At this time every spring in Japan, all of the mobile phone operators simultaneously launch deals targeting students, and the so-called “Student Discount Wars” begin.

The city becomes saturated with a vast amount of advertisements, resulting in some ads even getting overshadowed.

Therefore, we needed to find a way for our message to stand out to our target demographic of young people, at a train station where we would be able to connect with them.

For the first out-of-home (OOH) transit advertisement of its kind in Japan, we built a large 6-meter wide by 1-meter tall signboard covered with 25,000 chips called Flip-dot, which are each the size of a one-yen coin. With sensors projecting the silhouettes of passersby in real time, enabling people to play by making characters of text collapse, with animated ads being displayed every 15 minutes, and with an hourly time display mode in which flower petals dancing in the wind are tinted with light-pink color using LED lights, we created enjoyable presentations that people could both watch and interact with.

Being an advertisement in a train station with tight regulations on sound, the soothing, undulating sound of the flipping dot chips succeeded in making passersby stop and pay attention.

It generated over 20,000 interactive participants in a period of seven days.

We programmed content that could be enjoyed both visually and interactively.

i. Silhouette Mode: With multiple sensors, people’s silhouettes are projected in real time, and participants can play by making typed characters collapse.

ii. Yes/No Mode: When participants respond to the question “Are you 25 or younger?” by holding up their hand, a different response appears depending on whether they answer “yes” or “no,” and messages about the student discounts are promoted.

iii. Animation Mode: Images featuring students in spring are played for 15-second at regular intervals, and using LED lights the signboard changes to the light-pink color of cherry blossoms.

iv. Time Display Mode: Ten seconds before the hour a countdown begins, and dynamic images of cherry blossom petals dancing in the wind appear followed by docomo and student discount logo.