by Sarah Huffman
12.5.23
“Beyond the Jumbotron” covers Giglio’s experience as an entrepreneur, his Old City-based AR tech and mixed media marketing firm’s work, and lessons learned.
For James Giglio, writing his first book was an opportunity to reflect on his career and industry.
In “Beyond the Jumbotron: Creating Fan Experiences Through Immersive Technology,” released in October, the CEO and founder of MVP Interactive discusses the ups and downs of founding a company, notable past projects, and the ways technology has impacted the marketing and advertising industry.
The idea for the book came last April when he spoke at a sports business class at American University about entrepreneurship. The final assignment for that class was to create a brand activation. Giglio, who founded the Old City-based AR tech and mixed media marketing firm in 2012, didn’t know until then that the work MVP Interactive does is included in curriculum for business classes.
“I love speaking to younger audiences and sort of sharing some knowledge, and so I just felt really inspired that maybe our story could be valuable not only to marketing professionals, but students [who] are thinking about getting into this business,” Giglio told Technical.ly.
So Giglio decided to write a book to share MVP Interactive’s story. He thought it could be interesting to a variety of people, from entrepreneurs to technologists to marketing students to sports fans, just to name a few.
“Beyond the Jumbotron” describes what inspired Giglio to start a company, his experience as an entrepreneur and the growth of the company. It also highlights some of MVP Interactive’s big projects and discusses the evolution of the marketing and advertising industries. (Remember this digital mural created for the Tennessee Titans?)
The book also covers the role technology plays in those industries and how it connects brands with consumers. In terms of immersive technologies, Giglio said brands didn’t have as much of a presence at live events in the ‘80s and ‘90s as they do now. Communication between brands and audiences then was one-sided, with brands trying to get people to pay attention to them through tactics like promotional merch.
“What technology allows is more of a frictionless communication between a fan or a consumer and a brand, whereas technology’s influence on that really brings in fans or consumers to participate with a unique experience leveraging technology that they wouldn’t normally have access to,” Giglio said.
For example, virtual reality was not accessible to the average consumer when it first came out. At that time, brands could offer consumers that experience in exchange for sharing information about their company or getting their name and email.
“Beyond the Jumbotron” has an AR feature on the cover where users can scan a QR code and see a virtual version of Giglio, who introduces the book.
The book can be purchased on Amazon or any other North American book retailer.Sarah Huffman is a 2022-2023 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.
COMPANIES: MVP INTERACTIVE
