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Framestore lights up Times Square for Morgan Stanley

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The London-based visual effects shop Framestore has unveiled their latest large-scale, outdoor data visualisation project for leading investment bank Morgan Stanley. Working alongside Morgan Stanley and creative partners Bloomberg, the Labs team has created an eye-catching and innovative new content system for the LED displays at the bank’s headquarters in Times Square, New York, bringing interactive data to the thousands of people who traverse the iconic location every day.

Framestore has unveiled their latest large-scale, outdoor data visualisation project for leading investment bank Morgan Stanley in Times Square, New York

It was Framestore’s work on the Stellar Atrium Project for London Stock Exchange that caught the client’s eye, and gave the agency an edge over traditional billboard content providers. Previous projects also include work for BA, and an installation for London’s Tate, sponsored by Bloomberg. The team built a custom hardware system that would allow Morgan Stanley’s marketers and Bloomberg’s internal creative agency to efficiently create content, to display in Framestore-designed templates and graphics, combined with various data inputs and visualisations. In essence, something new for LED displays of this kind.

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Of course, few locations in the world offer the iconic eminence Times Square. Famous for its dazzling LED advertising, so the opportunity to refresh the displays at Morgan Stanley’s headquarters was an exciting challenge for Framestore’s Labs team, led by Director Robin Carlisle and Producer Jonny Dixon, who said of the project: “Morgan Stanley was looking for a creative partner to work alongside Bloomberg to deliver something new for their LED screens. Their previous set-up had been in place for over 20 years, and although the amber ticker was well-known, the technology didn’t allow them to deliver fresh and compelling content. In Times Square especially, there is a need to stay fresh and relevant.”

The visuals feature Morgan Stanley’s recently launched “Capital Creates Change” ad campaign, insights from the company’s latest Research Blue Papers, and stories about community impact initiatives like the firm’s Healthy Cities initiative. The space is unusual (seven screens, of different aspect ratios and resolutions), but the agency really made it work for them by using the different screens to visualise different kinds of images and data. Of the challenging brief, director Robin Carlisle added: “We knew we had to offer something innovative. The financial sector is an interesting area for us, because, on the face of it, these are not traditionally creative companies. We found that Morgan Stanley were very open to ideas and were very clear on what the company stands for.”

Framestore’s work on the Stellar Atrium Project for London Stock Exchange caught the client’s eye, and gave the agency an edge over traditional billboard content providers

Of course, Morgan Stanley, being an investment bank working at the centre of global financial markets, also wanted the ability to display updated data at all times. Dixon said: “The feeds, the data input, additional inputs via a CMS – these were simply not possible with the older systems. We’re moving more into content creation here, integrating corporate videos with dynamic content driven by real-time data. The ease of access to interface with the system is key The Commodities visualisations, in particular, demonstrate the progression from amber ticker to dynamic content system. Kicking off with oil, gold and corn, the screens will show price fluctuations for tangible goods, bringing the meaning of the markets to a wider audience.”

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The Labs team worked closely with Bloomberg’s creative team to maximise use of the format. The launch marks the beginning of an ongoing workflow between Framestore, Morgan Stanley and Bloomberg, who will continue to work closely together to mould and adapt the content used on the LED screens. Dixon added excitedly: “Previously, the only home for this type of content would have been website. Now, it’s got a new stage.” And what an impressive stage it is too!

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