Nielsen's corporate offices lit up by Arsenal Media with digital displays

November 16, 2010 by Dave Haynes

Denys Lavigne of Arsenal Media has been telling me for a while now about a project his company was working on for The Nielsen Company’s executive offices in Connecticut. That project is now switched on, and Lavigne has passed along a link to a video case study that explains what was done and why.

I like this for a lot of reasons that go well beyond Lavigne being a client and friend. It has the desired Wow factor, uses technology where appropriate, and represents a fully-realized communications strategy.

I also like it for the case study. This is a business built on visuals, and while I make my money mostly from writing about companies and projects, video is really, really powerful in conveying what’s being done and why. I like the mix of architectural drawings, footage of the screens in action, and the ambient visuals. The techno dance music that irritates the hell out of me in most video demos is actually pretty good on this one.

The project was developed for the research giant’s corporate lobby in Wilton, Connecticut. There are three content zones, and a specific content strategy was adapted for each of the display technologies used, and where they are positioned.

Arsenal worked with the Nielsen marketing, infrastructure and real estate teams to formulate the strategy.

Nielsen Case Study from ARSENAL MEDIA_DEMO ZONE on Vimeo.

When people come into the lobby, they see a 5 by 5 wall of Christie MicroTiles (Arsenal does a lot of work with these tiles), driven by a Float 4 Real Motion interactive server and a Christie Vista Spyder video processor. The wall has laser range sensor and an infrared camera so that it can respond to gestures or multi-touch, using Float4 software.

The content responds to people walking by and gesturing, and there is, among a few things, a spinning globe that can be played with to locate offices around the world.

Deeper into the lobby, there’s a horizontal row of six Orion bezel-less plasma displays,also running off a Christie Vista Spyder and Key West digital signage software. That zone is intended for welcome messaging and consumer insights.

There’s a third zone with a single LCD display, running Key West, that has a seven-minute loop of quiz material.

I like this on every level, though obviously it’s not a job just any old company can afford to commission. The street price on the tiles alone would approach six-figures. But it shows what’s possible, and reflects a project that STARTED with the content discussion.

From a marketing perspective, this kind of video case study should be done far more often by integrators, strategists and content companies.

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