Projects: Mall’s Center Court Tree Gets LCD Display Ornaments

May 23, 2017 by Dave Haynes

Not really sure what I think of this …

Certainly gets points for being different. But a bunch of LCDs dangling like Christmas ornaments around a living ficus tree in the middle of a mall, I dunno …

This is the set-up, launched I think in 2014, at the Louis Joliet Mall in way suburban Chicago. The tree is surrounded by 28 high-bright 40-inch LCDs, 40 LED panels and 45 LED tube pendants.

The content runs deal messaging for the mall, as well as community announcements and user-gen content like curated selfies and tweets.

I often do talks about strategy and effectiveness, and the perils of projects built around Wow Factor. I’d worry this is one of those cases where there is a bit of a Wow the first time people see it, but after the second or third sighting, the Wow is gone and shoppers are walking right on by. It doesn’t help that the screens are waaaay above the natural line of sight.

On the other hand, maybe it’s wildly successful.