Callao City Lights: a profitable example of digital outdoor advertising analyzed in BIT Broadcast 2014

With a pragmatic and realistic title: “I already have a DooH screen, “And now what do I do?”, the workshop of the company Espectáculos Callao, who has developed the interactive project Callao City Lights, has made it clear that a well-planned business and exploitation model of digital media based on providing value for customers is profitable..

The general director of Callao City Lights, Gerardo Baranowski, explained in the workshop given in BIT Broadcast 2014 how to undertake an interactive digital communication project in a central public street in Madrid, through proper needs planning, development and exploitation model of the screen system, can be a profitable business.

The path to achieving this has not been easy., since it has taken “more than ten years and three government terms to explain our project and obtain the license,” explains Baranowski.. In that time we have also traveled a lot to learn ideas, “ask and copy the good projects that were carried out in other countries”.

In this sense, Callao City Lights is based on the New York model, although at a lower level in terms of deployment of visual supports: a square in the center of the city, with intense human traffic, where multiple activities occur that are shown on screens and capture people's attention, who participates through social networks and devices, creating a very positive experience.

With that concept, in the year 2003 The first sketch of Callao City Lights begins to take shape, as well as its business approach, “in terms of what experience we wanted to show people, “What value could we offer to advertisers and how to feed back the systems and interactivity with a business model that was profitable”, this manager points out.

Kilometer 0 of culture

The coordinates for its implementation were clear, since they started from a central square in the center of Madrid of more than 3.000 square meters, on the road artery with the greatest influx of tourists and citizens, with a wide cultural offer and shows.

“We started working on the concept ‘Km. 0 of Culture', since although we are a cinema, In this area many things happen daily and there is a wide range of shows -he points out-. Our challenge was to offer quality content, generate value for the advertiser with greater commercial impact, since our limitation is precisely that we cover only one place, not a global screen network, so we cannot compete in quantity and coverage of supports, but in quality”.

The result of this approach is that clients adapt their content to the capacity of the screens and activities in the Callao City Lights area., “And that is precisely what gives it value,” says Baranowski.. Besides, we continually carry out special actions, such as premieres and visits from international film and entertainment stars; We develop and participate in the activities that take place in the plaza, as broadcast of musical events on our screens, summer cinema in HD quality, video games…, all this so that people have a good time and interact on the networks viewing themselves on the screens, where we offer geolocation systems, QR codes, etc. that advertisers contribute for real-time promotions”. This entire process is supported by an organization, composed of fifteen people, which follows a structure model similar to that of a television, since Callao City Lights is broadcast, continuity, contents, commercial activity…

Versatile technology and CMS

In this sense, Daniel Gonzalez, TV account director&Average of Ericsson, company in charge of implementing these systems, explained to the professionals that “this entire business model is based on versatile technology. Success in DooH is having an adequate information point, with a well-defined screen size layout, a wide viewing angle and a luminosity in which light changes and the incidence of the sun are minimized as much as possible; as well as valuable content”.

This interactive and commercial support offered by Callao City Lights, based on five large LED and Full HD screens from the North American manufacturer Daktronics on the facades of the historic cinemas and on the marquees of the Press Palace, is supported by a powerful digital content management system (CMS), that “allows you to transfer all those contents, around thirty different daily contents on each of the screens, with efficient workflows, cataloging, security and legal copy, etc. based on metadata, González specifies.

For both managers, The Callao City Lights project is a success and has become a benchmark for outdoor digital advertising, offering users and advertisers interactive capabilities, augmented reality and emission of 3D images to connect with more than 113 millions of people who pass through this pedestrian plaza every year.

The DVX LED panels from Daktronics, of 101 m2 of pipe 10 (1.009.800 pixelated); another of 130 m2 of pipe 10 (1.396.000 pixelated), both with 3D image emission capacity; along with the marquees located in the Press Palace, the 36m2 the picht 10 (356.400 pixelated) in the front, and two sides of 8,80 m2 , with views of Gran Vía, They offer in total more than 10.900.000 daily impacts.

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