Media Owner Outfront Packages Up Its 3D Illusions As “XScape Spatial 3D Technology”

August 10, 2023 by Dave Haynes

This had me smirking as I read it …

The OOH/DOOH media company Outfront has developed a very fancy handle for its 3D visual illusion/forced perspective work for its screens – OUTFRONT X-Scape.

The company says that’s “the productized spatial capability from OUTFRONT that enables brands to create distinguishable and unique content by bringing products, features and characters to life in a way that makes a lasting impression on consumers.”

“Dimensionalize out of home campaigns with stunning spatial 3D on select large and small format digital media!”

From a news site called The Daily Brief:

For the campaign, Apple TV Plus worked with Outfront to use its XScape Spatial 3D technology for the first time to bring 3D outdoor campaigns to small screens. Apple TV Plus’ campaign ran throughout the New York City transit system, appearing in subway terminals and on other signage.

“We’re thrilled Apple TV chose XScape Spatial 3D to create a dimensional window into the rich world of Foundation,” said Chad Shackelford, VP, digital creative, Outfront. “Studios and streaming platforms have licenses to such rich three-dimensional brand IP, so much so that we regularly encourage them to leverage that into XScape 3D to bring depth, dimension, and volume into the large and small format [digital out-of-home] campaigns.”

One year ago, Outfront started placing spots on large billboards created with its Xscape 3D/spatial advertising throughout Manhattan’s Times Square and other U.S. locations. For example, Outfront produced a launch campaign for Hulu’s The Orville that featured a spaceship that appeared to be flying out of a billboard.

This is an example of a typical “Xscape” campaign on a big Times Square corner display … 

Marketers, of course, like to package up products with names and buzzy descriptions that make it sound like they’ve figured out cold fusion. So this is not all that unusual. Bit it is nonetheless amusing. Outfront is not alone in packaging up their 3D work in a fancy name. The UK’s Ocean Outdoor refers to its efforts as DeepScreen.

It’s also interesting that the Apple TV Plus campaign is on smaller flat displays over subway stair entries (not LED corner units, like most 3D illusions). I THINK those are just high-bright LCDs, and definitely not Spatial Reality Displays (like Sony’s and Looking Glass), which do hardware-driven illusions that reproduce spatial images in three dimensions.