msnbc.com digital café

If I say studio tour to anyone who has watched the hit television series 30 Rock, they’ll immediately recall the character Kenneth, the NBC Page. Jack McBrayer’s memorable portrayal of Kenneth is hard to forget. How many of you have been on an actual tour of the NBC studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City? The real-life tours start at the NBC Experience Store and finish at the msnbc.com digital café.

That is where you'll find Microsoft Surface, entertaining visitors with a variety of engaging applications. We recently caught up with Catherine Captain, Vice President of Marketing at the Msnbc Digital Network, to talk about what they're doing with Surface in the café.

Why did you choose to utilize Surface? What experience were you trying to achieve?

[Catherine Captain] The entire concept behind the msnbc.com digital café is to bring news to life in an immersive brand experience.  We looked for innovative ways to make that happen that have a “wow” factor while still emphasizing our brand.  Surface fit the bill perfectly with the NewsReader application featuring all of our content in text, photo and video.

Can you give us a brief summary of the applications you are using and need they meet for the Café?

[Catherine Captain] We want our guests at the café to experience msnbc.com on Surface via the NewsReader application.

Have you seen any positive business results come from your Surface deployment?

[Catherine Captain] There are literally thousands and thousands of daily visitors in the msnbc.com digital café at 30 Rockefeller Center.  All the tours of the NBC studios end in the café.  We recently upgraded the space and deployed the Surface units.  We know how well Surface fits with our interactive theme by the reactions we get!

What types of reactions have you seen to customers using Surface?

[Catherine Captain] Guests at the msnbc.com digital café LOVE the Surface units.  They are fascinated and engage instantly. We can rarely even see them because there are so many people crowding around to watch and touch.  I’ve even seen people take photos of the units.

Would msnbc.com ever consider deploying Surface in any other locations?

[Catherine Captain] We’d love to have more.  The NewsReader app is an amazing one and is really an innovative and fun way to consume (and share) news.  It’s a perfect fit.  We’d love to have a “traveling” unit that could live in ad agency lobbies for a month at a time and tour around to strategic clients.  We’d love to see them in airport lounges too.  The possibilities are endless and we’d love to partner with Surface and explore.

- Eric (follow Surface on Twitter and Facebook)

Comments

• Anonymous
  October 18, 2010
  You need to go to Internet Free Press and read what I have to say.