How to use immersive displays in event marketing

While we’ve come to understand visual marketing as what you see on your phone, TV or computers, the marketing and events industry is saying ‘there’s more to that’. Justin Choy, managing director, HK, for Creative Technology, says that “a lot of exhibitors think of a display as a 16x9 aspect ratio rectangle” because of the norm of similarly shaped rectangles.

“Since everybody is so used to seeing these rectangles, how can you make your visual message that much more effective to your intended audience?” he asks.

The answer, apparently, is immersive displays used in the context of experiential marketing. “Instead of getting you to watch, we want you to feel. And it’s a very different thing. We can achieve this in a few different ways using video, audio, lighting, etc,” says Choy.

One example of using video as an immersive display is video mapping, which is rearranging the pixels onto a non-uniform surface. On the other hand, pixel mapping allows you to map videos and still images on your lighting fixtures as if they were part of a large matrix.

“[Pixel mapping] can be applied in large scale, like over a football field. One example is the Superbowl a couple of years ago where they pixel mapped little LED lights on beanies that people in the audience wore. And essentially, they played a video on everybody’s heads and the entire audience became a display,” says Choy.

And then there’s 2D projection mapping. “Think of your phone as a 16x9 rectangle. Now instead of using a 16x9 rectangle you’re using a 100x9 rectangle. Now imagine you take this super long rectangle and you essentially wrap it around a room,” says Choy.

“It’s still a flat surface but you’ve now created a room where everywhere you look, there’s video content and it’s one continuous image. You’re fully immersed in video and that’s what immersive displays are all about. You can add on to this: Now imagine that we extended the screen to the floor and to the ceiling as well. You’re stepping into an entirely different world.”

You can also opt for 3D projection mapping where light or video content is projected onto 3D object such as a building, a car, or an animal. “Those are used completely differently—it’s not really an immersive thing, you don’t stand inside it but you can see the content,” says Choy.

“We’ve done something where we’ve had a life-size film model of a car at a car launch. When we’re projecting, we can change the colour or model of the car to anything you want. So you’re experiencing in real time exactly what this car would look like in front of you instead of going to car dealers.”

To learn more about immersive displays, Justin Choy will be talking about the topic at HKECIA’s annual conference on June 6. More info here.