By Robert Goldrich
Jen Dennis, head of RSA VR, served as a Virtual Reality judge at this year’s AICP Next Awards. During the AICP Show Road Tour stop in Los Angeles last month, she shared some insights during a panel discussion, including providing context on VR.
Dennis observed that VR is “not about product placement,” but rather “placing consumers in your product.” Denis—who co-produced The Martian VR experience, the lauded companion piece to the Ridley Scott-directed feature The Martian—is waiting for brands to catch up to studios and networks when it comes to more consistently deploying VR.
Joining Dennis at the AICP Show Road Tour were fellow panelists Ryan Templeton, head of content at Not Impossible Labs, and Kerstin Emhoff, co-founder and president of PRETTYBIRD. Emhoff was president of Next’s Experiential-Live Events/Broadcast jury.
Asked by panel moderator Matt Miller, president and CEO of the AICP, what would have received her vote for Most Next—Best in Show—Templeton cited Boost Mobile’s “Boost Your Voice” from 180LA. With a shortage of polling places in inner cities, often necessitating that lower income and minority voters wait long hours to cast their ballots, Boost Mobile got involved to help address the problem. Boost Mobile stores are located in many of these communities; so this past election year, Boost launched a nationwide initiative for equal voting access, offering its stores across the country as polling places.
Templeton praised the authenticity of the initiative with Boost Mobile providing access to their stores as “an activation for good.” (The Most Next Award was actually bestowed upon Lockheed Martin’s “Field Trip To Mars” produced by Framestore for McCann New York.)
Emhoff noted that case studies often don’t do full justice to the good accomplished by Next honorees. She cited as examples “Boost Your Voice” as well as skincare brand SK-II’s “Marriage Market Takeover” from Forsman & Bodenfors, Stockholm, which put a spotlight on Chinese women being unfairly labeled as “Sheng Nu”—translated to “leftover women” used to stigmatize unmarried women over 25. In the centerpiece short film, women who feel alienated and ostracized—often by their own parents because they “dare” to live independently, to wait for true love or simply choose to live alone—decide to declare their independence at the marriage market in Shanghai’s People’s Park. The marriage market is designed for women to find men whose “qualifications” are listed for matrimony. For some, it’s as if parents are selling their daughters who seek out the most desirable men based on materialistic standards. The group of women in this film instead use the market as a place to articulate their right to choose the lives they want to lead.
Emhoff affirmed that the overwhelmingly positive impact of “Marriage Market Takeover” on Chinese women cannot be measured in a presentation or case study.
A TV as big as a bed? With the holidays approaching, stores stock more supersize sets
For some television viewers, size apparently does matter.
Forget the 65-inch TVs that were considered bigger than average a decade ago. In time for the holidays, manufacturers and retailers are rolling out more XXL screens measuring more than 8 feet across. That's wider than a standard three-seat sofa or a king-size bed.
Supersize televisions only accounted for 1.7% of revenue from all TV set sales in the U.S. during the first nine months of the year, according to market research firm Circana. But companies preparing for shoppers to go big for Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa have reason to think the growing ultra category will be a bright spot in an otherwise tepid television market, according to analysts.
The 38.1 million televisions sold with a width of at least 97 inches between January and September represented a tenfold increase from the same period last year, Circana said. Best Buy, the nation's largest consumer electronics chain, doubled the assortment of hefty TVs — the 19 models range in price from $2,000 to $25,000 — and introduced displays in roughly 70% of its stores.
"It's really taken off this year," Blake Hampton, Best Buy's senior vice president of merchandising, said.
Analysts credit the emerging demand to improved technology and much lower prices. So far this year, the average price for TVs spanning at least 97 inches was $3,113 compared to $6,662 last year, according to Circana. South Korean electronics manufacturer Samsung introduced its first 98-inch TV in 2019 with a hefty price tag of $99,000; it now has four versions starting at $4,000, the company said.
Anthony Ash, a 42-year-old owner of a wood pallet and recycling business, recently bought a 98-inch Sony for his 14,000-square-foot house in... Read More