Scramble originates from the world-famous Scramble crosswalk in Tokyo’s Shibuya that we pass by almost everyday.
Here 500,000 people per day (circa pre-pandemic) cross paths in a seemingly chaotic yet ultimately elegant free-for-all, each one choosing their path, more or less straight, yet rarely colliding with another walker.
We like to think of it as a metaphor for how communication happens with Scramble TV. There are lots of messages and intended recipients, and somehow it all seamlessly works in a very efficient way.
BTW, we think of other signage systems more like a deserted road with a cross walk signal and one person waiting for walk signal to come on even though there is no traffic.
Look at digital signage you see around…
• on the typical Ad board: Ad, Ad, News, Ad, Ad, Weather, Ad, Ad, Station ID
• in a quick service restaurant: Menu, Menu, Menu, Upsell item,
• in a apparel chain: Runway model, Runway model, Sale date
Now look at your social media timelines.
It’s a big mess, but somehow it works.
Give us more variety!
We can handle it!
Let more people control their own messaging.
Remove the central control.
It will work much better.
It’s also much more sustainable.
If traditional digital signage is an SUV (resource intensive, used of one org’s messaging), then Scramble TV is public transport, with messages scrambling on and off, getting where they need to go most efficiently.
That’s the philosophy behind Scramble.