Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團) yesterday unveiled a digital signage system in the main lobby of the Taipei Railway Station to tap into the rapidly evolving multimedia advertising market.
Installation of the system was overseen by Hon Hai subsidiary, LinkOOH (萬相雲媒), which was established with capitalization of NT$50 million (US$1.58 million) as part of the conglomerate’s efforts to leverage the organizations resources to stimulate innovation.
Taiwan’s advertisement market is valued at about NT$60 billion, of which the market for advertisement installations at public spaces is estimated at about NT$4 billion, Hon Hai vice president Lu Fang-ming (呂芳銘) told reporters at a news conference in Taipei.
He also said that Hon Hai has not ruled out holding an initial public offering for LinkOOH.
The system is made up of more than 200 55-inch commercial digital signage display panels with 4K resolution made by Sharp Corp, which is controlled by a cloud-based platform developed by LinkOOH.
“The system at Taipei Railway Station was installed at a cost of about NT$80 million, and we expect LinkOOH to break even before the end of next year,” Lu said.
Multimedia advertising is rapidly evolving and the field has been converging with other digital trends, such as social media, he said.
LinkOOH provides a platform for brands, sales channels and creative agencies to join forces in forming a new advertising ecosystem, Lu said.
Participants in the ecosystem can take advantage of LinkOOH’s cloud-based platform to deploy an interactive marketing experience for the large crowds that make their way through the railway station each day, Lu said.
One of LinkOOH’s first clients is Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業), which is promoting a new beverage with an interactive display that invites passersby to play a fruit-chopping game on the giant displays by triggering motion sensors.
While applications currently deployed on the system are still very basic, Lu said that LinkOOH and Hon Hai aim to provide partners with a full array of tools, such as augmented reality technology, contextual and location awareness, and big data analysis to create new and compelling advertising experiences.
Lu also outlined plans to integrate various “smart” capabilities for the platform that would selectively broadcast advertisements according to passersby demographic and preferences, as well as delivering tailored promotional discounts to maximize customer stickiness for brand operations.
“We hope to connect the many screens used by consumers, whether they are on desktops, mobile devices or large digital signs,” Lu said.
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