Magnetic 3D makes content “literally float in front of displays”, without the need for glasses
By Mel Stott, contributor for DPAA.
January 29, 2017
New York-based Magnetic 3D is one of the newest members of the Digital Place Based Advertising Association (DPAA). Magnetic 3D is a leading provider of glasses-free 3D solutions for the professional display market. The company’s products increase customer engagement and are proven to elevate sales through more effective advertising and marketing campaigns with immersive 3D content.
The company has had success across retail and events, and recently announced the launch of a new immersive and experiential platform that adds another dimension to digital out of home campaigns. A complete media kit on the company can be requested here.
Mel Stott chatted with Tom Zerega, Magnetic 3D’s Founder & Chief Executive Officer.
When people think about 3D video screens they usually think about wearing cumbersome glasses. Your 3D screens are glasses-free. How do you accomplish this?
It’s magic of course!
Just kidding, our Enabl3D™ technology works by adding a proprietary lens to the front of a flat panel display which essentially means the TV wears the glasses instead of the viewer.
There are some other workflow tricks of course on the software and content production side which we do internally or in partnership with agencies.
It’s important to note that after we add the lens, all content is not instantly 3D (though that would be magic). Instead, we take 2D or 3D content and re-purpose it, or convert it into our glasses-free, very high fidelity 3D format that ensures everyone has a great experience, from the client to the customer.
The result is captivating 3D content that literally floats in front of and into the display.
What are the advantages of 3D digital out-of-home screens versus 2D?
We believe there are many.
First and foremost, people are spending more time than ever glued to their mobile devices whether checking social media, emails, surfing the web, or binge-watching their favorite shows, and it doesn’t show signs of stopping.
So, as OOH marketers, we have to realize that more displays don’t necessarily equate to more eyeballs. There is a wall, there is a saturation point. What we need are more effective displays that are “visually louder” than that handheld device and that’s where immersive 3D displays come into play, because they provide the marketer with a better medium than what the consumer has in their pockets.
Our 3D technology has the ability to stop people in their tracks no matter what they might be doing. It gets them to pay attention and act – what’s more, a large percentage of them will tell others about it and will spend 60 seconds or more with our 3D media. The response to our 3D OOH media is like nothing we’ve ever seen.
Most consumers believe our technology to be entertainment even though we are clearly showing ads. This creates a positive impact for the brand beyond just awareness alone.
I could go on, but perhaps the most obvious – it’s 2017! And Back to the Future 2 promised us this technology along with flying cars two year ago, right?
What do you consider to be the most effective applications for your screens, both in terms of locations as well as content?
As it pertains to OOH, any location where there is some dwell time makes a lot of sense because the 3D is entertaining by nature of the content, and it can provide value for the venue, the brand and consumer. The displays should physically be placed in a location where there is direct line of sight and traffic flow (as opposed to parallel). There should be ample room to experience the content in front of the display.
We believe premium brands tend to gravitate to latest technologies first, and therefore we want to offer them the best locations in transit, malls, airports, convention centers, and iconic destinations in the top DMA’s.
Do content providers need to produce their video in 3D?
What’s exciting is that content developers of all types can get into 3D – we make it really easy, and depending on the length of the client’s campaign, we include the conversion work.
Clients can be as unattached as sending over a Photoshop file of their static poster and asking us to enhance it for Glasses-Free 3D, or if you happen to be a movie studio, a game developer, or VR company you might have a ton of content in 3D you’d like to utilize. This the perfect opportunity for those companies to market their content in a medium that provides a comparable 3D experience to that of the device or the theater, without the 3D glasses of course.
Magnetic 3D is in the early stages of rolling out 3D screens. Where do you see the company 3-5 years down the road?
We’ve spent years testing, improving and executing projects with customers on a case by case basis for events. Now, all of that investment has led us to deploying our own 3D networks so we can share this powerful marketing solution with media companies and allow 3D to become a force in OOH and with consumers. In five years our goal is to have thousands of large format Glasses-free 3D assets installed in the top DMA’s.
What prompted you to join the DPAA and what are you hoping to get out of your membership?
We are really passionate about DOOH and have really been waiting on the sidelines for a long time. We needed the stars to align when both the industry would be ready for glasses-free 3D and we also had the right solution in terms of quality, size and resolution to bring our A Game to DOOH industry.
There is no doubt that the inflection point is upon us especially when you see that agencies around the world are becoming immersed in Virtual and Augmented Reality development, all of which are 3D technologies. So timing was a critical factor in our decision making process.
We hope the membership will help to bring awareness of our story and this new media format among the innovators in the industry.
“Magnetic Networks,” as our media business unit is called, is all about using immersive 3D technology for its ability to increase attention, drive engagement, and convert customers. We hear brands all the time asking their agencies for the silver bullet and we believe we have the closest thing to it in the out of home space.
We hope the DPAA can spread the word to early adopters about this new platform that is first being deployed at the New York Waterway Terminals in New York City and New Jersey.
The launch is in partnership with Cross River Network (CRN) and will complement existing “2D” digital signage.
I think a way to sum it up is that our 3D displays provide the unique and unparalleled impact of an experiential marketing campaign but in a network format that allows media buyers the opportunity to add 3D to their everyday tool chest and with a CPM that makes logical sense.
