Edmonton City Centre’s video walls

by Matthew | 1 July 2012 8:30 am

By Keith Yanke
A well-known attraction in Alberta’s capital, the Edmonton City Centre (ECC) is an expansive indoor facility that connects local stores, two downtown hotels and more than 557,418 m² (6 million sf) of office space. As such, it is an attractive hub for out-of-home (OOH) advertising.

According to the Canadian Out-of-Home Measurement Bureau (COMB), as of June 2011, the ECC’s bridgeway—an elevated indoor walkway above Edmonton’s 101^st Street—is traversed by more than 4.5 million pedestrians each year, with a weekly average of 87,200. This intense level of walking traffic recently sparked the notion of installing several video walls, both to entertain passersby and to help increase the retailers’ revenue through marketing and promotions.

Building the case
ECC offers a unique bridge for commuters to quickly access several buildings in downtown Edmonton. With more than 74,322 m² (800,000 sf) of retail space, the thousands of daily passersby are prime targets for shopping-related advertising.

In 2009, Advitech conducted an in-mall and telephone survey, the results of which estimated 41 per cent of ECC pedestrians are between the ages of 25 and 44, comprising a large portion of the shopping population.

Two years later, Walsh McPherson established WMC Digital Media to turn the video wall idea into a reality. Serving as a dynamic media provider and network operator, the company would help OOH advertisers design and deploy eye-catching content appropriate to the venue.

“We screened multiple companies in search of the perfect partner for this opportunity,” says Olympia Trencevski, general manager of ECC. “Our new bridgeway digital video walls would be the first to market, providing a way for local, regional and international brands to reach premium demographics.”

Establishing the mix
As founder and president of WMC, McPherson was tasked in March 2011 with augmenting the planned video walls’ liquid crystal displays (LCDs) with the creative use of interactivity.

“We regularly see a long line of commuters waiting to grab a coffee,” he says. “Those minutes can be used to attract them to local businesses. To do so, we wanted to entice their participation in community events or entertain them with trivia and news.”

The large-format digital signage would allow marketers to target their messages to both office employees and mall shoppers, with a mix of video, audio, animation and/or RSS feeds. The video walls would also have the capability to display photos and text sent via social media by passersby using the walkway.

Content would also focus on news and entertainment through the display of ‘fun facts,’ pop culture, financial information and sports stats. The blend of content was designed to pique the interest of as many shoppers as possible, then lead them to stores within the mall.

Achieving this aim also depended on how the screens were installed.

“The placement of the video walls was crucial to the success of the project,” says McPherson. “The content would have no purpose and the project wouldn’t be beneficial if the target audience couldn’t easily view it! So, the sizing, placement and location of the video walls were among our top priorities.”

Assembling the displays
In August, McPherson worked with Matrix Video Communications, a broadcast and audiovisual (AV) equipment provider serving Western Canada, to discuss the selection of LCDs that would fit the requirements of the project. It was important that the products could be shipped in a timely manner, assembled nearly seamlessly for a sleek esthetic and colour-calibrated to ensure uniformity of appearance across different screen configurations.

Matrix and McPherson agreed to source 1.2-m (46-in.) ultra-thin-frame displays as used in other digital signage applications that had already proven effective.

Subsequently, Matrix installed three video walls along the elevated walkway, which joins the east and west buildings that comprise ECC. The east wall features a 4 x 4-screen array in a landscape configuration. The west wall features two arrays: a 2 x 2-screen arrangement in portrait mode and a 3 x 3-screen array in landscape format.

Other partners in the project included: Capital Networks, based in Markham, Ont., which provided digital signage software and media players; Hasbro Canada, which provided Trivial Pursuit content for the 3 x 3-screen video wall; and broadcaster CTV, which provided RSS feeds based on news stories.

“The video wall installation is a good addition to downtown Edmonton,” says Lloyd Lewis, vice-president (VP) and general manager of CTV Edmonton. “I support anything that helps this city be robust and I think this is a piece of that.”

Working with these partners, content would stream over a wireless connection from a central hub. Then, to track the content’s reach, WMC joined COMB as a member company.

“COMB’s measurement is a solid investment that enables us to offer OOH advertising to leading brand advertisers who demand accountable, audited metrics,” says McPherson.

Opening for business
Finally, in October, an official launch party for the video walls gave the local retailers their first opportunity to see their ads displayed on the screens. ECC and WMC relied on the initial revenue generated from such ads to cover the costs they had incurred implementing the video walls, then continued to add new advertisers to the rotation of content.

“The video walls are absolutely fantastic, lively and colourful,” said one of the attendees at the launch party. “They give you something to look at when you’re standing in line and they’re informative. I really believe this format’s going to attract good attention, because it’s way better than just pictures.”

Indeed, feedback from ECC visitors, retailers and the community proved very positive.

“Digital media is growing in popularity because it’s something that people are interested in looking at and not tuning out, like they would with static signage,” adds McPherson.

Interacting with the public
The video walls’ interactive capabilities were also soon showcased. Throughout November, for example, they were used to promote Movember, the international initiative dedicated to raising awareness of prostate cancer.

One of the walls displayed a 15-second clip that encouraged passersby to post their moustache photos on WMC’s Facebook page. Then, officials selected their favourite photos to appear larger-than-life on the video walls throughout the month.

This promotion vastly increased traffic to WMC’s Facebook page, as well as its dedicated website, generating outstanding results, along with many fun photos that gave shoppers and commuters the opportunity to see themselves on the ‘big screen.’

“The reaction from locals has been phenomenal,” says McPherson, “while the retailers are impressed with the results they’re getting from their targeted marketing.”

“Our video walls can be used for absolutely anything,” says Kristina Botelho, ECC’s specialty leasing manager. “The only limitation is a content creator’s imagination.”

Later, WMC initiated a co-promotion with Century Hospitality Group to give away several floor-seat tickets to a major concert in Edmonton by pop musician Prince. This promotion helped yield a 42 per cent increase in Facebook ‘Likes.’

“WMC has proven this is what retailers and businesses want in the community,” says Donna Zazulak, president of Edmonton-based Zazulak Marketing & Communications.

“Many of our clients are looking to reach the downtown market, because it’s filled with young, urban and hip people,” says Greg Burns, ECC’s marketing director. “In an age of social media like Facebook and Twitter, this use of video walls falls right in line with that.”

Keith Yanke is NEC Display Solutions’ director of product marketing for large-screen displays and projectors. For more information, visit www.necdisplay.com[6].

Source URL: https://www.signmedia.ca/edmonton-city-centres-video-walls/

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