
The Soundlounge Poster
CraftWork agency services
Issue 41 | December 2016
Agency
BBDO Dusseldorf
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officers Wolfgang Schneider (BBDO Group) Darren Richardson Ton Hollander (BBDO Du¨sseldorf) Creative Managing Director Kristoffer Heilemann Creative Director Fabiano Oliveira (Proximity) Designer Miguel Chordá Stefan Vogtlaender (Proximity) Jr. Designer Albert Pozo Marco Diaz (Proximity) Copywriters Michael Dold Steffen Gentis Mike Bayfield (Proximity)
Production Team
Production Company (Film) CraftWork Post Production Company CraftWork Chief Production Officer Steffen Gentis (BBDO Group) Agency Producers Sabine Boenigk Valérie Gentis Project Manager Jan Gansow HW Developers Thorin Hopkins Simon Richter Director Print Production Bernhard Burg
Date
August 2016
Background
Soundlounge was a unique event, created in Düsseldorf – Germany's advertising centre – to bring together professionals from the recording and advertising industries. The brief was to promote an event that was all about sound, using a medium that wasn't: a printed poster. And, as there was only one week in which to do it, it had to create buzz, fast.
Idea
To bring the message alive, literally, print was transformed into a digital medium with the first poster that reacts to sound; that made noise visible.
On the surface, the poster appeared to be like any other a simple sheet of paper. But hidden underneath were audio receptors linked to micro-rear projection technology. An algorithm analysed the sound frequency and volume and responded, by turning what it heard into graphical impulses to reveal the message.
The posters were placed in reception areas of leading sound studios and production houses across Germany, directly grabbing the key target audience. They automatically caught people's attention by reacting to the slightest noise anybody made. This invited them to interact with the poster by making even more noise – clapping, shouting, singing, dancing...
Results
The reach was amplified by many of the target audience, who made their own videos to share on social media. Plus, the leading German trade journals named the Soundlounge poster Campaign of the Day a week before the Soundlounge event. Registration doubled overnight. And the word spread even further into Austria and Switzerland. The result: a fantastically successful event, attracting everybody who is anybody in the sound and advertising industries.
Our Thoughts
How many times in how many presentations have you seen the scene in 'Minority Report', where all the posters try to attract the attention of Tom Cruise as he strides purposefully towards his destiny? (https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=7bXJ_obaiYQ)
How many times have you been told the day is fast approaching when we'll be able to do that, reach out to individuals and talk to them?
Well, it's already here but privacy laws prevent advertisers from doing it.
What makes this so interesting is not that it is a chattering poster, which would be annoying, but it is a listening poster. It surprises and because it surprises, it delights.
It's another step in the transformation of outdoor into an interactive medium.