Think you can run faster than a top U.S. marathoner?
Yeah, didn’t think so.
But it would be fun to at least try, right?
If you passed by New York City’s Columbus Circle subway station anytime over the last few weeks, then you might’ve had your big shot.
For the recent 2011 New York City Marathon run, Asics installed a 60-foot long video wall that challenged anyone passing by to a race. But not just any race. A race against one of the fastest men in the world, U.S. Olympic marathoner Ryan Hall. Take the challenge, and you’re up against a digital Ryan running a cheetah-like 4:46 mile pace across the video wall.
Lots of people took the Asics challenge. And lots of people lost. In fact, everybody lost. Even Ryan himself showed up and couldn’t beat his digital counterpart.
Check out this video to see the amazing out-of-home ad in full effect.
So, why does this ad work?
For starters, it’s huge. The 60-foot screen takes up an entire wall at a bustling NYC subway station. It’s also video, so it’s moving. And bright. And flashy. And grabs your attention, even if your head is buried in your iPhone (per usual). The ad is interactive beyond interactive. It dares you to do something, and not something that’s going to take a lot of time or thought. Not something that you’d have to do later when you get home. But something that you can do right now. Give the ad 10 seconds of your life at this very moment and you too, can play this game. Then you can tell everyone you raced an Olympic marathoner in the subway today. I mean, not everyone can say that, right?
The ad is inspirational. It’s fun. And it definitely got people talking.
To that I say: Winning, Asics. WINNING.
Apple jumped into the passing lane with its recent announcement that new MacBook Pro models will be the first computers in market to include Intel’s groundbreaking Thunderbolt™ technology and its promised 10Gb/second dual-channel transfer rates.
In a world where speed matters, Thunderbolt is touting a transfer rate 20 times faster than USB 2.0 and 12 times faster than FireWire 800. If you’re crunching video files or transferring lots of data, this is nothing short of revolutionary, especially considering you can connect multiple devices together.
Although Thunderbolt won’t have an immediate impact, don’t underestimate Apple’s game-changing abilities. The technology’s ultra-fast data transfer, support for HD displays and compatibility with existing I/O technologies is already spawning product development and building excitement among developers.
Why it matters
The need to work with and share large files efficiently isn’t going away—nothing is getting smaller, including apps and media—so Thunderbolt’s dual-channel, bi-directional design is potentially huge.
Full adoption of Thunderbolt could help the digital era blossom into real-time broadcast quality land, which content makers have had on their radar for years. For those who work with audio/video files, need to move chunks of data from device to device, or create and share hi-res video, the idea of doing it 10–20x faster is genuinely exciting.
The technology is sure to impact how we share and collaborate. More powerful videoconferencing by itself could have a profound effect on how agencies collaborate with clients and across remote locations. Hi-res video in real time could truly make videoconferencing what it’s never really been: the next best thing to being there.
Perhaps the most promising thing to consider from a marketing perspective is the synergy that high-speed, two-way I/O rates could spark in the creative world. Practically instant access to large files should free content makers to share and collaborate in real time without factoring in the longstanding pain of file sharing and transfer. We think that alone may make it easier than ever to get where we’ve always wanted to go—a creative process with fewer roadblocks and more highway stretches.
