILL BRADLEY



Read More: http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/ugly...talyst-outdoor

Quote:
Here is a terrible idea for economic development, and a sterling example of how hyperbole rules the day when we talk about civic projects: Giant interactive LED displays that tell you the weather and news. What most people might mistake for the outside of The Today Show set in Times Square is now being proposed as legislation in Philadelphia for a new “digital district” in Center City.

Catalyst Outdoor — it’s not based in Silicon Valley, we checked — is the company behind what it calls Urban Experiential Displays (UED), or giant 3D statues, that it hopes to build Center City with easy installments of $2 million each. “A communication revolution is taking place in Philadelphia, one that will generate millions of dollars for the city,” the company said in a press release without a hint of irony. It then explains why the city should designate a district around City Hall where building UEDs is permitted.

Catalyst, who did not return a call for comment, said that the UEDs — “the first of their kind in North America” — would generate $54 million for the city over roughly 20 years in tax revenue, licensing fees and permit fees. It proposes seven locations for the UED displays, which could take on such bulbous Disneyesque shapes as an hourglass, globe or random musical notes on a piece of billowing staff paper. (You can tell it’s a theater, see, because of the eighth notes.) Thirty percent of the UEDs display time will be non-advertising, which Catalyst says “most of which is dedicated to the city and local non-profits.”

That means the UEDs, when they’re not hawking products for Nike and Verizon, could give traffic and weather updates to Phialdelphians who are already on the streets outside. (Also, dig the way the press release refers to advertising as “original local content.”) --- How a city with a median household income of $37,016, 22.1 percent of households on SNAP and 21 percent of families living below the poverty level can justify spending $2 million a pop on glorified billboards LED light installations is lost on me. It isn’t a job generator, that’s for certain. And while it could modestly increase the tax revenue via ad sales, I hardly qualify that as economic development.

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  #2  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2014, 5:05 PM
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Phida-led-phia is what they call it from now on.
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  #3  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2014, 5:26 PM
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Ad revenue is rarely net-additive. It's mostly one mode vs. another.

These are no different than video billboards of any other type, no matter what shape they're morphed into.

The tax revenue numbers south pathetic.
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Old Posted Apr 12, 2014, 6:27 PM
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Blech.
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  #5  
Old Posted Apr 13, 2014, 3:02 AM
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This is the first I'm hearing of displays like these. I didn't know the district's boundaries had been extended to include almost the whole office core downtown. They certainly don't belong everywhere.
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Old Posted Apr 13, 2014, 3:39 PM
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Maybe less of them but much larger ones that are storeys tall like in Times Square and other places.
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  #7  
Old Posted Apr 13, 2014, 5:33 PM
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Not as bad as the awfully tacky metal trees in downtown London (Ontario).

wikipedia


Since these shots were taken, the trees have started rusting.
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  #8  
Old Posted Apr 13, 2014, 6:02 PM
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I kind of like the metal trees.
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Old Posted Apr 13, 2014, 11:35 PM
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Ha! I should watch what I say here, as Catalyst is my sister agency in North America - but OOH digital activation in North America is not a very attractive ad spend for the vast majority of companies right now. Outside of a few extremely select locations, the foot traffic just isn't there to generate the impressions necessary to match other ad spend channels.

OOH ("out of home") in Japan is big business and spending between 5-10% of a given budget on OHH / Transit is standard practice for most verticals. But that massive audience is physically there to justify the spend share. I would imagine Shibuya Crossing sees as many pedestrians move through in about an hour as the entire "digital district" in Center City sees in a 24 hour time period.
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2014, 6:32 AM
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I'd actually prefer these kind of LED structures in LA, at least there's creativity to it. I'm starting to get tired of seeing the same old, boring, flat-panel LED screen simply being plastered onto buildings in South Park with no thought into how redundant they make the area look.

Every new project near LA Live that plans on installing LED screens and billboards needs to watch Philly attentively.
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2014, 6:39 AM
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I like them.
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2014, 12:02 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shawn View Post
Ha! I should watch what I say here, as Catalyst is my sister agency in North America - but OOH digital activation in North America is not a very attractive ad spend for the vast majority of companies right now. Outside of a few extremely select locations, the foot traffic just isn't there to generate the impressions necessary to match other ad spend channels.

OOH ("out of home") in Japan is big business and spending between 5-10% of a given budget on OHH / Transit is standard practice for most verticals. But that massive audience is physically there to justify the spend share. I would imagine Shibuya Crossing sees as many pedestrians move through in about an hour as the entire "digital district" in Center City sees in a 24 hour time period.
Have you been to center city? Packed with people all the time, haven't been to Japan but I can't imagine the disparity is as large as you are saying

That said, I'm against public advertisement personally
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  #13  
Old Posted Apr 14, 2014, 2:44 PM
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CC is very busy in my limited experience. And Shibuya Crossing might be 24x the people as the average of the potential Philly locations. I'd liken it to "baseball game just let out...on each corner."

That said, an ad at Shibuya Crossing, and many other places in Tokyo to a mostly-lesser extent, is competing with dozens of other highly visible ads. I don't like the Philly concept, but at least it would draw a much larger percentage of attention.
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2014, 5:41 PM
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Just for comparison, here is Shibuya crossing on an average day/night (I've been there to experience it):
Video Link
Video Link


Nowhere, and I mean nowhere in North America/Europe comes within a fraction of the sheer mass of pedestrian traffic.
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2014, 5:58 PM
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The only place that comes close is Times Square on New Years Eve.
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  #16  
Old Posted Apr 14, 2014, 7:23 PM
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I was there in a hard rain once...as the one person in the intersection without an umbrella. Luckily most of the spikes were at eye level.
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  #17  
Old Posted Apr 15, 2014, 3:29 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry King View Post
Have you been to center city? Packed with people all the time, haven't been to Japan but I can't imagine the disparity is as large as you are saying

That said, I'm against public advertisement personally
The disparity is actually this big. When OOH gets priced in Tokyo, we use a station metric translated as "Total Footprints" over a 24 hour work day cycle. The three main displays at Shibuya Crossing are priced on a "Total Footprints" value of 4.45 million people.

Shibuya Station has: 2.8 million daily unique rail riders, 1.1 million daily unique bus riders, and another 550,000 "unattached" pedestrians. The vast majority of these people pass through the Crossing, as this is facing most of the office space surrounding the station.

Does Center City see about four and a half million pedestrians every work day? I would imagine at its best, the value is under 10% of Shibs' numbers.

But mhays' point stands regarding visual competition: Center City advertisers can find piece of mind knowing their creatives are the only thing around, and if Catalyst goes with a typical digital display pricing scheme (CPM rates as opposed to a flat period buy), they can position this for the time being as 100% captive impressions. That's a rare product these days. Unheard of in Tokyo.
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  #18  
Old Posted Apr 15, 2014, 3:32 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mhays View Post
I was there in a hard rain once...as the one person in the intersection without an umbrella. Luckily most of the spikes were at eye level.
One of the more terrifying experiences one can have in Tokyo. I wear glasses with fake lenses on rainy days I know I will have to pass through an especially busy pedestrian crossing.
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