Brands embrace 3D building projections as the next form of large-scale viral advertising

(Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. / Starcom / Muse Amsterdam)

As the sun disappears below the horizon of city center skyscrapers, buildings are lighting up with digital slogans and innovative projections. Brands have started turning heads in city-center locations with clever digital campaigns.

In May BMW launched the first interactive 3D building projection in Asia. The projection captured the attention of bewildered onlookers who stopped in their tracks to watch cars race around the exterior of the Suntec City office buildings in Singapore.

Samsung became the first company to introduce a large-scale 3D outdoor projection in the Netherlands on May 20. The 3D projection mapping installation turned the face of Amsterdam's historic Beurs van Berlage building into a giant billboard to promote their new range of LED TVs.

In June Samsung took the concept further by integrating the projection and 3D graphics into a complete "game-take-over" on YouTube, bringing the 3D content to life on users' computer screens.

HighestFive Men's Magazine put together a selection of some the craziest building projection projects on their website. The artworks include Robert Lepage's massive 100 ft x2000 ft "Image Mill," UrbanScreen.com's interactive Pinwall and The Electric Canvas's Sydney Opera House Luminous projection.

Alcohol brand Absolut has chosen to stick to non-digital art forms with its current Wallpaper advertising campaign and has started re-inventing cities with "urban wallpaper" - large-scale artworks created on buildings around the city. Absolut's current "poster boy," American pop artist Ron English, is re-interpreting buildings in Rome and Milan from June to October 2010.

BMW's interactive 3D Building Projection: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm9yb1w7-Lc

Samsung's 3D Outdoor-Projection: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOM8_2Wbkbs

Samsung's 3D YouTube Game: http://www.youtube.com/Samsung3devent

HighestFive Men's Magazine's craziest building projection projects: http://www.highestfive.com/science/6-crazy-building-projection-projects/

Absolut Wallpaper: http://www.absolutwallpaper.com/who.html