Article

Recording kiosks connect fans to brands

April 6, 2011

Social networking is all the rage these days, and one company has designed a kiosk to help retailers build brand awareness by giving consumers a deeper social experience at sporting events and concerts.

The Quicken Loans Arena, which is home to the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, is also home to three of nSixty's video-recording kiosks that allow people to create videos about their experiences that can be posted to a variety of social media networks, including Facebook and Twitter.

"The fully automated video recording station is ideal for providing on-the-spot video recording functions," said Josh Blair, an account manager at nSixty.

How it works
After a consumer records his video and enters his email address, he receives a link to the video via email that he may post on Facebook, Twitter or other social media site. However, the company also offers the option to post videos directly to Facebook from the kiosk, and the videos are embedded into a client-branded microsite, Blair said.

"It's a great way to connect fans with brands," Blair said.

The kiosks help achieve brand promotion not only through expanded reach via social networking sites, but also because the machines can be fully customized with the client's visual identity. For example, The Q's kiosks are dedicated to Quicken Loans and the sports franchises that play there.

Kiosks also have a customized user interface, a call-to-action "attraction screen" that changes to match the team playing or artist performing that night or defaults to a generic arena message.

Blair said that in addition to the stand-alone video recording stations, nSixty can create any custom video recording exhibit, including video booths, custom displays, green screen attractions and large screen playback monitors.

The cost
Blair said the cost is difficult to calculate because it depends on how many recording kiosks a venue leases and how long its lease runs.

The Q has leased the kiosks for a month, while the Cincinnati Reds leased similar machines for nine months. Retailers may also rent the machines for one-day or multiple events spread over the course of many months. If he had to put a number on it, Blair said $3,000-$4,000 was a fair figure.

"They can be purchased, but we’ve only had one client so far purchase a kiosk outright," he said. "The benefit of leasing them is that we can update the graphics, themes, messages, branding, attraction, each year, which is what we did with the Reds."

Click here to watch a video a father and son created from The Q's recording kiosks to post on their Facebook pages.