Some 350 years ago, a dutch scientist by the name of Christiaan Huygens invented the pendulum clock.  One day he was in his workshop filled with clocks, when he noticed something strange; all the swinging pendulums on all the clocks were synchronized, swinging in perfect time with each other, even though he knew they didn’t start out that way.  He stopped them all, started them all again out of synch, and to his amazement they all soon synchronized again!

Probably baffled at this point, he separated the clocks into different rooms to see what would happen.  The pendulums stayed out of synch.  As soon as he put the clocks within close proximity to one another again, they swung in time.  After many experiments, he found out that, in close proximity, the smaller clocks all swung in time to the largest clock in the room.

He coined this phenomenon “Entrainment”.

Entrainment was then found in many other forms all over the world.   When sitting next to someone for a while, without realizing it, their breathing cycles tend to synchronize.  Crickets tend to chirp in unison, fireflies glow in unison, and our brainwaves are in synch with our heartbeat.

Which brings me to my next point.

Brainwaves can be stimulated to react differently based on light and sound.  There are actual advanced medical therapies right now that use a combo of color LED light and music beats to stimulate mood, concentration, sleep, awareness, and various other desired states of consciousness.

Which I believe is why a good live concert is so enjoyable and a vast majority of the crowd has such a similar enjoyable experience and review of the concert.  It’s rare when there are mixed concert reviews from the crowd.  Everyone’s packed close together. The combination of drum beats, instruments and vocals, colored synchronized lights, bright jumbo screen showing close-ups of fingers on a guitar fretboard, and applause in between songs all have a collective rhythm.  The band acts as the “largest clock in the room”. Most bands even play a set-list of a combination of fast and slow songs, giving the entire concert a typical rhythm of upbeat song, applause – upbeat song, applause – slow song, applause.

A bit like a heart beat -  (beat beat, pause.  beat beat, pause).  Crowd-wide, brainwave-synchronizing, chemical-altering good moods all around.

Entrainment!

As you can see, at Neoti, we’re constantly analyzing and thinking outside the box to try to keep a creative edge on how to best make an impact for our clients so that everyone involved has a great, fun experience at the event. We’ve recently started offering a full event production solution, including staging, lighting, sound, and of course screen, so we have “positive fan experience” on the brain!

Take concerts for example. Typically, the crowd finds their seats or spots for the show and then waits for the concert to start, usually with an opening act. There’s mostly little to no visual stimulation at this point, other than watching the opening act set up the stage. This is a perfect time to introduce advertisements on the big screen. This technique is known in the marketing world as “captive audience” marketing, and it’s proven to be highly effective. In this age of DVR’s and “brain tune out” while watching TV or listening to the radio, the captive audience technique still draws the eyes and drives the advertising home to a large group of people, with a relatively low advertising cost per sponsor. These advertising dollars can then be used to offset the cost of the rental, creating a win/win situation for everyone involved!

Being creative people, who follow an extremely creative owner, our team was able to create the kiosk out of some non-traditional materials and and a lot of patience. After many hours of labor (and a giant mess to clean) we finally brought him to life, gave him some fun games and a goofy personality.  We were honored to take on this project, and it’s just an example of some of the creative services we can offer.

What I didn’t expect, however, was the coaches reaction.  Sometimes coaches at this level of college football don’t have coordinators up in the “booth”, to give the head coaches and the players a birds eye view of the action and formations.  They had to figure it out at ground level, with only a side view, which makes it very difficult to see the entire field and understand all the formations.  When we brought the screen in, they now had a birds eye view of the action with the high mounted cameras, and they were better able to dissect both offensive and defensive schemes on the fly, as if they were watching game film  According to the coaches, it’s contributing to their current winning season!

This kind of impact was totally unexpected, and honestly I feel proud to work in this industry.  I may not be helping develop the cure for cancer, or fighting crime in a drug zone, but I’m helping bring real fun and enjoyment to the fans, and actual tactical help for the coaches of the game.  As long as I helped people smile, my job is complete!

- Joe Kipfer

During the 8 day event, almost 1 Million spectators came out and viewed this race along the roads.  They enjoyed the bicycle racing culture that has never been possible on such a large scale in the U.S. before, and boy did they show up ready.  Fans were excited, loud, dressed in everything from a cycling jersey to a fuzzy mascot and everything in between, and full of enthusiasm and curiosity.  While everyone was having a great time, much of the U.S. doesn’t understand the rules and strategies of racing.  That’s where Neoti’s LED Screen Rentals and the Live broadcast came in.  Around both the start and finish lines, the USA Pro Cycling Challenge staff rented mobile jumbo screens to pump the live broadcast to the fans, complete with audio commentary.  This helped keep the stationary fans informed and the commentary was perfect for a country who’s not as exposed to racing as, say, France.

Here’s what the overall winner had to say -

“It’s hard to put into words and to describe the emotions I’ve felt and experience that I’ve had this week. I was 13 years old when I watched the Tour de France on television and I read magazines about the Coors Classic on these roads here in Colorado. To be here 25 years later and to experience the size and the scope of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge is just beyond my expectations. I didn’t expect this many people to come out. Today has been the biggest crowd that I’ve seen in the U.S. Today really raised the bar for American cycling.”

Levi Leipheimer (USA), Team Radioshack
Quiznos Leader Jersey Overall Winner at the 2011 Inaugural USA Pro Cycling Challenge

All in all, the event was a rousing success, and it may have just solidified a major cycling race in The United States for years to come.  Bravo, Colorado.

Given our natural propensity to flock to digital imagery like bugs to bulbs, we can be impressed upon to feel, think and take action. If event organizers fail to provide an attractive and dynamic method of influencing their guest, they risk allowing the guest to spread an inaccurate impression into his or her virtual world.

For example, SomeGuy updated his Twitter status with, “Livin’ large in Houston! Energy eliminates need to charge my phone! Just did text to win a car from a Jumbo Screen! Wish me luck!”

SomeGuy took the emotion from the event, given to him by a Jumbo Screen (no doubt a rental screen) and shared it with his virtual posse! Quodos to the event planner, advertiser and screen company!

While events not only provide exciting experiences, they provide event organizers with an opportunity to get intimate with their guests. This would violate all sorts of boundaries in the “real” world, but in the “virtual” world, consumers are more than willing to get intimate with their personal data if the request is engaging enough. By displaying video and photos on these “eye magnets”, a viewers experience can be dramatically influenced and enhanced.

For example, You’re at the ball park…A well displayed image or video of a Brewsky or a plate Nacho Cheese Chips is shown….it goes straight to your tongue… “Text seat # and order to 55555!”…You concede to the “virtual” world. How’s that for getting virtually intimate? You just gave your phone number to a Jumbo Screen! Now, after forfeiting the $20 fee, you embrace a fellow fan, smile and (click!) record the moment.

Is having digital screen(s) at an event a new idea? No. They’re only becoming bigger and more spectacular! LED ribbons racing around the stadium, massive 40’ LED screens flanking a stage, 42” LCD Screens poised perfectly inside the VIP Tent or in route to the port-a-john, touch screens at the registration booth or ticket counter; the screens are there to speak our language faster than we can respond- impressing on us to feel, think and take action. Ultimately, they encourage us to integrate our “real” and “virtual” worlds into a much bigger reality.