Celebrate Mother’s Day by showing your love for Mom on a Times Square billboard and receive a free keepsake photograph to save or share on Twitter and Facebook.

Mother’s Day is a celebration honoring mothers and motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society.

With Aerva’s NYC Pic2Screen “Share your love for Mom” campaign, anyone can email nyc@aerva.com or tweet a picture with @AervaNYC which shows up on the Clear Channel Spectacolor board in Times Square and receive a free keepsake photo.

Aerva’s Keepsake gallery allows you to easily find and share your keepsake photo with friends and family via Facebook and Twitter.

No place on the planet offers experiences quite like Times Square which offers intense digital engagement on outdoor digital displays.

Aerva and Clear Channel Spectacolor launch an ongoing campaign of Aerva’s Picture-to-Screen technology that Aerva first introduced in Times Square to Spectacolor’s client, Kodak, four years ago.

Since then the two companies have collaborated on a number of interactive campaigns for a number of brands, giving them the opportunity to connect with end users through the Spectacolor billboards and Twitter, Facebook, photos and other User Generated Content (UGC).

The companies have worked together to produce campaigns for Beats by Dre, Glidden Paints, Kodak, Maybelline New York, Mini Cooper, Taco Bell and others.

Aerva’s Keepsake Platform is used to capture images of the user-generated photos as displayed on the billboard and used in a searchable and shareable Keepsake image gallery—an ideation that Aerva popularized since it unveiled the Keepsake Platform in 2010.

With the power of AerWave, Sports Club/LA is able to display time-sensitive announcements, promote in-club campaigns, and bring dynamic content to members via AerTweet for streaming Twitter content, health and fitness RSS feeds, posting information and QR codes, video, real-time weather and more.

Objectives
Sports Club/LA needed a technology-driven solution to eliminate paper marketing materials as well as the ability to centrally control content being pushed to multiple screens across their seven locations – including display schedules, social media integration, and dynamic content creation.

Solutions
Aerva’s technology has enabled Sports Club/LA to remotely manage screens with custom content and layout, social media components, real-time operational announcements and other streaming feeds. In addition to the Club installations, AerWave has been used for offsite events such as the Life is good Festival allowing Sports Club/LA to show Twitter via AerTweet.

Results
Sports Club/LA installations combine the technology of digital signage, the excitement and flexibility of social media, and the visual appeal of custom branding to deliver a powerful viewer experience.

“We are continuously exploring ways to enhance our Clubs and our Members’ experiences. From dazzling four-panel 60-inch LCD monitors to a planned seven-foot tall LED screen outside of our Lincoln Square location in New York City, Aerva’s cutting-edge technology has been a tremendous addition to our state-of-the-art health and wellness Clubs, It’s revolutionized how we communicate to our Members – both in design and in responsiveness.” said Teresa Coffey-Gordon, CMO of Sports Club/LA.

In 2006, 3CDC picked Aerva to drive its very first digital LED display after the $48 million renovation of Fountain Square—and Aerva’s technology continues to drive the newly installed LED display.

The purchase of the new display, through an exclusive sponsorship agreement with Fifth Third Bank, has been in the works for about a year. The new 16mm surface mount display will offer unparalleled viewing angles and clearer, crisper image quality than the traditional lamp LED and is matched by Aerva’s AerWave v4.8, which is used by the outdoor and place-based industry to manage high-profile, large-scale networks reliably and securely.

The new higher resolution video display boasts 470,000 pixels and more than three times the amount of the original Fountain Square LED video display. At 30.5’ high by 42.5’ wide, the new display is similar in size to the original one but the space along the bottom of the board currently occupied by sponsor panels will be actual video display on the new board.

“Fifth Third Bank was a mere 13 years old when the Tyler Davidson Fountain was dedicated in 1871,” states Mike Michael, President and CEO of Fifth Third Bank, Greater Cincinnati. “Today, Fountain Square has become the heart of our City, an epicenter of civic, social, and commercial life and the front yard of Fifth Third’s headquarters. We’re proud to be partnering with 3CDC and Aerva to present a modern, state-of-the-art LED screen and high-definition viewing experience for those who live, work and visit our home town.”

John Fox, 3CDC’s Vice President of Events & Programming, said, “Aerva’s innovative technology platform with real-time interactivity from users in the Square, from social media, have been noteworthy in the industry. Now we believe the new display can fully take advantage of Aerva’s capabilities and showcase a world-class public display to our community.”

Fox worked with Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon & Williams, a Texas-based scoreboard and video consulting firm, to procure bids from seven U.S. outdoor display manufacturers, ultimately deciding upon LSI Industries, established in 1976 and headquartered in Cincinnati.

“We are pleased to extend our seven-year relationship with 3CDC into the next phase for Fountain Square and appreciate the validation of our technology by renewal of the software to drive the new display,” remarked Sanjay Manandhar, CEO of Aerva Inc. of Cambridge, MA.

AerWave software also manages schedules of ads, user-generated-content (UGC) and call-to-action as well as management of TV insertion using Aerva’s RS232 Control module. During special events where AerTweet, Pic2Screen or other social media and mobile widgets developed by Aerva are used, Aerva’s moderation Web Interface allows Fountain Square staff to approve or reject UGC.

The network management and application management is hosted in the Aerva cloud so Fountain Square can keep its server resources to a minimum. 3CDC uses AerWave to broadcast event graphics and live feeds during programming on the Square, to show Reds and Bengals games during tailgate parties, and to promote other non-profit events and productions around downtown.

On March 5, 2013, Aerva’s software platform, AerWave, for social media and digital out-of-home was used to kick-off a 5-week campaign to allow users to send their picture to the digital billboard in Times Square, NY. Taco Bell’s team also uses Aerva’s moderation engine to filter photos.

Acceptable pictures of users’ expressions when they taste the new product, Cool Ranch Doritos Taco, with Twitter hashtag #wow and #coolranchdlt or #duh #coolranchdlt are viewed and approved for display on the Clear Channel digital billboard.

Once approved an automatic Twitter response from Aerva’s system is sent to the user to ask for permission for use on the billboard. Aerva’s Keepsake Platform is used to capture images of the tweeted photos as displayed on the billboard and used in a searchable and shareable Keepsake image gallery—an ideation that Aerva popularized since it unveiled the Keepsake Platform in 2010. Aerva executed this campaign with creative input from Digitas, the digital agency of record for Taco Bell.

In March 2012, Aerva helped execute the social media and digital out-of-home campaign for Doritos Locos Tacos, the most successful product in Taco Bell’s history. The most appropriate tweets were shown on two digital billboards, in Times Square and on Sunset Blvd, after receiving user’s permission.

According to Taco Bell, Doritos Locos Taco has sold more than 350 million Nacho Cheese tacos since the launch a year ago, and the tacos are credited with raising same-store sales 8% for the year at the 5,600-unit chain (with just 10 months of sales in 2012)—far ahead of most other major fast-food chains. Restaurant industry analysts say the line has already become a mega-franchise — with just one product.

Sales were so big, Taco Bell added 15,000 restaurant jobs in 2012, according to Taco Bell CEO, Greg Creed. Partner PepsiCo, maker of Doritos, had to add lines at its factories to meet demand.

The positive user response of Doritos Locos Tacos product launch campaign influenced the targeted demographics who are very social media savvy and took special interest in seeing their tweets on digital billboards. It appears, this year, social media is abuzz after months of building anticipation for the new Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos and the campaign to see fans’ pictures from Twitter or Instagram on giant digital billboard in Times Square will only add to the buzz and market success for Taco Bell.

Silicon Dragon Hong Kong kicked off at Cyberport HK with a streaming Twitter feed of #SiliconDragonHK running on Aerva’s AerTweet widget.

AerTweet was shown on stage on a large LED wall as the presentations and panels took place, allowing the audience to send in their comments and questions.

Silicon Dragon Ventures was formed in 2010 as a venture capital and entrepreneur network spanning the leading Silicon Valleys of the world from Sand Hill Road to Tsinghua in Beijing to Yangpu in Shanghai to Fusionopolis in Singapore to Whitefield in Bangalore and Silicon Alley in New York.

Through news, events, consulting and research worldwide, Silicon Dragon provides unique insights and a grass-roots framework to better understand and evaluate the world’s innovation centers from a global perspective.

The 10,000-strong Silicon Dragon network includes entrepreneurs, executives of emerging companies, deal makers, venture capitalists, angel investors, investment bankers and legal, accounting and management consulting practitioners.

This network encompasses a broad spectrum of market sectors internationally in clean energy, bio-medical, cloud computing, gaming, e-ecommerce, social networking, luxury brands and retail.

The technology behind AerTweet is designed to support high profile campaigns flawlessly. Aerva allows marketers to moderate tweets, detect fraud, rank retweets, report metrics and display tweets through a number of custom parameters allowing for many animation and style options.

The next event in the Silicon Dragon series will take place in Beijing.

Speakers:
Fritz Demopoulos, Founder, Queen’s Road Capital & Co-founder, Qunar.com; Melissa Guzy, Managing Partner and Founder, Arbor Partners Asia; Richard Chan, Managing Partner, Ironfire Angel Fund; Nisa Leung, Partner, Qiming Ventures; Anna Lo, Partner, Softbank China & India; Yat Siu, Founder & CEO, Outblaze Ltd.; Vicky Wu, Co-Founder, ZaoZao; Anthony Zameczkowski, Head of Music, YouTube Asia Pacific; Ted Lai, Executive VP-Asia, BBC Worldwide / Co-Founder, AngelVest; Egidio Zarrella, Clients & Innovation Partner, KPMG; Rebecca Xu, Co-founder & Managing Director, Asia Alternatives; Tytus Michalski, Managing Director, Fresco Advisers; Thomas Britt, Corporate Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton

Moderators:
Rebecca Fannin, Founder/Author, Silicon Dragon / Contributor, Forbes; Thomas Crampton, APAC Social Media Director, Ogilvy & Mather; Frederik Balfour, Asia Correspondent, Bloomberg BusinessWeek; Napolean Biggs, Founder & Host, Web Wednesday / MD, Inspire Digital Asia

NEW: Check out the Keepsake Gallery and send in your own photo!

No place on the planet offers experiences quite like Times Square which offers intense digital engagement on outdoor digital displays. Aerva and Clear Channel Spectacolor launch an ongoing campaign of Aerva’s Picture-to-Screen technology that Aerva first introduced in Times Square to Spectacolor’s client, Kodak, four years ago. Since then the two companies have collaborated on a number of interactive campaigns for a number of brands, giving them the opportunity to connect with end users through the Spectacolor billboards and Twitter, Facebook, photos and other User Generated Content (UGC). The companies have worked together to produce campaigns for Beats by Dre, Glidden Paints, Kodak, Maybelline New York, Mini Cooper, Taco Bell and others.

Aerva’s platform and various applications will allow users that are passing by in Times Square and those that are looking to interact with the Spectacolor’s screens themselves using their mobile devices or social media handles. Aerva is driving two of Spectacolor’s digital displays in Times Square with Picture-to-Screen application, which allow users to send an image via email to nyc@aerva.com and optionally put a short caption on the Subject Line of the email. Aerva technology will allow the moderator to filter all user-generated images and text before sending it to the digital displays. The service will be receiving users’ images continuously, but will be shown on the two Spectacolor billboards a few times per hour.

“Aerva offers a flexible, complete solution, with world-class experience in executing complicated campaigns flawlessly. When clients have a specific request, Aerva can mold their platform and solution to fit the needs. We have to be spot on with costs and timing and Aerva is great at responding to both. The collaboration on Picture-to-Screen is an ongoing campaign to showcase brands, agencies and end-users what is possible in Times Square and beyond,” explained Mike McGraw, VP Creative and Marketing Services, Clear Channel Outdoor – Spectacolor Division.

The digital-out-of-home display (DOOH) market has shifted drastically in the past 3 years. Where once social interaction and customer engagement was seen as a novel approach, today it is a necessity. Aerva and Spectacolor offer a full solution for integrating social media and UGC into digital displays. Aerva provides the hardware, software platform, Picture-to-Screen widgets and tools, and monitoring: everything needed to provide a seamless experience for brands looking to engage customers.

Powerful Tools for Digital Signage
Aerva’s core products provide marketers and advertisers with a simple interface for creating and managing programming on digital screens, no matter their size. Because Aerva is cloud-based and connects the screens to the Internet, marketers can make changes on the fly and apply Aerva widgets to run programs ranging from providing news and weather to running live surveys, displaying tweets and digital photos.

“Reliable, full-platform offerings are core to what we develop at Aerva,” said Sanjay Manandhar, CEO, Aerva. “Our goal is to provide brands with the best possible way to connect their consumers with digital displays, mobile and social media. Working with Spectacolor, we can offer those solutions in the most exciting, impactful locations.”

A Sample Campaign
With Spectacolor and Aerva, brands have the opportunity to engage consumers on a scale and at a visibility once thought unattainable. The flexible platform offers advertisers and marketers technical support as well as the opportunity to:

About Clear Channel Spectacolor
Clear Channel Spectacolor is the US market leader in spectacular sign displays and a division of one of the world’s leading outdoor advertising company, Clear Channel Outdoor (NYSE: CCO), which has close to one million displays in over 50 countries across 5 continents. Offering innovative out-of-home marketing resources in major pedestrian destinations such as Times Square and The Las Vegas Strip, Clear Channel Spectacolor’s inventory includes: spectacular billboards, time-based video screens, wallscapes, sky murals, unique ad panels and experiential marketing events. In-house creative services and start-to-finish project management assist marketers in producing high-impact executions for a growing on-the-go audience. Spectacolor was established in 1976. More information may be found by visiting www.clearchannelspectacolor.com

About Aerva
Aerva enables real-time interactivity between mobile, social media applications and digital display networks, whether those are outdoor, place-based or enterprise. Aerva platforms offer a suite of software and services for creating, managing, delivering compelling content and experiences across digital media channels. Find Aerva online at http://www.aerva.com
Contact: Jeannette Hon
Aerva, Inc.
jeannette.hon@aerva.com
(877) 777-9910 x91

Citi selected Aerva to broadcast information about the performances on their stages and add vibrancy to the area, the Citi Center has invested in state of the art digital assets. These include 13 interactive displays throughout their campus including 2 digital marquees, 10 indoor digital displays and 1 outdoor display.

Originally, the Center’s staff had to log into 5 different signage systems to manage daily content changes. These systems varied in support for web-based access and file types, making the process very time consuming. Not surprisingly, the visual on-screen content also lacked consistency and clarity.

As programming expanded and new venues were added, Citi Performing Arts Center staff knew it needed a more comprehensive system, exhaustively researching and evaluating available marketplace software systems and including AerWave. Ultimately, Aerva outperformed based on many criteria and was selected as the best integrated solution for all 13 screens.

“It is a pleasure to discover, evaluate and invest in a system like AerWave to manage our disparate display systems. As a result, the time to manage our content, which changes daily, has resulted in significant efficiencies. In addition, Aerva can drive any type of screen, in any orientation, and has innovative interactive applications that others in the marketplace do not,” according to Travis Farrenkopf, Senior Manager of Design & Emerging Technology.

“We are excited about the addition of our new digital signage network across the Citi Performing Arts Center campus” said Josiah Spaulding, President and CEO. “The new displays at our theatres give us the ability to enhance the patron experience and enhance onsite branding presence. The ability to showcase dynamic content such as social media feeds, news, weather, wayfinding, and videos has also increased the potential of ancillary revenue streams.”

“Citi Performing Arts Center is a stalwart in the Boston theatre and entertainment market and at the cutting edge of blending technology into beautiful, historic landmarked theaters. We are pleased that this renowned institution has selected Aerva to help manage its disparate screen types with different orientations, while also adding social media and mobile content so patrons can interact with the screens,” remarked Sanjay Manandhar, CEO of Aerva.

“Australia and New Zealand are latent markets that are ready to explode in areas that Aerva serves. It is, therefore, timely and a strong commitment on our part to partner with a media market leader, like Ngage Media, which is part of the Image Centre Group,” according to Sanjay Manandhar, Founder and CEO of Aerva.

After many years of due diligence, Ngage Media picked Aerva. “The Aerva platform is the most innovative and flexible we have found in the market,” said Alan Nicholas, Director of Ngage Media. “Aerva technology is entrusted by very influential companies, brands and even the US Navy, for its scale, security and seamless integration with mobile and social media — the depth and breadth of Aerva’s offering is very impressive and will be welcome introduction to the Australia market.”

Going forward, Aerva will collaborate with all digital out-of-home and multi-channel campaign projects in Australia and New Zealand with Ngage Media from retail, corporate, outdoor to government involving all aspects of digital communication including mobile and social media and digital displays.

About Aerva
Aerva is a technology company that enables real-time interactivity between mobile, social media applications and digital display networks (outdoor, place-based or enterprise).

Aerva platforms offer a suite of software and services for creating, managing, delivering compelling content and experiences across digital media channels. Aerva is a private company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

About Ngage Media
Ngage Media is a full service digital signage company that provides turnkey solutions to a wide range of retail networks across New Zealand and Australia.

With 10 digital networks and over 1000 digital screens in New Zealand they are the largest digital out of home provider in the country. The company is a part of the Image Centre based in Auckland and has recently launched offices in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia.

Media Contact:
Jeannette Hon
media@aerva.com
www.aerva.com

Media Contact:
Sarah Boles
sarah@ngagemedia.co
www.ngagemedia.co

Ngage Media has positioned itself as an industry leader in the digital signage market, becoming a portal for the interaction of digital signage, social networking and mobile phones. This combination creates more effective marketing tools – and this integration of technology is allowing a sort of creativity that hasn’t been possible before.

Sanjay Manandhar, the keynote speaker, is founder of Boston-based software platform Aerva. Ngage Media has the exclusive license for the New Zealand, Australian and Pacific markets.

Manandhar has so far pulled off some huge campaigns, like Taco Bell’s Doritos Tacos Locos product launch. Recruiting hometown “tweet-offs,” they posted people’s tweets and avatars on a digital billboard promoting the product. That campaign boosted the new item to become the company’s #1 product in just three weeks – an item that sells for only US$1.49. The secret was using the right tool for the right demographics – Twitter – and the key result was people sharing allowing\ exponential growth.

Manandhar said everything will be connected to everything, digitally, so innovation is key. “You’ve got to keep innovating; if you don’t, you’re dead,” he said. A point that Vodafone’s Jeff Hazell also touched on, saying that very soon, there will be more machines connected to the internet than people. Machine 2 Machine or M2M is one of the fastest growth categories for the telco.

Manandhar believes that looking forward is important, but a big shift can come fast and ruthlessly, and you’ve got to be astute in keeping an eye on what consumers are doing. In stark contrast to a decade ago, consumers are driving change, and end user experience will drive the dollars. And finally, he said the rules are now different – only the most nimble players will set the stage – he cited Obama’s success in the US presidential campaigns down to his relentless use of social media compared with Romney’s primarily TV-based campaign.

Other speakers last night Mike Hutcheson, executive director of the Image Centre Group, Steve Simms, co-founder of Tomizone and Jeff Hazell, business propositions manager at Vodafone, all proclaiming the imminent move of society to a completely mobile world and the necessarily creative advertising opportunities that this will bring.

Co-founder of Tomizone Steve Simms spoke about the smarter ways marketers are interacting with consumers. Vending machines can be interconnected with advertising systems, through display screens offering downloadable content. Airports are using free wi-fi to create personalised ads for users. And in the future, everything will be done in a mobile world.

Jeff Hazell, business propositions manager at Vodafone, said communication is changing beyond recognition. Today’s consumer, ensconced in a mobile world, is more impatient, more informal and more aware of choice. The impact on business is that it has turned it upside down – forget bookstores and CD stores, the new imperative is to go mobile with web-based content.

Ngage’s brand new app, BOXT, was also launched at the event. The app is both a powerful tool for marketers and consumers – location-based technology connects users to the retailers they see around them, in the moment.

About Ngage Media
Ngage Media is a full service digital company that provides turnkey solutions to a wide range of clients across New Zealand and Australia.

As the digitization of media continually redefines the business of marketing, it is ad:tech’s mission to provide brand advertisers, agencies, portals, online publishers and technology providers an unparalleled forum – one that supports the exchange of ideas, experiences, new practices, emerging models and expert opinion. That’s why every ad:tech conference features a balanced blend of:

-Keynote speakers sharing frontline experiences and an executive level perspective
-Expert-led session discussions focusing on best practices and opportunities
-Hands-on workshops delivering immediate, take-away value

Advanced Video Integration: Making TV, YouTube, DOOH & More Work Together

Key Takeaways:

Understand how and when to integrate various video assets for the greatest campaign impact
Learn about the pros and cons of different video platforms from the perspective of audience and ROI
Assess whether your video strategy should include premium content, UGC, branded entertainment, or all of the above

Marketing Master:
Amber J. Lawson
Founder, Transforming the World through Comedy and Partner – The Opportunity Management Company

Presenters:

San Tong
Social Media Relationship Manager – Rubin Postaer and Associates

Paul McClay
VP, Strategy & Media – Definition 6

David Segura
CEO & Founder – Giant Media

Sanjay Manandhar
CEO – Aerva