Coming to a screen near you: 3D posters spring to life

The outdoor advertising industry is pinning its post-pandemic hopes on new, simplified “3D posters”, which have already been trialled by Vodafone, IWC Schaffhausen, Netflix, Deliveroo and PokerStars on the Piccadilly Lights screen in London.

DeepScreen uses a technique called “anamorphosis” or “forced perspective” which mathematically warps imagery so that when viewed from a specific vantage point, the illusion of 3D depth is created on flat surfaces.

Ocean Outdoor claims its templates can be used to create “breath-taking windows into other worlds”, extend existing architecture, or make impossible objects appear to float in the air, coming out of the screen and towards the viewer.

Similar technology has already been widely used in Asia, but rarely in the UK because most digital outdoor sites are flat, making the creative process too expensive.

Ocean Outdoor joint managing director Phil Hall reckons 3D advertising will be the next major evolution of digital outdoor after video. “There has been a genuinely strong interest in the technology in the market. You will get some clients that come on board because it’s the next big new thing. But what has pleasantly surprised us is the interest from standard outdoor advertisers across many different sectors.

“Brands that have spent considerable sums on their TV creative are now looking at this as the icing on the cake.”

It is also available across eight Ocean digital “Primer” screens in seven UK cities, including Westfield Square, Westfield London, the Four Dials in Westfield Stratford City, the Manchester Printworks, Liverpool Media Wall, Birmingham Media Eyes and city centre screens in Nottingham, Norwich and Glasgow which can be combined with experiential activations.

Ocean’s head of design and studio David Tait said: “Forced perspective is hard to describe, but incredibly easy to view – realistic ‘3D’ images, with the correct perspective, lighting and shadows, that require no fancy eyewear, QR codes or technology. To really grab audiences’ attention, advertisers want to stand out from the crowd and it doesn’t get much more striking than a 17m high rugby ball flying towards them.

“To allow brands to create DeepScreen activations, we developed 3D templates that recreate the unique size and curvature of the screens along with the viewer positions for each of the supported locations. Using these templates, and the included consultancy of the Ocean Studio team, brands can integrate their imagery to create these stunning eye-tricking campaigns.”

According to Ocean’s neuroscience research, full motion screens outperform static outdoor by 2.5 times, driving emotional impacts, memory encoding and acting as a primer for other media.

Earlier this year, Ocean released a further study called the Primers which reframes the premium digital out of home proposition to equate it with peak TV.

Using data and a set of common denominators, Ocean identified 280 DOOH Primers (frames) which share the same properties as ‘must-have’ peak TV spots with one significant difference – DOOH reaches younger audiences as well.