DailyDOOH

Research In Motion’s investment arm, BlackBerry Partners Fund, has expanded its venture capital financing overseas with the launch of a USD 100 million fund focused on mobile investment opportunities in China.

The new fund was formed in conjunction with China Broadband Capital Partners and will invest exclusively in China’s growing mobile ecosystem.

Research In Motion (RIM) co-CEO Jim Balsillie told us that “the fund will help fuel substantial innovation and commercial success within the mobile ecosystem in China.”

James Neufeld, never.no product specialist, will be among the industry experts speaking at the BroadcastAsia2010 International Conference in Singapore. Neufeld’s presentation, ‘Enhanced Mobile and Interactive Media‘ will consider how the mobile platform can enhance enjoyment of content for the viewer while it increases both brand loyalty and revenue for the provider.

Founded in 1999, never.no is the developer of Interactivity Suite, a sophisticated interactive video platform that enables modification of the video stream based on live, user-submitted content. Because it can dynamically modify playout, schedules, and graphics based on viewer-generated and other inputs, the Interactivity Suite works with traditional TV, Web TV, IPTV, digital signage, and mobile platforms, making it supremely useful in the converging digital media market.

Neufeld was recruited by never.no two years ago after a successful stint as head of interactive broadcasting for a dynamic young multimedia organization in North America. His BroadcastAsia presentation is set for 16:00 on Tuesday June 15, the conference’s first day, which is devoted to ‘Breaking New Barriers in Multi-Platform Content Delivery‘.

The BroadcastAsia2010 International Conference features a comprehensive program intended to address the needs of the broadcasting and multimedia industry. It continues through June 18 at the Singapore Expo.

This week’s Parallel Worlds post comes to you from the Philippines – a place that is arguably Asia’s largest English speaking AND westernized country. It’s summer time here in Manila, which means that on a cool day the temperature bottoms out at about 35 degrees Celsius (that’s 95 F. for the folks that didn’t adopt the metric system) Believe me when I say this – things are are heating up out here, especially when it comes to describing level of activity in DOOH – from the regional ad agencies, brands and traditional out of home media companies.

I had the honor to speak at Manila’s first ever Digital Out Of Home Forum last week. Organized by the Philippine Center for Out of Home Media Research + Science, and held at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati. By my estimates about 70+ people in attendance with not an empty seat in the house. Amazingly enough- everyone made it to the 8:00AM event on-time. Which, if you know Filipinos – is an stunning feat in itself. I say this because (1) I am a filipino and (2) as a people we are known to be notoriously late. It’s this cultural phenomenon that has given rise to a new category of time called – Filipino Time.

Overall the forum was great-  everyone is asking the right questions. Admittedly- I felt alot like Marty Mcfly in Back to the Future – visiting my past life, but this time I would use my experiences in the US (their possible future) to accelerate the growth of their DOOH industry.

The attendees were a good mix of agency media buyers, marketers, traditional outdoor, transit media networks, retailers and mall developers. Something to note- only 2 software providers!

I wasn’t surprised as I’ve seen this type of thing all over the region. Not a day goes by that a retailer, network owner or AV solution providers contacts me (since I’m sort of a local now) and wants help finding alternatives. This situation is only worstened by the fact that everyone and their mother in Asia- has become a Scala reseller.

Point of fact – the major digital OOH network operators in this country are using Scala IC3, which since the release of Scala release 5 has reached its ‘end of life’ for support. It’s no wonder that they are looking for a more cost effective platform rather than put further investment in Scala.

Here’s some free advice for you platform providers – get out here now, it’s time to open up an office in Manila. There are very few competitors (for now) – the people speak English fluently which would allow you to do two things;

1. set up a technical support team that could easily cover the whole Asia region
2. once you’ve established your support center,  you can then off-shore the US help desk traffic to a much lower cost of labor

MRA (Media Republic Asia) seems to have been a joint-venture between EnQii and DAC (Dynamic Advertising Channels) but word reaches us that VMG Global has just acquired them.

China is the only place where EnQii owned a network and not something that they ever publicised but it seems to have been good business for them now that they have sold – they still supply all the technology to the MRA network.

The acquisition also looks good for VMG Global bringing in as it does a hugely prestigious contract with CapitaMalls Asia (operating as CapitaRetail China Trust), the leading shopping mall owner, developer and manager in the region.

The contract we understand includes the leading malls in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzen, Shapingba, Tianjin and Huhehaote, representing a combined weekly footfall / audience of 4.2 million!

DAC is a well known Chinese DOOH player with DOOH/OOH media assets in Chinese airport, golf and cinema sectors.

This week’s post comes to you from Malaysia, where we highlight a company that holds the title of this country’s biggest Transit TV network.

Asia Media is the most advanced Transit DOOH network I have seen during this tour of duty in Asia. It is an impressive network of over 3000 screens that are strategically installed on 1500 buses- which just happen to have the most enviable viewership of over 500,000 commuters daily.

I had the honor of talking with Ricky Wong, Asia Media’s CEO and founder. He was kind enough to share with me the “secrets” of Asia Media’s successes. His company employs a truly innovative engagement strategy that combines social media with a well engineered customer journey. Asia Media participates in two way conversations that occur within the context of social media and then creates its programming based on what the viewers really care about. But don’t just take my word for it, Ricky’s got some amazing case studies and market research to prove it.

Asia Media’s programming is continually refined and places a high value on involving the viewer at the center of the each experience. A typical digital campaign includes interaction via mobile phones, on-line participation, viral videos, games, polls and sweepstakes. All the ingredients needed to keep a viewer occupied during the long commute times.

What’s next for Asia Media? – Toward the end of 2009, Asia Media made a sizable investment to upgrade the capabilities of the existing transit network with the deployment of DVB-T technology which will allow for the playback of live HD quality broadcasts as part of the overall content loop.

If you’re interested in learning more about Asia Media, you can find them by clicking on these links for Twitter or Facebook.

This 20-minute nightly Light Show performance of the Rhone-Alpes pavilion in Shanghai that presents an artistic night landscape highlighting the Expo 2010’s’s theme of ‘Better City, Better Life’ reminds us somewhat of the multi-media projection in 2008 celebrating Quebec City’s 400th anniversary. (See our June 28/09 article.)

Christie, a global leader in visual solutions for business, entertainment and industry, is extensively participating in the Rhone-Alpes pavilion in the Urban Best Practices Area at Expo 2010 Shanghai. More than 30 Christie visual projectors illuminate the innovative Light Show, a highlight of the event.

Christie has left an impressive footprint in China in recent years including the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Games and the performance of the opera Turandot, held in Beijing to commemorate China’s 60th anniversary in 2009. Since 2007, the company has been the visual solution sponsor for ‘The Path to World Expo – Introduction to World Expo Shanghai 2010 China and the Retrospection of the World Expo History’ exhibition held across China, Hong Kong and at the United Nations headquarters in New York, attracting more than a million visitors from around the world. (Also see our Jan. 17/10 article.)

The Rhone-Alpes pavilion ‘Lighting Cities’ showcases energy efficiency and sustainable design. It uses an energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly illumination system to light up selected areas in the UBPA site. Together with the Christie visual solutions, it forms ‘Light Show’, an exciting exhibit filled with striking visuals depicting urban living.

Working with its partner in China, Wincomn Technology Development Co. Ltd., Christie installed 20 Christie LX505 projectors that project visuals onto different parts of inverted umbrellas, forming two ribbon-like displays. Five sets of the world’s brightest digital projectors, the Christie Roadster HD35K’s, are placed in front of the power plant to present a seamless display 150 meters long by 16 meters high onto the façade of the building.

Completing the Light Show, a brilliant chimney-effect projection is achieved with six sets of Christie Roadster S +20K DLP projectors. The projectors – which were used for the 2008 Beijing Summer Games – offer edge-blended images from the smallest form factor available at greater than 20,000 ANSI lumens. Elevated at various angles, the digital projectors display one of the world’s tallest single images.

At the World Plaza area, near to the Rhone-Alpes pavilion, a ceiling-mounted Christie DS+10K-M projector also displays interactive content onto the ground, in which visitors can immerse themselves.

Pop quiz hotshot* “What has 252 MicroTiles and 4 ECUs?”

**Photo courtesy Autoblog

The answer is rumoured to be a giant new video wall (shown to the left of the picture above) in the USD195 million Nascar Hall of Fame which opened the week before last in Charlotte, N.C.

*Howard Payne, Speed (1994):

**http://www.autoblog.com

It’s not just us that recognises EnQii as a market leader as this week Lead411 announced its ‘New York City Hot 125′ recognising the hottest technology companies in New York City.

Congratulations must go to both EnQii and YCD Multimedia who were both in the list.

On a daily basis, the Lead411 research team scours through at least 600 press releases and business articles including venture capital financings, company launches, office openings, new customer press releases, etc.

This information has given insight to which are the fastest growing companies in U.S and their ‘Hot List’ awards have been created to recognise these fast growing companies – this particular list was originally started with over 750 companies and was narrowed down to the top 125.

Tom Blue, CEO of Lead41 told us “We are very proud of these awards. We have been tracking fast-moving companies for our customers for the past 10 years and we felt it was important to recognize these growing brands publicly.”

How the List Was Chosen

First, all companies must by in either the Software, Wireless, Internet, or Media industry, have less than $100M in yearly revenues, and be within the New York City metropolitan area. From there, each company must meet one or more of the following requirements;

• 100% increase in revenues over the past 3 years.
• $5M+ in funding in the past 2 years.
• 2X traffic gains to their website in the past 12 months AND over 1M unique visitors a month.

The entire list including more details about the award and winners can be found at http://www.lead411.com/

In November 2009, I posted an article about the potential threat of Mobile to the DOOH industry.

Imagine my chagrin when I took a look at the latest issue of Ad Age, in which Kunur Patel just posted an article titled “Forget Foursquare, location based marketing is the new point of purchase”

I bet I got your attention now didn’t I? I recommend you read this Ad Age article- then when you have done that; read all the comments as well!

Aside from a tiny mention of Placecast, you’ll see that there is hardly any acknowledgment of DOOH in the article at all.

Why is that? What’s happening here? Is it because we continue to promote our industry as THE in-store digital solution rather than embrace what’s happening with mobile advertising and figure out a better way to integrate the experiences? – Maybe.

photo credit: http://ioconnor.wordpress.com/

This is surely yet another wake up call to our industry, and once again we are sleeping right through it. I’ve said it many times – our industry is self-centered, we live inside a giant comfort-zone, patting each other on the back on how great we are or tell each other how big our industry is going to be.

While we fight amongst ourselves over things like DSA or the DSF, the real battle to wage is out there in the agency universe; educating, pioneering, creating standards.

Sure, a few of the big agencies are starting to notice DOOH, perhaps experimenting here and there- but at the rate things are going the mobile ad campaign spend will continue be a threat to the hard earned budget that DOOH garners.

We must as an industry take notice now and realize that unless we find new ways to push the creative envelope to create more meaningful experiences that support the mobile devices as part of a total integrated campaign, rather than just use the digital sign to repackage and publish on-line and mobile experiences – the digital signs we worked so hard to get into every retail venue might as well be overgrown, overpriced desktop CRTs running a screen saver that plays out random RSS, Twitter and Facebook statuses.

Many were undecided whether the Macau pavilion at the 2010 World Expo was supposed to be a rabbit or a chicken…

We understand that it has actually been designed to look like a rabbit lantern sitting under China’s national pavilion. The pavilion is covered by a double-layer glass membrane and fluorescent screens. Kinetic balloons form the head and tail of the ‘rabbit’. In Chinese mythology, the jade rabbit welcomes visitors to a magical fairyland.