Ever wanted to pet a cheetah? Get splashed by a whale? Travelers in Australia can do just that without even leaving the airport! It’s all thanks to an interactive billboard system at the Canberra Airport that shows an image of the animals on a video screen and gives onlookers a mark to stand on and virtually pet the big cat or be splashed by the whale.
The cheetah is part of an ad for the National Zoo and Aquarium and the whale highlights the Sapphire Coast off of New South Wales. The state of the art advertisement also watches visitors while they watch the screen. A camera provides the advertisers with detailed analytics about the people interacting with the screen, down the the details of whether or not they are smiling!
APositive is the tech firm behind the immersive ad. Amber Standley runs the company…she said it took her designers 12 weeks to complete each ad. Standley says, “It’s far more immersive than a static advertisement on a billboard. The more interactive, the more fun, the more lasting impression it leaves on the users.”
A Canberra Airport official said the interactive billboard is quite popular with travelers. He said he thought it would be a battle between kids and adults to get in front of what he called “an exciting engagement.”
Hopefully, this technology will make its way across the pond and we can start petting virtual cheetahs here in Atlanta!