Posted July 7th, 2022 by Emily Burkinshaw & filed under , Case Study, General, Project Focus.
In 2020 Adidas launched GMR, a game-changing product that merges virtual reality with real-life activities. A collaboration between Adidas, EA Sports FIFA and Jacquard, GMR measures kicks, shot power, distance and speed which can all be tracked via an app to improve performance whilst unlocking rewards in FIFA Mobile to improve your Ultimate Team. This tracking is made possible by the Jacquard Tag which was developed by Google, using tiny sensors to collect data that is then read by Jacquard’s advanced machine learning algorithms to identify football moves, transferring them wirelessly to the GMR mobile app.
With celebrity sponsors like Athletico Madrid’s Joao Felix, GMR was rolled out worldwide with the aim to encourage gamers to get back into the field and use physical exercise to earn points that can be redeemed in FIFA’s mobile game. To launch the GMR in-store, Adidas approached global customer engagement agency The Marketing Store with the brief to demonstrate product education and play connected through digital retail touchpoints.
To create the unique freestanding totems that The Marketing Store had in mind, they reached out to Pro Display to help bring their vision to life. The idea was to have a Transparent Touch Screen where a deconstructed boot and GMR insole could be clearly displayed with room for a physical POS display within the unit. We knew instantly that the best display for this project would be our Transparent LCD Display, designed for integration into custom housings and powered using a bright LED backlight. In this particular installation, not only would the backlight power the images on the screen but it also draws attention to the product itself being showcased behind the display. The images displayed used blacks & dark colours to hide the items behind the screen, switching to whites and lighter content to showcase the see-through effect.
To create the aesthetic look required to suit the Adidas brand, the totems had to be minimalist and integrate well within the décor of the store. This led to us commissioning bespoke steel frameworks to create the housing and stand for the screen, with enough small hangers beneath to stock and display the GMR product. A clever design choice here was to replace the side panels of the screens housing with clear glass to further expose the internal display from wider viewing angles. We also made sure that the custom housing had room for printed graphics eventually showcasing a large promotional design on the back of the totem, down the side of the screen and between the lower POS displays.
Another challenge within the construction of this unique solution was finding a way to hide the necessary mechanics to power the content without ruining the refined design. This was incorporated by adding a central cabinet between the POS rails where the Android Media Player powering the screen could be stored. Cleverly camouflaged with branded backlit graphics to create a professional eye-catching solution, the hidden Media Player was set to auto-run a custom-built android app which customers could interact with to explain how the technology works and how to install it. The screensaver and application utilised the contrast between black and white content to create the perfect combination of digital and physical display.
On completion of the collaborative process the interactive totems were ready for rollout, ready to launch GMR to the public. Targeting some of Adidas’ biggest flagship stores, we shipped the bespoke kiosks to stores across Europe, the US and Canada, with the displays arriving ready to use and with a comprehensive instruction guide detailing the unpacking and setup requirements. This project was completely unique with Adidas being the first to request bespoke Transparent Touch Screen Kiosks, kickstarting the opportunity for future projects to push the boundaries of how Transparent LCD Screens can be used.
Alongside our Transparent Touch Screens we offer a range of alternative transparent technologies including Transparent LCD Displays for integration, Transparent LCD Showcases ready to plug and play as well as Transparent OLED Screens that require no housing and backlight, ideal for POS and window displays.
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