Google is taking over Times Square in New York with a massive marketing message that is the largest electronic billboard ever installed in Times Square.
The billboard will be used to promote Android, Chrome and the Nexus devices and is over 25,000 square feet in size, spanning an entire block.
Not only is the billboard huge, but it's also dense. It has a pixel density of 2,368 x 10,048, exceeding the resolution of a 4K display by a whopping 15 million pixels. It is made by Mitsubishi Electric.
"This is the largest billboard on Broadway ever," said a Clear Channel spokesperson. "[And] the largest digital billboard in North America."
The billboard, which went live Monday, will feature an interactive Android game that the public can play lets passers-by create custom Androidify characters made into T-shirts and postcards.
Users can create their own Anroidify characters, which could end up on the billboard at some point. The company hopes to show 25,000 of these Androidify characters each day. Google will also be donating screen time to nonprofit organizations such as Charity Water and the World Wide Fund.
Google has not disclosed the amount it paid for the massive advertisement, but average billboard rates in Times Square can go for as high as $4 million per year. Google will have exclusive rights to the billboard until Jan. 31, and it was purchased partly to promote its Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions.
Google has a number of new products to promote this year. The company recently unveiled its 2014 lineup of Nexus products, including the Nexus 6 phablet, Nexus 9 tablet and the Nexus Player, which is its attempt to enter the living room after failing to do so with the Nexus Q, which was largely a flop.
The company is also in the process of releasing the Android 5.0 Lollipop mobile operating system, which the new billboard is also being used to promote. Android 5.0 Lollipop includes a number of new features, most notably design changes that are more in line with the companies new "material design" philosophy. The operating system also has improved privacy features, such as data encryption being turned on by default, rather than being turned off by default as it has been in previous iterations of Android.
The billboard is located on Broadway between 45th Street and 46th Streets, and simply cannot be missed. While it is unclear exactly how much the company is paying for the billboard, it is highly likely that it is not paying the full rate.
