Zara’s storefront in New York City has been one of the highlights not only of the general digital signage in the past week. The virtual ball hole in the window of the Inditex subsidiary sparked a lot of imagination – could it really be an LED installation or just an AR experience? Visitors and customers of the Zara branch in Soho/New York City were disappointed to find not a ball pit behind the store window, but only the display containing the latest collection of the Spanish fashion label.
Video art: WoW shop window
The same is true for the participants in the closing event of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. As millions of spectators watched animated Olympic rings in the stadium (CGI animation was developed by digital signage experts at Montreal’s Moment Factory), the athletes in the stadium looked up at the darkened sky.
The Olympic spirit is in all of us.
A display of beautiful, luminous colors draped together to represent the many flags of the world.
They make up the Olympic rings, a symbol of eternal unity. #together stronger #Tokyo 2020 #Closing ceremony pic.twitter.com/38dv0e0w98
Olympics August 8, 2021
The challenges are the same: Just as with hybrid meetings in the workplace, and hybrid conferences on site and in webcasting, retailers also struggle with balancing digital spaces in the space and virtual digital spaces. It’s easy to manage online and offline separately from each other, but enabling comparable experiences either on-site or online is nearly impossible. Disappointments are inevitable, such as the state of Zara and the reactions of the athletes at the Tokyo Stadium show.
Can virtual reality be better than reality? In terms of infotainment and offerings, yes, but people want to “network” Face2Face and experience the products physically. One reason digital companies like Apple, Amazon & Co continue to rely on fixed retail. Agencies and digital signage providers must strive to create better, more personal, and more inclusive digital experiences for the physical space. It is not enough to have a projection screen on the wall or a large LED lamp in the room.
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