Just when you thought you've seen it all — dot-coms advertising within video games and on hot-air balloons and bananas — Total Motion Media has come up with a new place for companies to slap their URL: people.
Its walking billboard system consists of custom-made, flat-screen televisions that have 1 million pixels of information but weigh only 7 pounds. They can feature DVD presentations, looped videotape segments and Web site samples.
A Total Motion team of 15 walking and rollerblading advertisements will promote EdificeRex.com — a building-specific Internet portal that serves only New York — during an opera performance Tuesday in New York's Central Park. A 45-second spot will play repeatedly on the system.
Each Total Motion team member is expected to distribute up to 300 credit card-sized maps of New York bearing EdificeRex's logo.
The opera at Central Park was a natural fit, as the site targets upwardly mobile New Yorkers, said Ron Finfer, CEO of Total Motion Media, Washington.
As for his company's product, Finfer said, “We've created a way to strap [advertisements] to attractive looking spokespeople who walk around or are on rollerblades. The skating billboards are often referred to as a ‘skatertizer’ or skating advertiser.
“These screens are like fireflies. People say, 'Wow,' ” he said.
The company, which recently had its one-year anniversary, has held events in several major cities with few incidents. “We've never had anyone fall down and break a screen,” he said.
Total Motion Media represents more than a dozen high-tech companies, including Synge.com, GoldPocket.com and Flycast.
EdificeRex's network includes 300 buildings managed by Insignia Residential Group, comprising 60,000 apartments in New York. The site will be made available in other cities such as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, London and Los Angeles.
