Stocks aren’t typically what most people would call “fun,” but on October 10, America’s most playful brand made its debut on the NASDAQ in a wildly fun way. With arguably the best stock symbol (PLAY), Dave & Buster’s came to Skidmore looking to make a splash on the day of its IPO. The setting: Times Square.
Companies issuing an IPO can use the digital boards on the NASDAQ Tower and the Reuters Building in Times Square to make the announcement. We eagerly set out to create an animation as fun as the brand itself, but we had some major hurdles to overcome.
The NASDAQ screen is curved and full of windows that obstruct and interfere with images.
The Reuters screen is very tall, very skinny and connected to a number of screens of various shapes and sizes.
And because a street divides the buildings, it’s challenging to connect the two.
But where there’s challenge, there’s opportunity!
Right away we knew we wanted to use these features as an asset to make it all feel intentional. The more we looked at the video wall, the more obvious it became: We needed to make it a game.
Within three weeks, we went from concept to illustration to animation, and came up with an idea that incorporated the NASDAQ windows and worked with both buildings as one cohesive unit. We used the NASDAQ screen as a giant Plinko board and the Reuters screen as a place to launch objects onto the NASDAQ screen.
Aside from creating a smart, playful animation, it was a huge win because we were the first to ever sync the screens and make them interact with each other.
Take a look at how Dave & Buster’s “launched” on NASDAQ
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