The subway tunnel as video billboard
By Daniel Terdiman, Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: April 5, 2007
It's not exactly the drive-in, but tech is
taking movie like ads to some deep, dark places. The trick is to go fast.
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The subway tunnel as video billboard
If you've been in a subway car in San Francisco,
London, Boston, Rio de Janeiro or one of several other cities recently
and thought you saw a short film playing along the dark walls of the tunnels,
you're not going crazy.
In fact, what you saw was one of the latest
forms of advertising technology, which is slowly taking over one of transit
riders' last refuges from commercial messages.
The technology, which comes from companies
such as Canada's SideTrack and New York-based Submedia, is just what it
sounds like: ads displayed on subway tunnel walls in nearly 10 cities worldwide
promoting products from companies including Microsoft, Target, Coca-Cola,
Reebok and Honda.
Last month, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART),
which serves the San Francisco Bay Area, began a one-month trial of SideTrack's
technology. The SideTrack system currently works by installing a long series
of still photographs in a subway tunnel and then illuminating the images
with rapidly flashing spotlights as trains go by. The effect is much like
watching a movie, or a children's flip book, in that what riders see is
a 15-second multimedia message.
And to those in charge of some of the rail
systems using the ads, they're working.
"It's everything and more that I wanted it
to be," said Graeme Hay, the commercial manager for London's Heathrow Express,
which connects the British capital to its main airport. "I've had customers
who said to me, 'Wow, that's fantastic. What is it?'"
tunnelads
Michael Swistun, CEO of SideTrack, explained
that his company's technology is designed to present riders with a 24-
or 30-frame-per-second "movie," depending on the speed of the train.
The technology requires that trains pass the
ads going at least 25 miles per hour. If they're going slower, the lights
stay off and the tunnels stay dark.
"We're cognizant that we don't want to be doing
something irritating to people," Swistun said, "and the advertisers want
to make sure the ads are displayed at the speed they're designed to be
displayed at."
In BART's case, one major element still to
be evaluated in its trial of the technology is whether ads threaten public
safety.
"We're basically looking to make sure that
the system doesn't distract our train operators," said Linton Johnson,
BART's chief spokesman. "(So far) there's been no outcry from the train
operators. That said, maybe it's because they enjoy looking at it."
Rider response
According to Swistun, as well as Hay and Johnson,
there has been little, if any, complaining from riders who have seen the
new ads.
But some do question whether any surface is
safe from being used to sell.
"It's fascinating and yet sort of Orwellian,"
said Michael Vavricek, a regular BART rider. "It confirms what some humans
say about America: Everything is for sale."
Others say the ads themselves aren't so bad,
but that the tunnels could also be used to showcase art.
"I think (it's) cool as a medium, but just
balance it out everywhere," said Oakland, Calif., artist Kevin Byall. "I
feel like I'm being bombarded everywhere (by ads). The subway tunnels,
I kind of like them dark. But if we're going to do this, make them artful."
Byall pointed to a project undertaken a couple
years ago by some Berlin artists in which they attached a projector to
the side of a subway car which then displayed images of swimming fishes
and sharks on the tunnel.
To the transit operators, however, such concerns
are unfounded.
"We did think about that very carefully," said
Hay, "because we have quite a lot of advertising along the routes, in the
stations. The thing that made me feel comfortable that we weren't going
to go into the area of turning (riders) off is simply because of the quality
and the novelty of the technology. The user experience is so cool and so
innovative that the 15 seconds actually excites people."
More to the point, the ads are bringing in
much-needed revenue with hardly any cost.
Swistun said SideTrack has advertisers paying
$50,000 a month for ads in Boston, and while he wouldn't be specific, he
said that between 25 to 40 percent of revenue goes to the rail agencies.
"For them," said Swistun, "it's an absolutely
perfect way to get new revenue without having to raise fare prices."
For now, SideTrack's ads have relied on still
photographs viewed as the train shoots past. And because of that, it is
a bit of a challenge to install--since the work must be done in the hours
when the subways are closed. Any changes to an ad campaign must be done
piece by piece.
But Swistun said that SideTrack is about to
roll out a new, digital system in which the still photos and flashing lights
will be replaced by LED screens. That way, he said, ads can be cycled throughout
the day and campaigns can come and go without having to send crews deep
into the tunnels.
Hay said that Heathrow Express--which is still
in its initial three-month trial period in a single tunnel--is getting
ready to add a second. And that second installation will use the digital
technology.
Whether still photos or digital screens, the
ads are changing the dynamic of the dark tunnel and the break in between
subway stations jam-packed with ads.
But Swistun said he doesn't think rail passengers
mind that tunnels are no longer dark.
"We're covering concrete and wires," said Swistun.
"Nobody has said they'd rather see the concrete and wires. People are looking
out the window anyway to avoid eye contact." |