READER SERVICES

Company projects some positive images

By ALEX PHILIPPIDIS

Daniel C. Maffeo has caught a few sets of eyes -- namely those of some big-name clients -- in the two years since he began selling businesses on using holograms to draw attention to clients' retail displays.

Last week Maffeo's HolograFX Inc. brought its three-dimensional electronic image technology to its first trade show. GlobalShop 2006, held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., featured HolograFX among more than 900 exhibitors focused on in-store point-of-purchase displays, a roster that included retailers, consumer goods companies and Westchester-based corporate giants like IBM Corp. and PepsiCo Inc.

HollograFX is also expecting to turn a few more heads through its first-ever advertisement, in the new issue of the industry publication POP Times.

"Our technology has sort of a 'Wow' factor to it and gets people to stop and stare at whatever images are projecting out in midair. It was the perfect show for us to do our first trade show," Maffeo said.

Over the winter, HolograFX entertained moviegoers at Regal Cinemas' 18-screen theater within New Rochelle's New Roc City complex, with its display for cable music channel VH1. The display showed "Mr. 3D" and other characters appearing to burst from a logo for VHI's popular nostalgia series "I Love the '80s."

And when "Superman Returns" hits the nation's movie screens in May, logos and images associated with Pepsi-Cola and the Man of Steel will be shown pouring out of Pepsi-Cola cans at supermarket displays in Ohio.

Maffeo, 52, had just launched Valhalla-based 5-D Vision Technologies Inc. following nearly 20 years at Fuji Photo Film U.S.A. Inc. when he was FastLane's first profile subject (March 1, 2004). 5-D Vision drew some interest from casino operator MGM Mirage Group but failed to sign up any clients. Just a few months later, he left 5-D for reasons he won't detail and the company folded.

He thought briefly of returning to corporate life, before publicly traded Entertainment Arts Inc. contacted Maffeo and offered him the job of running a new company centered on the holographic technology, which it owned. Entertainment Arts eventually sold its patent to HolograFX.

"We sort of moved up from where 5-D was. That was very early stage, and now we've improved the technology dramatically and thank goodness we finally have revenues and have some major clients," Maffeo said.

Revenues, he says, are "over a half a million dollars," declining to be more specific.

In addition to Somers-based Pepsi and VH1, HolograFX's clients include cereal giant Kellogg Co. and NASA. For Kellogg, HolograFX created images of the cereal's cartoon mascots, CinnaMon and nemesis Bad Apple projected out of 6-foot-tall boxes of Apple Jacks displayed at 40 Regal theaters outside Westchester. It was among the last public appearances for Bad Apple, which Kellogg pulled in February after nutrition groups complained that it discouraged youths from eating apples and other fruits.

For the space agency, Maffeo's company is creating images of two floating astronauts talking to each other and passers-by from a spaceship mockup to be displayed at industry trade shows, under a one-year contract just signed.

Maffeo said HolograFX is now looking to garner between $2 million and $3 million in second-phase capital. The company has asked for help from the Westchester Business Accelerator L.L.C. (www.wba.bz), which assists early stage businesses.

"We have advised him in business development, strategic planning and fund raising. We will create a strategic operating plan with him which includes all phases of business. We will then assist him in his capital funding," said Jeffrey Zink, managing director/partner with the accelerator.

Headquartered in Emerson, N.J., HolograFX employs six people and had raised $1.5 million in first-round financing.