Ask HN: I have 8 months of video advertising in Japan. Ideas on what to display?

I would say do something that either a) becomes an integral part of people's day. Something they look forward to seeing every day. Who knows. That could be as simple as inspirational quotes to some gimmick that people will love. Or b) something cryptic. A puzzle like someone else mentioned. One that that's a lot of people involved and creates a lot of buzz. I am not sure what your resources are like but perhaps you could offer a prize at the end. That will have the added benefit of creating some buzz for your company if you so choose to brand yourself with this. Have some fun with this. You could always sell the space but if you're intent on avoiding that then I commend you and wish I was in your position because you could definitely do something awesome with this opportunity.

I'd sell it. You could probably get a couple hundred per day, more if you really pushed it.

Display a different computer error every day.

Bonus points for the most archaic programs' error screens.

There are (roughly) 192 countries in the world.

It's a bit of an effort, but you could find an interesting fact[1] about each one, overlay on a creative commons photos from that country (or the national flag; or a map), and share the rest of the world with daily commuters. You'll even have a few days left at the end - maybe add a similar concept for each Japanese Prefecture.

[1] Or some statistics. Or even some simple phrases ("Good morning"; "have a nice day") in the local language.

Either

(a) Teach a new english word each day.

(b) advertise yourself/services

(c) Read a storey

8 months = ~243 days = ~1 hour of reading you could do, maybe a public domain short story

- Create a set of puzzles

- Use each ad spot to advertise a website link

- Each website has a puzzle

- You need to solve each puzzle to get the the final answer

- The winner is the first person to fill in their details, and maybe upload a photo or video

- The last advertising spot shows that video/photo

Some self promotion might be in order. I like the idea of a "word of the day" sort of blurb, but of course with your face and website.

Otherwise, a sub-lease (so to speak) could be nice as well.

How about some wonderful cryptic set of puzzles, where you provide website links that have new puzzles they have to solve before they can continue the puzzle.

Write an app that sells 100x100 pixel blocks or animated GIFs?