Korean media firm d’strict creates digital waves, and new business models

d'strict digital wave
Photo courtesy d'strict

A giant wave is the latest installation on the LED facade of South Korea’s largest digital billboard, the SMTown Coex Artium, a high-definition outdoor advertising screen that measures 80 metres by 23 metres. 

The realistic one-minute digital art installation features crashing waves in an anamorphic illusion that makes the two-dimensional wraparound display appear like a 3D tank. The project was designed by local firm d’strict, a digital media tech company that specialises in immersive content for advertising, entertainment, education and art marketing. This the latest addition to its portfolio, which includes commercial work and outdoor installations for clients such as Samsung and LG. 

“We want to create overwhelming experiences,” explained Jun Lee, Business Development Director at d’strict. “We’ve produced a lot of content other than advertisements on public media LED screens of various sizes and shapes, such as in office lobbies, shopping malls, hotels and theme parks.” 

He explains that property owners with outdoor public media (known as digital-out-of-the-home or DOOH) usually make money through advertising, but not always by showing advertising content. Rather than advertising on such buildings, companies can, for example, sponsor an art installation to deliver a more subtle message. 

To facilitate this the company is producing innovative content that it licenses for display in public spaces – a model known as IP licensing. This allows licensees to display the content in a limited space for a limited time. D’strict aims to create a library of such content for outdoor public media, arguing that this enables high-quality content to be displayed at a lower cost, because it is reusable rather than custom built. 

“We aim to develop numerous attractive visual content that can be licensed into any size and shape of the public media screen consistently,” Lee stated.

The company is not only developing innovative content for both indoor and outdoor spaces, but is also at the forefront of developing new business models for this type of media. The appeal of which is underlined by the fact that d’strict is planning to launch an art and technology indoor theme park on Jeju Island, featuring a holographic theatre amongst other anamorphic spaces, this summer.

As telecoms firms wonder how to make money out of 5G and full fibre networks, companies such as d’strict point to new business models that include innovative art installations and augmented reality for entertainment, education and next-generation advertising. The challenge for service providers is to partner with content creators to enable dynamic and immersive content experiences such as those provided by d’strict.

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