What's the appeal of a character speaking to you in real time on an outdoor large-screen display?

"Hey, big backpack guy! Good evening!"
"Hey, you in the denim shirt!"
"Ponta, it's Ponta!"

On October 21, 2021, Ponta, the mascot of the common point service "Ponta," appeared on large outdoor digital screens in Tokyo (Harajuku Omotesando Vision, NEWNO・GS Shinjuku Vision, Ikebukuro PARCO Vision). Ponta waved and spoke to passersby, played rock-paper-scissors, sang, and engaged in interactive communication with people on-site.

Among the expanding OOH (Out Of Home: outdoor and transit advertising) landscape, outdoor large-screen advertising is rapidly evolving. This time, Ms. Kana Misawa (Out-of-Home Media Division) and Mr. Ryo Araki (Business Co-creation Division) from Dentsu Inc., who were involved in this event, share the response to the event and the menu that enabled this interactive communication.

The event "Ponta Comes to Town!", where "Ponta" interacted with passersby in real time, was planned and executed by Loyalty Marketing Inc. The company operates "Ponta", a universal points service where points can be earned and used across all aspects of daily life, from everyday consumption to online shopping and infrastructure.

This event aimed to convey the "convenient, rewarding, and fun" world of "Ponta" to a wide range of generations through real-time, interactive communication with the service character "Ponta," fostering familiarity with the service and generating buzz.

The impactful yet adorable communication, utilizing large outdoor displays, generated more buzz than we had anticipated. Passersby not only noticed and stopped for "Ponta," but were also seen taking photos with their smartphones and posting them on Twitter.

As of November 2021, Ponta is an extremely popular corporate character with 381,000 official Twitter followers. Thanks to advance announcements on official Twitter and other channels, many people on-site shared the experience using the hashtag #PontaCameToTown. Additionally, the event was streamed live on Instagram. We received numerous positive comments like "So cute!" and "I want Ponta to come to [location] too!"

This event reaffirmed the strong synergy between utilizing large-scale digital signage at local landmarks and along daily commutes, and leveraging social media.

<Campaign Overview> Date: October 21, 2021; Broadcast: Harajuku Omotesando Vision and NEWNO・GS Shinjuku Vision / 1 live stream (5-minute slot), Ikebukuro PARCO Vision / 2 live streams (5-minute slots) <Social Listening Analysis Extraction Criteria> Target Media: Twitter; Analysis Tool: Meltwater Intelligence; Extraction Period: October 20-27, 2021

Ponta was able to engage in two-way communication with people on-site while speaking with expressive facial expressions thanks to the use of "Charatoaker," a service developed and operated by Dentsu Inc. and Eje Inc.

Charatoaker is an avatar app that converts a performer's expressions into a cute character to communicate with remote viewers. On the day, the performer, fully embodying Ponta, interacted with passersby in front of the Omotesando, Shinjuku, and Ikebukuro Vision screens while viewing their real-time footage from a remote studio.

We believe corporate character avatars have the potential to serve as "communicators/navigators" at every touchpoint between companies and consumers, conveying corporate messages with lively expressions and approachability. Corporate characters are visual representations of the company itself or its products, making them highly effective communication tools. By avatarizing them, we enable more expressive, lively facial expressions, significantly enhancing their appeal as communicators/navigators.

We have validated the effectiveness of corporate character avatars in the field, at large events like the Tokyo Motor Show and through character customer service at the Isetan Mitsukoshi flagship store. Since last year, we have been actively proposing communication services utilizing character avatars to businesses.

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of corporate DX (Digital Transformation), demand for non-face-to-face, contactless communication has surged. As a solution enabling warm communication, we have received numerous inquiries, leading to an increase in corporate character partners, starting with "Ponta".

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To deliver videos of corporate character avatars using Charatalkers on outdoor screens, we collaborated with Pass Communications Inc. and integrated their outdoor large-screen media network to jointly develop the "Charalive" and "Charaspot" services.

Character LIVE enables live streaming where remote voice actors directly address people in the city through 3D-modeled characters. The character moves in sync with the speaker's head movements and facial expressions, conveying emotions. Voice changers also allow for altered vocal tones. Since outdoor large-screen displays can be purchased for specific time slots, this service leverages those time frames for direct message delivery.

While live streaming programs on outdoor large-screen displays has been done before, it's surprising when you feel like you're being watched and spoken to directly, right? When we actually streamed live with "Ponta," people waiting at traffic lights who saw the large screen reacted with surprise, saying things like, "Wait, is that a live stream?" or "Is it talking to us over here?" and were fascinated enough to take photos.

The screens currently compatible with Character LIVE are the "Harajuku Omotesando Vision," "Ikebukuro PARCO Vision," "NEWNO・GS Shinjuku Vision," "Ikebukuro TS-VISION," and "109 Forum Vision," with plans to expand gradually.

Character SPOT is a video production menu that uses Character Talker to quickly and mass-produce 3D character footage. It can be used for materials across various media, including SNS, beyond just OOH. Normally, producing multiple animated videos using 3DCG can be costly. Character Talker assigns character movements based on a person's actions, so once the character is modeled, you can create multiple animation video materials in a short time.

For OOH, there is a delivery menu called Dynamic DOOH (commonly known as DDOOH). This is a delivery program that dynamically switches the OOH ads being displayed, triggered by externally obtainable information such as weather conditions or traffic status.

For instance, when a midsummer day hits, an ad for ice-cold beer might appear, or ads could gradually update viewers on cherry blossom blooming status. This enables thoughtful advertising communication tailored to the current situation. Implementing DDOOH requires producing videos for each possible scenario, but using Character SPOT makes creating this material relatively simple.

Beyond the Ponta event introduced here, outdoor large-screen displays are now enabling creative expressions previously unseen in OOH. Next time, we'll explore the potential of OOH × characters while introducing trends in 3D advertising.

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