New Breed Of Theatrical 3D Advertising Launches - Samsung's Interactive Pre-Movie 3D Gaming Ignites Audiences

Very cool new concept using your hands to control game motion on a 3D screen at the theater! Samsung is ramping up their cinema marketing for their brand new Galaxy S III phone and they are certainly not being cheap about it. $20 million not cheap. Apparently it's the biggest cinema ad buy EVER.

The cool thing about the advertising is that it's in 3D: A traditional advertisement - but in 3D, *AND* an interactive 3D game for the audience to participate in. The game was set in motion by US advertising agency Razorfish, produced by Audience Entertainment/NCM and the live action was produced by Geneva Film Co. headed by my good friend Director James Stewart.

Here's what Digital Outsider had to say about the new 3D advertising / entertainment:
The campaign will run all summer long across National Cinemedia’s entire network of around 18,000 screens nationwide as part of its FirstLook pre-show package of entertainment and advertising, which should put the budget for the cinema ad component at $20 million or more (NCM wouldn’t comment, but comparisons with other cinema ad campaigns confirm it should be well into eight figures; Ad Age earlier reported that Samsung is more than doubling its 2011 budget for promoting Galaxy products this year).

The centerpiece of the campaign is a two-minute-long 3D spot featuring two of the 20-somethings from Samsung’s earlier campaign promoting the S II, not-so-gently mocking Apple fanboys (in which one of them reminds the other, snarkily, “Dude, you’re a barrista”). This time around, while appearing to wreak havoc on the theater from the projection booth, the guys demonstrate one of the big new features of the S III: users can share content with each other simply by tapping the phones, which employ near field technology.

The campaign also includes a first-of-its-kind 3D interactive crowd motion game, designed by Audience Entertainment, running at a limited number of theaters equipped with the necessary motion sensor technology. In the game, the audience has to work together to make two phones (which appear to be “hovering” in the ether) touch to share content (as seen in the video) -- thus demonstrating the key new feature again, this time with audience participation.

Check out the game below:

We're seeing the beginning of a new phase of theatrical advertising that I hope is much more enjoyable for audiences. Embedding brands and experiences in 3D games that can be played before a movie starts is a brilliant move. Kudos to the companies involved!

Some content from MediaPost