Pedestrians can now explore the culture of major European cities before ever boarding an actual train.
Thalys train company released “Sounds of the City,” which features a series of interactive audio map billboards in Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam that provide consumers with a unique sensory experience. The billboards house maps of the three cities with audio jacks dispersed throughout various areas and neighborhoods. By simply plugging their personal headphones in the billboards, consumers can instantly become immersed into the culture through over 1,000 sounds of food, markets, parks and history archives that are specific to each city.
Through this inventive take on interactive billboards, Thalys harnessed sound as an effective marketing instrument to demonstrate the sensation of travel to consumers while encouraging them to hop on a (Thalys) train and physically discover the cities themselves.