London | A retail space entirely covered in LED hits the core of experience marketing. London’s Future Stores brings this concept to life. It launched last week with a pop-up AI experience by Intel.
London’s Oxford Street has become almost saturated with digital signage in recent years. With large displays filling every shop window and interior, it is hard to imagine a concept that truly stands out. The recently opened Future Stores location attempts to do just that – offering a space that’s billed “the world’s most advanced store.”
The commercial version of Outernet
The store operates as a pop-up retail space to rent for weeks or months. Everything inside is covered with fine-pitch LED – from walls and ceilings to counters. It is modeled after London’s Outernet, the famous LED district that’s only a 5-minute walk away. But whilst Outernet mostly shows public digital art and some advertising here and there, Future Stores has a commercial focus. It gives brands a fully customizable space for product launches, promotions, or brand-building events.
Intel’s AI-fueled debut
The first brand to rent this space is Intel. The chip maker has turned it into an AI island for consumers. Inside, there are three interactive digital installations where they can try out different GenAI gimmicks: turn their faces into movie characters, find their perfect PC match with the help of an AI assistant, and be immersed in a sound chair that reacts to head movements. The LED-wrapped counter tops display the newest AI-enhanced laptops and desktops that use Intel’s chips. In another area, the company has incorporated a gaming corner. The store’s LED setup gives the entire experience an immersive aspect, showing synchronized moving animations while users test and play.
Not a single store, but a new retail concept
The concept for Future Stores comes from Ariel Haroush, founder of Outform, a U.S.-based digital signage agency known for creative and technological expertise in the retail sector. To bring his idea to life, Haroush collaborated with system integrator Mood Media. According to AV Interactive’s research, they used technology by Aoto, The AV Studio, AV Co, B-Tech AV Mounts, FXR, Green Hippo, Motion Mapping, Novastar, Pixel Ninja, and PS Co. The LED part, as AV Interactive reports, consists of 1,883 Aoto LED display panels with a pixel pitch of 1.5 mm, which use 175m Kinglight MiP0606 micro-LEDs.
Interview with Ariel Haroush
invidis’ content partner Sixteen:Nine recently did a podcast interview with Ariel Haroush where the Outform-founder also touches on his vision for Future Stores.
Haroush also has ambitions to bring Future Stores to other major cities worldwide. The London location, although located in a prime spot on Oxford Street, faces the challenge of standing out amid the surrounding bright lights and digital signage. This means brands will have to put a lot of creative work and substantial resources into the content for the LED surfaces to really draw visitors in – which only the big names are bound to do. For them, Future Stores could be an exciting opportunity for experiential marketing. But it’s up to the renter to turn it into an engaging space.
