OLSON All-Stars
A larger than life custom Instagram activation.
With the new transit plaza right next to Olson's Minneapolis headquarters, baseball fans from all over the US and Canada had a new place to congregate before and after one of the Major League Baseball’s biggest events of the year, and Minneapolis’ crown jewel of summer activities. This massive Instagram projection app was created as a way for Olson to get in on the excitement surrounding the 2014 All-Star Game.
I was approached to come up with something we could project into exterior windows around the building. My solution was something that tied in to Olson’s tag line of “Revolutionizing Engagement”. Using 10 HD projectors run by 5 PC’s “borrowed” from agency conference rooms, I created a giant Instagram app that spanned across ten 18-foot windows. Fan-tagged photos animated around two sides of the building mixed in with Olson branding.
We took over the 6th floor windows on the south and east side of Olson’s building, the Ford Center at 420 N 5th Street in Minneapolis, to project images during the All Star Home Run Derby on July 14, 2014 and All Star Game on July 15. Through the use of Instagram, fans were able to post their fan photos with the hashtag #OlsonASW which then displayed at regular intervals on the projection screens. Approved fan photos were animated onto the display.
The display consisted of ten 18-foot windows, with 10 HD projectors. Through the use of sockets we were able to control all 5 display workstations from a central ‘master’ computer. It started simple enough. A few bedsheets on a window. After being told that there was an idea to project ‘something’ on to the windows for the all-star game, we began brainstorming some sort of display piece that could make use of all 10 windows. Given that Olson’s slogan is “Revolutionizing Engagement”, it was critical that there was an interactive piece to this. Within two weeks, a custom AIR application to connect to web services and a local network drive to move the approved photos through to the windows.
