A few weeks ago I went into NYC with my girlfriend and we needed to transfer between two different subway lines at Times Square. En route, we came across a series of interactive poster. There were audio input jacks embedded into images of people walking in an urban environment. I was thinking it was for some new audio product.

We plugged in and were presented with what sounded like the inner thoughts of the people depicted in the posters. There were probably eight to ten different posters that each had between two and three audio input jacks, each jack with it’s own individual audio sample. The recordings looped the secret and rather dark inner monologues of everyday people.

This was an excellent out-of-home digital execution for two reasons:

1. It created a lengthy, personal engagement with the consumer: the installation was essentially a piece of art. It wasn’t a broadcast with speakers, it makes consumers curious enough to want to plug-in to reveal what’s behind the curtain.
2. It exploited an elegant insight that basically every New Yorker carries headphones with them while traveling. This installation wouldn’t be as successful if it was in a rural or low-traffic area.

However, there was a minor flaw in the execution. The agency was assuming that they didn’t have an awareness problem with what they were advertising. The installations were indeed for a television show on HBO called “Big Love“, but my girlfriend thought that the posters were supposed to be for a telecommunications company like AT&T or Verizon.

I’m even familiar with the show, and it took me a while to even figure it out.

Because of that one simple fact, this brilliant execution is somewhat of a waste. Long, immersing engagement scenarios are meaningless if consumers don’t know what they’re engaging with.

There has to be a balance between pushing creative limits and getting your message across to consumers — and this example almost had it.

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