On Thursday 8th September we announced our Series C funding found at the New York roadshow of our co-lead investor, Molten Ventures. It was also a day of creative World firsts as we created the first ever anamorphic billboard on the NASDAQ wall in Times Square.

The opportunity to feature on one of the world’s most iconic ad placements came as part of Molten Ventures Portfolio Roadshow. The firm secured the billboard to showcase a series of ads that championed 22 of their latest start-up investments.

It’s all about the creative sweet-spot

Anamorphic billboards are a novel type of advertising that give the illusion of a 3D scene. The illusion is created by designing and viewing content from a predefined ‘sweet-spot’ that ensures the perspective and 3D is true to the real world around it.

Those of you not familiar with the eight-story cylindrical NASDAQ tower -it’s peppered with 26 office windows which means the overlaid digital advert needs to work even harder!

Not only should the creative be fit-for-purpose – capturing anamorphic video in all its glory comes with a set of tricky considerations. This is why we leaned on the creative team at Make Associates to capture our moment on the wall!

“We loved the idea of using the windows to create an aerial cityscape, and plotting precise, choreographed journeys within it – but bringing this to life as an anamorphic projection wasn’t without its challenges. With no physical measurements of the building or exact screen location, we had to find an entirely new approach to bring this idea to life. We ran a shoot in Times Square and used photogrammetry to combine shots of the screen from a multitude of known locations. With some clever maths that took factors like focal length and lens distortion into account we were able to accurately plot the physical size and position of the screen to achieve this breathtaking effect.” – James Sparkes, Creative Director, Make Associates

Featured image: Darren Buckle (COO), Ramsey Faragher (Founder & President) & Scott Pomerantz (CEO)

If you’d like to talk with our creative team, please contact us via our website.