Crying out for content….
Yesterday I was walking down Fifth Avenue and I passed the new Hollister store (52nd and Fifth).
Hollister, for those who don’t know, is a hip and trendy clothing store. They are owned by the same company that owns Abercrombie and Fitch, so they sure know how to market.
In order, I suppose, to differentiate the Hollister store from the Abercrombie and Fitch store, (which is just up the street and features muscular young me in bathing suits in the doorway (I was going to try out for this, just to test their affirmative action program))…. In any event. the Hollister store really stands out on Fifth Avenue because the whole front of the store is one massive video screen.
This is really impressive – and I will be expensive.
What struck me looking at it though is what they have chosen to put on the screen.
They’ve apparently set up a web cam (or a fixed camera) on the surf at Huntington Beach and they webcast (buildingcast?) a never ending signal of what it looks like at the beach 3,000 miles away.
OK.
This is the kind of ‘high concept’ that sounds great in a pitch session, but in reality, it proves to be pretty unwatchable.
After about 10 seconds (if that even), I’ve got it. And I don’t have to look again.
Ever.
Which is too bad, because after spending so much time and money and effort to build the video wall, to waste it in this way is tragic.
If you look just across the street at Saks Fifth Avenue people are lined up there to look at the store windows. And they are filled with dummies! People are taking photos of the Saks windows. If you can get that kind of attention with manequins, what could you do with video?
And there is the source of today’s conversation.
If I had a massive video screen and a great hip product bought by a generation that pretty much lives online and on Youtube, what would I do with it?
If your answer is webcam the ocean.. you lose.
No.
We all know that Google is the biggest search engine in the world.
Do you what the second biggest search engine in the world is?
Youtube.
Yep.
Except among 15 year olds (and younger). Their number one search engine is Youtube.
So to say that they live in a world of video is an understatement.
And they’re the social network.
They’re sending each other text and video all day long.
So if I were running Hollister (which believe me, I am not), I might put their video – that is, the video of my customers and their tastes, on my giant video screen.
Cool!
That might get people to stop and look at the screens. That might get people to say ‘hey, I wanna be there too’. Is this the next generation of ‘reality show’? Could be. Is this another iteration of Facebook ? Could be.
Once there were TV networks. Then came cable. Then came the web. Then came iPhones. Then came iPads. McDonald’s is starting McDonald’s TV in their stores. Now it’s walls of buildings.
Of course, how could I make sure the content that my customers made for the wall of their store was good?
Well, there’s alway The Hollister Video Academy
Hmmm…
You’ll have to excuse me now. I have a few emails to send out..
Pardon me while I
1 Comment
steve November 06, 2011
a good friend says the idea behind themcdonaldschannel is to slowly do away with the playscapes and bring in table mounted touch screens for the kiddies’ greasy fingers to play on.