
Ask HN: I have 8 months of video advertising in Japan. Ideas on what to display? - harisenbon
Hi All,<p>As part of a development contract I did here in Japan, I am the proud owner of some video advertising in Nagoya station (digital signage). The problem is, I don&#x27;t have anything in particular I want to show.<p>It&#x27;s a great opportunity to have some fun &#x2F; interesting advertising, and I&#x27;d like to extend my fortune to the HN community.<p>Anyone have any interesting ideas &#x2F; videos that you&#x27;d like to show to 600k people a day in Nagoya station?<p>The details:
* One, 15 second spot
* horizontal, 16x9, full HD
* can have sound
* Plays every 2 minutes
* advertising will run for 8 months
* Can change out the video fairly often (up to once a day)
* Audience is 99% Japanese, but English is fine<p>Would love to hear your ideas.<p>-- Keith
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richsherwood
I would say do something that either a) becomes an integral part of people's
day. Something they look forward to seeing every day. Who knows. That could be
as simple as inspirational quotes to some gimmick that people will love. Or b)
something cryptic. A puzzle like someone else mentioned. One that that's a lot
of people involved and creates a lot of buzz. I am not sure what your
resources are like but perhaps you could offer a prize at the end. That will
have the added benefit of creating some buzz for your company if you so choose
to brand yourself with this. Have some fun with this. You could always sell
the space but if you're intent on avoiding that then I commend you and wish I
was in your position because you could definitely do something awesome with
this opportunity.

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Jeremy1026
I'd sell it. You could probably get a couple hundred per day, more if you
really pushed it.

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crazypyro
Display a different computer error every day.

Bonus points for the most archaic programs' error screens.

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harisenbon
Haha. I like that a lot actually. Maybe have it go from desktop to error
message.

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JacobAldridge
There are (roughly) 192 countries in the world.

It's a bit of an effort, but you could find an interesting fact[1] about each
one, overlay on a creative commons photos from that country (or the national
flag; or a map), and share the rest of the world with daily commuters. You'll
even have a few days left at the end - maybe add a similar concept for each
Japanese Prefecture.

[1] Or some statistics. Or even some simple phrases ("Good morning"; "have a
nice day") in the local language.

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pauleddie
Either

(a) Teach a new english word each day.

(b) advertise yourself/services

(c) Read a storey

8 months = ~243 days = ~1 hour of reading you could do, maybe a public domain
short story

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junto
\- Create a set of puzzles

\- Use each ad spot to advertise a website link

\- Each website has a puzzle

\- You need to solve each puzzle to get the the final answer

\- The winner is the first person to fill in their details, and maybe upload a
photo or video

\- The last advertising spot shows that video/photo

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endemic
Some self promotion might be in order. I like the idea of a "word of the day"
sort of blurb, but of course with your face and website.

Otherwise, a sub-lease (so to speak) could be nice as well.

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junto
How about some wonderful cryptic set of puzzles, where you provide website
links that have new puzzles they have to solve before they can continue the
puzzle.

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joezydeco
Write an app that sells 100x100 pixel blocks or animated GIFs?

