Written by David Little
Monday, 12 May 2008
So,
you've decided your business or institution will be well served by adding a new
digital signage network. Now what?
Where to
turn and what to do can be confusing, especially if you're responsible for your
organization's communications or IT department, but don't really know anything
about a digital sign. While there are many good companies in business to help
you achieve your goals, you can make the endeavor easier and far more
successful if you avoid the problems many before you have encountered when rolling
out and maintaining their digital signage networks.
Having worked
with hundreds of customers on their digital signage needs, we've seen a lot of difficulties
that could easily have been avoided -along with the associated delays and added
expense- with a little knowledge up front. As the saying goes, forewarned is
forearmed. So, keep these Top 10 Digital Signage Pitfalls in mind as you plan
your new digital signage network to make the experience smooth and rewarding.
No. 1: Lack of a clear purpose
Someone
in your organization, has read digital signage can make marketing messaging
more effective. It can reach potential customers at the point of purchase,
promote desired behavior, target different demographic groups associated with
different times of the day, and do so many wonderful things.
But what
exactly does your organization need to accomplish with digital signage? That's
the seminal question. Without clearly defining the purpose of a digital signage
network, it is impossible to find success in any phase of its deployment or
use.
Taking
the time up front to define the expectations for the system and write them out
on paper for the approval of key management will provide direction and focus
effort on attainable goals. Struggling to fulfill a nebulous purpose for the
digital signage network will rack up unnecessary expense and leave everyone
connected with the project frustrated.
No. 2: Taking on digital signage
as an IT project
"Digital
signage network," the very words sound IT oriented. While there's a lot of IT
technology involved with digital signage, taking on a digital signage network
as an IT project is dangerous.
While
highly skilled, the typical IT manager does not have the background nor the
experience needed to roll out a successful digital signage network. There's a
powerful temptation on the part of IT managers to look at digital signage
playback as if it were a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. It isn't.
PowerPoint
does an excellent job at making business presentations, but how many TV
stations rely on PowerPoint to create and playback the programs, commercials,
news and promotions you see nightly? Exactly zero. With respect to playing back
video, graphics, text and animation, layering multiple visual elements and
building and maintaining a playout schedule, a digital signage network is much
more like a TV station than a boardroom with a projector and a PowerPoint
presentation. Keep that in mind if an IT manager volunteers to take on your
organization's digital signage project.
No. 3: Lack of content
Congratulations.
You have a digital signage network. What are you going to display? Having a
digital signage network without content is like having a newspaper without
print. There's just a whole lot of nothing and overwhelming sense of emptiness.
Communicating
in some form must be part of the reason behind the decision to add a digital
signage network. However, there is no communication without content.
Fortunately, many organizations have existing resources to draw upon that can
be repurposed as digital signage content. Logos, commercials, promotional
video, print advertising, plans and drawings can all be reused in whole or part
to communicate a message on a digital signage network.
Additionally,
RSS Internet feeds are a tremendous resource for updating a digital signage
network with fresh "newsy" content, weather and sports scores that can give an
audience a reason to take a second or third look.
Regardless
of where it comes from, content is critical to the success of a digital signage
network. Knowing where it will come from is as important as actually having the
digital signage network in place.
No. 4: No one assigned to manage
the project
While
it's not like designing the International Space Station, putting a digital
signage network in place can be a complex undertaking. For that reason, it's
essential that any business or organization taking on a digital signage network
assign someone to manage the project. Having an individual identified to own
the project will minimize the impact of the unforeseen problems that inevitably
creep into any complex undertaking.
Just as
bad as having no one assigned to manage the project is its closely related
cousin: management by committee. Offering up conflicting directions from
multiple individuals will leave your system integrator bewildered and your
project incomplete.
No. 5: No one to update content
While RSS
feeds and subscriptions to news wire services are two sources of fresh
information for a digital signage network, where will updated content conveying
your company's specific messages and current offerings come from?
A digital
signage network that attracts attention has an insatiable appetite for fresh
content. Thus, it's essential that an organization taking on a digital signage
network assign a qualified, competent person to the task of creating that
content. Without someone in charge of the network's content, the text, graphics
and video being displayed will soon grow tired. Stale content will have the
opposite of the desired result for a digital sign. It actually will drive
viewers away and impart a sense of "been there, done that" that will be
difficult to reverse.
No. 6: Taking the cheap way out
There's
nothing wrong with being budget conscious about a digital signage installation;
however, selecting products, including displays, controllers and software, and
services like content creation solely on their price tag can result in a system
that in the long wrong will cost an organization dearly.
Systems
designed solely on the price of the component miss the point. Digital signage
networks are about communicating information -perhaps a marketing message, maps
and directions or instructions- to their intended audience. Spending money on
an inexpensive system just because it's cheap could cost a business or
organization far more than the money saved in lost opportunities.
No. 7: Not knowing the locations
of the signs
Knowing
where your organization wants to locate the flat panel monitors in its digital
signage network is important for a few reasons. First, locating the digital
signage content players needed depends on where the sign or signs it's
controlling are located. The length of cable runs between player and sign must
be taken into account. Clearly defining the location of the signs will allow
you to minimize construction/renovation expense and avoid paying for "do
overs."
Second,
understanding exactly where the signs will be positioned will make it easier to
understand what will be needed to mount the flat panels in use. Are wall studs
available where a sign will be located? Or, will a freestanding structure be
required? What's the condition of the wall studs? Is electrical power
available? What's the status of ambient light sources? Will a window or
skylight need to be shaded to reduce glare?
Third,
not knowing where the signs need to located may be a symptom of a bigger
problem, namely not having a clear idea about the purpose of the digital
signage installation.
No. 8: Installers without general
contractor capability
Installing
digital signage can be messy. Drywall and plaster may need to be cut. New
electrical plugs with isolated grounds may need to be installed. Beyond those
obvious construction challenges, less apparent structural modifications may be
required. Those can vary from relocating HVAC ducts to re-enforcing walls.
For that
reason, choosing a digital signage installer without the skill and experience
to serve as a general contractor for the project can be a big mistake.
Depending on the specific installation, it's not unreasonable to assume
carpenters, electricians, plumbers and even heating and cooling contractors
might need to be involved to make necessary structural modifications. Having an
installer who can serve as a general contractor to bring those diverse
resources together and manage them properly can save lots of time and
expense.
No. 9: Failing to allot adequate
time to learn the system
Far too
often, the people responsible for new digital signage installations at
businesses or organizations are so excited about their systems that they can't
wait to show them off to upper management. After all, a significant sum of
money went in to making the digital signage network a reality. So showing it
off as soon as possible only seems natural.
However,
creating content for a digital signage system, scheduling it and making changes
to playback along the way require some skill. It takes time to be properly
trained to use a digital signage network. Failing to allocate sufficient time
to learn how to use the system not only could be embarrassing in front of
management, but disastrous to your communications efforts with the general
public, if they're your first audience.
No. 10: Failing to keep future
expansion in mind at the time of initial design
Designing
yourself into a box when first contemplating a digital signage network can be
costly. Without casting an eye towards future needs, it's possible that
portions of the network might need replacement before they've been amortized to
accommodate expansion.
Without
exception, experience shows that businesses and organizations that fund the
addition of digital signage networks express interest in expanding their
systems after they're installed.
There you have it, the Top 10 Digital Signage
Pitfalls. Take these lessons to heart as you proceed with your digital signage
rollout, and you're much more likely to have a successful experience. More importantly,
your company or institution will avoid costly mistakes that will delay the installation
and prevent your communications from having their desired effect.
About the author
David Little is a digital signage enthusiast with 20 years
of experience helping professionals use technology to more effectively
communicate their unique marketing messages. He is the director of marketing
for Keywest Technology in Lenexa,
KS, a software development
company specializing in systems for digital signage creation, scheduling,
management and playback. For further digital signage insight from Keywest
Technology download our Six
Basic Digital Signage
Applications white paper; subscribe to our digital signage RSS feed
that gives a diverse perspective on digital signage from
experts around the world; join our weekly digital
signage software Webinar; and sign up for our Keywest Update news
brief.
|
Written by David Little
Friday, 25 April 2008
Successful digital signage
communication demands content that meets an audience’s expectations.
Whether
it's suspended from the ceiling of a retail store, positioned near a gate in an
airport terminal, or stationed in a hotel lobby, a digital sign has one basic
function: to communicate.
Clearly,
the types of communication -informational, promotional or advertising-related-
are unique and different. What's the same is the expectation of the person
responsible for the digital sign that it will convey a bit of information to
its intended audience. All other expectations for the sign -like connecting
emotionally with a viewer, branding a store or a product, or promoting a
specific product or offer- are built on this single foundation.
However,
identifying the core function of a digital sign is quite a bit easier than
actually executing that function. Why? Simply stated it is because digital
signs exist in a media milieu that inundates, saturates and dominates the
comings and goings of the public as it attends to its daily affairs. In other
words, a digital sign has to compete with hundreds of other messages bombarding
its audience throughout the day, cut through the noise and connect -even for
one brief moment- with its audience just to deliver a few bits of information.
Granted,
if that information is something a member of the intended audience is seeking
out -such as directions or information to confirm what's going on in a specific
conference room- making that connection will be much easier. But if the goal is
to promote or advertise a service or product that passersby are only mildly
interested in -or even worse- unaware of, making that connection to communicate
becomes a more difficult challenge.
Fortunately,
the tools and expertise to communicate with text, graphics, animation and video
are widely available, relatively affordable and well understood. With 60-plus
years of television under the nation's belt, both those imparting information
with video and those receiving that communication have a long track record of
communicating via TV.
Without
question, digital signs aren't television, but they're about as close as one
can get to TV without mounting an antenna to a tower and firing up a transmitter.
As a result, digital signage communicators can use the common elements digital
signs share with television to present their messages in a visual shorthand that
anyone who watches TV understands.
It is
worth mentioning, however, that the visual shorthand of television is in flux.
The old nearly square picture tube that dominated the living rooms of America
for the past six decades is giving way to the wider, clearer flat panel display
that's capturing a growing share of the home TV market. In fact, that latest
survey from Frank N. Magid Associates finds that 25 percent of U.S.
television households now own HDTVs. That's 28 million dwellings in the United States
where television viewing is done on a sharp, wide television screen.
The same
survey found that the pace at which younger adults -ages 21 to 34- are buying
HDTVs has quickened. It also found 28 percent of those buyers purchased an HDTV
to connect the high definition set to a game console, such as a Sony
PlayStation 3 or Microsoft Xbox 360.
The
growth of U.S.
HDTV households in general and the significant number of younger adults
connecting them to a game console speaks to other side of the digital signage
expectation equation: specifically what the digital signage audience expects.
Those
responsible for digital signage content must take into account that their
audience is developing an increasingly sophisticated visual appetite. Where
standard definition video was once the cost of admission into the video game,
high definition video will soon become the base line. Where organization of
content on a relatively square, relatively low-resolution screen dominated TV,
digital signage content increasingly will be organized into zones on a
high-resolution, rectangular screen.
And
finally, where rather artificial representations of reality once dominated TV animation, true-to-life-looking animated
elements are quickly becoming the norm. Given the Magid finding related to how
many young adults are buying HDTVs to connect to a game console coupled with
the stunning, life-like animation that's common in video games like Madden NFL
08 from EA Sports, it's clear the bar is being raised dramatically.
None of
this is to say that digital signage content producers must hirer teams of
digital cinematographers and 3-D artists. Rather, it's only a reminder of where
the visual tastes of digital signage audiences in this country are headed.
Keeping the viewer's expectations foremost in mind while creating digital
signage content is the first step to realizing the only reasonable expectation
a digital signage user can have: namely, to communicate.
About the author
David Little is a digital signage enthusiast with 20 years
of experience helping professionals use technology to more effectively
communicate their unique marketing messages. He is the director of marketing
for Keywest Technology in Lenexa,
KS, a software development
company specializing in systems for digital signage creation, scheduling,
management and playback. For further digital signage insight from Keywest
Technology download our Six
Basic Digital Signage
Applications white paper; subscribe to our digital signage RSS feed
that gives a diverse perspective on digital signage from
experts around the world; join our weekly digital
signage software Webinar; and sign up for our Keywest Update news
brief.
|
Written by David Little
Monday, 07 April 2008
New
flexible active matrix displays promise to change the shape of digital signage.
Research firm iSuppli boldly proclaimed last month
that 2008 will be known as the year flexible active matrix displays coalesced
into a global market.
According to the El Segundo, CA, -based market
research group, market for flexible displays worldwide will climb from $80
million last year to $2.8 billion by 2013 -a whopping 35-times increase.
Applications for the flexible displays will range
from the way-out-there clothes made out of wearable displays to more
conventional display applications like digital signs, electronic display cards
and digital shelf labels and end caps.
If you're not familiar with flexible active matrix
technology, here's what they are in a nutshell. After much research and
development, electronics giant Philips developed a technique for producing
super-thin, rollable active matrix (i.e. pixel addressable) display that can be
wrapped around objects --for example, a pillar in an airport concourse or a
human body in a shirt.
Just this month, a paper in a nanotechnology journal
laid out work of researchers at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN,
Northwestern University in Chicago and the University of Southern California
who had successfully developed the first nanowire transistor-based active
matrix display. The organic light emitting diode (OLED) display reportedly is
every bit as bright as a flat LCD screen or CRT but has the added benefit of
flexibility.
Think for a moment of the countless new applications
there will be for digital signage based on this sort of flexible display.
Architectural structures, such as pillars, supports and hand rails and even
entire buildings; vehicles, such as tractor trailers and automobiles; personal
items, such as apparel and umbrellas, all become potential homes for new
flexible digital signage. While some surely will fail as appropriate homes form
digital signage along the way, these sorts of applications are sure to
contribute to the 35-fold growth iSuppli envisions.
As this technology matures so to will its
performance characteristics. Tighter curves and smaller bends surely will
follow with successive generations of these flexible displays. That in turn
will lead to a whole new class of objects upon which the displays can be
mounted. Eventually, it might even be possible to wrap a flexible active matrix
display around a sphere to transform a ball into a globe displaying a computer
graphic representation of the Earth -complete with landmasses and oceans. Or,
21st century equivalents of sandwich-board men, could don
head-to-toe body wear to display unique promotions and ads. Imagine how that
approach could be used to advertise the popular, traveling museum exhibit of
plasticized human bodies.
As these applications unfold, there will be a need
to address the problem of mapping a two-dimensional image onto a 3-D surface.
Here too technology can conquer the challenge. Software applications, such as
X-WARP, exist today to correct for such geometric distortions. In fact, such
software is being used today to correct geometric distortions created by
projecting an image with a video projector onto oddly shaped objects.
However, for the time
being it's enough to know that 2008 will be the year flexible active-matrix
displays make it out of the lab and into the mainstream. If iSuppli is right,
it's entirely possible that before the end of this year we all will have
wrapped our heads around the notion that video, graphics and text no longer
must be confined to a flat display technology. Where that leads will only be
limited by our imaginations.
About the author
David Little is a digital signage enthusiast with 20 years
of experience helping professionals use technology to more effectively
communicate their unique marketing messages. He is the director of marketing
for Keywest Technology in Lenexa,
KS, a software development
company specializing in systems for digital signage creation, scheduling,
management and playback. For further digital signage insight from Keywest
Technology download our Six
Basic Digital Signage
Applications white paper; subscribe to our digital signage RSS feed
that gives a diverse perspective on digital signage from
experts around the world; join our weekly digital
signage software Webinar; and sign up for our Keywest Update news
brief.
|
Written by David Little
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
A new
report from research organization iSuppli identifies two significant hurdles it
says must be cleared before digital signage ad networks get respect among
advertisers and agencies. But maybe it's time to rethink the issue.
A new iSuppli report finds two significant obstacles
remain before digital signage advertising can takes its place among other bona
fide media buys by advertisers and ad agencies: a lack of variable audience measurement
techniques, and a quandary on the part of ad agencies about how to get paid for
placing digital signage ads.
The report, "Digital Signage Ecosystem
Report," by Sanju
Khatri, principal analyst for signage and professional displays for iSuppli, outlines the opportunities for
digital signage networks as well as the challenges that must be transcended
before they realize their potential.
In a press release promoting the study, iSuppli
identifies the problems and how they are related. According to the research
company, "advertising
agencies are very comfortable in the traditional arena of mass media and print
advertising, and are not compelled enough to insert digital signage into the
plans of their clients. More importantly, these agencies don't necessarily know
what their commission will be with digital signage."
iSuppli
goes on to explain that without an effective way to determine the number of
consumers being reached by digital signage networks there is "no effective
means" to show advertisers that the dollars they are spending on the medium are
reaping a quantifiable reward. In other words, determining the return an
advertiser can expect from an investment in advertising via digital signage
networks is currently impossible. This lack of a way to measure ROI impedes the
growth of the medium.
According
to iSuppli, those participating in the market have begun partnering with
organizations like Nielson, Arbitron and POPAI to develop metrics to make
determining ROI doable. However, there seems to be little agreement about what
exactly must be measured.
While the
lack of audience metrics and the difficulty ad agencies have in determining how
to get paid shouldn't be underestimated, there seems to be an overarching issue
at play here -one that if addressed could reshape the conversation. Specifically,
the entire notion of jamming the digital signage ad network medium into the box
used to define and sell other media -in particular television- seems a bit
misguided and stifling.
Granted,
there is an incredible temptation to lump TV and digital signage together.
After all, on the face of it -literally- they look identical. But the
differences quickly become apparent when you get past their physicality and
begin to consider much less superficial issues, such as how an audience
consumes messages each conveys, the types of information, entertainment and
commercials each display, where each physically resides and how much time
viewers spend with each.
Simply
attempting to count noses in an effort to support an ROI model built on the
60-plus year history of commercial television, seems to miss the point. Digital
signage advertising networks are a new, different medium. They deserve their
own unique formulas for determining ROI.
One
component of that equation has to be propensity of a digital signage ad network
"viewer" to actually buy something. Isn't a smaller audience with dollars in
its hands and a desire to buy something in the very near term more valuable to
advertisers than home after home of passive TV viewers who increasingly are
skipping through their commercials with a remote control and a DVR?
In terms
of the comfort level of ad agencies when it comes digital signage ad networks, who
cares? Look at what Google has done in a matter of a few short years to ad
buys. Single-handedly Google may have done more to call into question
advertising business as usual than anything that's happened in recent memory.
Perhaps
decisions about ads on digital signage networks would be better left to
corporate marketing folks with expertise in point-of-purchase promotional
displays. Certainly, that business resource has vast experience in determining
the ROI of promotional messaging at the point of purchase when compared to an
agency concerned about television.
To a certain
degree, digital signage ad networks may have themselves to blame for these
hurdles. Selling something new is often difficult, so it's understandable that
there's a powerful temptation to draw analogies with the familiar when making
their pitch to agencies. When it comes to digital signage and advertising
agencies, the familiar is naturally television. To extract itself from that
limiting, stifling box will require digital signage advertising networks to do
much more than address metrics and commissions. It will require taking control
of defining the medium as it's own, distinct entity and value.
About the author
David Little is a digital signage enthusiast with 20 years
of experience helping professionals use technology to more effectively
communicate their unique marketing messages. He is the director of marketing
for Keywest Technology in Lenexa,
KS, a software development
company specializing in systems for digital signage creation, scheduling,
management and playback. For further digital signage insight from Keywest
Technology download our Six
Basic Digital Signage
Applications white paper; subscribe to our digital signage RSS feed
that gives a diverse perspective on digital signage from
experts around the world; join our weekly digital
signage software Webinar; and sign up for our Keywest Update news
brief.
|
Written by David Little
Monday, 25 February 2008
New
high-gain screens make projection a practical solution for outdoor digital
signs.
In cities all across America, digital billboards are
springing up, bringing the benefits of instantly changeable digital graphics,
images and text, to a medium where advertising contracts were traditionally
sold for months or longer at a time.
As of January 2007, about 400 digital billboards populated
the U.S.
landscape, according to an article
in The New York Times. Quoting a
forecast from the Outdoor Advertising
Association of America, OAAA, the article reported that about 4,000 digital
billboards will be in use in 10 years.
A recent example of the use of a digital billboard
probably encapsulates the reason why they're so appealing better than a
10,000-word treatise on them ever could. Digital billboard operators in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque and Waterloo, Iowa, teamed up Jan. 3 to deliver news from the Iowa presidential
caucuses that was updated every seven to 10 minutes till the process was
complete and Senator Barak Obama and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee
were declared the winners.
Having access to that sort of immediacy on such a scale in
the outdoor advertising arena was unthinkable a few short years ago. What that
translates to on a commercial basis is the same digital sign can be used to
advertise hundreds and hundreds of products in the same day -not the same
product for months on end.
To date, the dominant display technology responsible for
these digital billboards is a particularly bright, particularly responsive
light emitting diode -LED. Just as TVs -whether their LCD or plasma flat panels
or old-fashioned cathode ray tube televisions- make pictures based on tiny
discrete picture elements called pixels, light-emitting-diode-based billboards
rely on an array of LEDs to display text, graphics and video. (Video is a major
application in stadiums; it's more doubtful how useful or safe it would be if
the intention was to communicate with drivers zipping down the interstate at 70
miles per hour.)
While highly effective, large LED signs are quite
expensive and power-hungry. A Washington
Post article last spring quoted an executive with CBS Outdoor, one of the
three largest outdoor advertising companies in the world, as saying a
14-by-48-foot LED digital billboard costs about $450,000. With that sort of
price tag, it's easy to understand why the OAAA forecasts their number to grow
to only 4,000 in 10 years while there are about 450,000 billboards across America. It's
also not too hard to imagine that full-on, high-quality video-, text- and graphic-based
LED signage may be out of reach for literally hundreds of thousands of other
outdoor signage applications.
However, there is an alternative. New high-gain projection
screens, such as the XL-A-Vision screen from AccelerOptics in Carthage, Missouri,
have the ability to reject enough ambient light -even the intense noonday sun-
to make the use of video projectors a practical, affordable alternative.
Depending on the type of configuration specified, this approach to outdoor
digital signage can cost in the tens of thousands or dollars, not several
hundred thousand dollars as with the LED-based approach.
Recently, the first major outdoor application of an
XL-A-Vision screen went online in Grants
Pass, Oregon, where the developer of a
modern office complex installed a double-sided outdoor projection-based sign
based on the high-gain screen. The 10.5-by-15-foot sign, which the building's
owner has dubbed "The Paragon," offers all of the advantages one would expect
of a digital sign, including the opportunity for ad sales to offset the cost of
the display.
However, what really drives home the point of why this
approach to outdoor digital signage is significant is the fact that the
building's owner, Consolidated Financial, did not have the budget to pay for an
LED-based digital sign. If projection-based signage made possible by a
high-gain projection screen technology had not been available, the company
would have abandoned the idea of installing an outdoor digital signage.
While the number of digital billboards using
LED-technology will climb over the next 10 years, think of how many more
applications for outdoor digital signage will be enabled by this revolutionary,
affordable approach to projection screen technology. High-gain projection
screens, like those used for The Paragon, may have as big of an impact on the
outdoor advertising landscape -if not bigger- than LED-based approaches.
About the author
David Little is a digital signage enthusiast with 20 years
of experience helping professionals use technology to more effectively
communicate their unique marketing messages. He is the director of marketing
for Keywest Technology in Lenexa,
KS, a software development
company specializing in systems for digital signage creation, scheduling,
management and playback. For further digital signage insight from Keywest
Technology download our Six
Basic Digital Signage
Applications white paper; subscribe to our digital signage RSS feed
that gives a diverse perspective on digital signage from
experts around the world; join our weekly digital
signage software Webinar; and sign up for our Keywest Update news
brief.
|
Written by David Little
Monday, 04 February 2008
By finding the right digital
signage partner, investing in content development and providing your people
with the best training available, you can rest assured that your digital
signage network will continue achieving the goals you set out for it far into
the future.
It seems
every day brings a new announcement in the digital signage arena -the release
of a whiz-bang technology, a new vendor entering the market, some huge sale or formation
of a new strategic business alliance.
While
news of this sort is interesting and relevant, it can be a bit overwhelming. In
fact, it can lead to a bit of paralysis in implementing a digital signage plan.
Fear of premature obsolescence, or missing out on the next important development
to come along, can retard progress and direct energy and attention away from
the true mission, specifically, communicating effectively with clients,
constituents or employees to advance the marketing or informational goal of the
enterprise.
But
rather than sitting on the sidelines waiting for some never-to-be-attained zenith
of technological development to be realized before making the decision to
proceed, wouldn't it be better to find a framework within which a digital
signage deployment can be made that lets you respond and if necessary
assimilate the changes that inevitably will come along?
Here are
three handy rules to help you succeed with your digital signage deployment
regardless of the changes that come along:
One:
Don't just choose a digital signage vendor, select a digital signage partner. This
is the crux of the matter. Technology continues to change at an ever-increasing
rate. What must remain constant is an unwavering commitment on the part of your
digital signage vendor to adapt existing solutions to meet your needs as they
change. If that means writing new software, so be it. If it requires developing
new drivers, new interfaces or taking any other steps needed to integrate
"must-have" third-party components into the digital signage network, a true
digital signage partner must be willing and capable of doing just that.
Two:
Invest in your content. It's funny how many of the latest "earth-shattering"
digital signage developments turn out to be small blips on the continuum of
progress. What helps to inject a bit of reality into the latest whiz-bang
announcement is the sense of security that your digital signage messaging is on
target and accomplishing your desired goals. What does it matter if there's a
new digital signage technology that will polish the shoes of people who
approach a sign if no one ever stands there long enough to get it done because
the content is so irrelevant?
Three: Invest
in training your people. Whether they are in-house content creators, sales
people securing advertising contracts or IT or AV managers tasked with
monitoring the performance of the digital signage network, your people are your
real assets. The better trained they are, the more productive your digital
signage network will be.
There's
nothing wrong with wanting the latest or greatest technology to be a part of
your digital signage network. But you have to ask yourself just how important
that is to accomplishing your real goal. If there's no other way to achieve
your goal without adding that technology, by all means do so. However, nine
times out of 10, if you take a moment to consider all of your options, you'll
find that you can rely on creativity -whether it's in the realm of content
creation, IT management or sales- to achieve the goal you desire.
By developing a partnership with a digital
signage vendor, investing in training your personnel and devoting the resources
necessary for content development, you'll position your digital signage
deployment to best achieve the goals you've set for your network. You'll also
have removed that element of paralysis that can set in when the fear that the
digital signage network you're contemplating will become obsolete.
About the author
David Little is a digital signage enthusiast with 20 years
of experience helping professionals use technology to more effectively
communicate their unique marketing messages. He is the director of marketing
for Keywest Technology in Lenexa,
KS, a software development
company specializing in systems for digital signage creation, scheduling,
management and playback. For further digital signage insight from Keywest
Technology download our Six
Basic Digital Signage
Applications white paper; subscribe to our digital signage RSS feed
that gives a diverse perspective on digital signage from
experts around the world; join our weekly digital
signage software Webinar; and sign up for our Keywest Update news
brief.
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Written by David Little
Friday, 02 November 2007
Determining
the return on investment of a digital signage network isn't always easy.
Ask a savvy investor what's the five-year average return
on the mutual fund he's using for his 401k investment, and he'll rattle off the
answer quicker than the Fed can print money.
Ask a farmer how much a given fertilizer costs and how
much bigger his crop yield is because of it, and he'll respond with more
certitude than the rooster that crows at dawn.
Ask a digital signage network operator what's the return
on investment (ROI) of his digital signage system, and the answer may be tinged
with a degree of uncertainty and hesitation.
Why? Because in many ways the factors that go into determining
the ROI of digital signage can be a bit, for the lack of a better term,
"squishy." Figuring out the ROI of digital signage can be like walking through
a heavily rain soaked field. You know eventually you'll reach something firm on
which to build your next step, but getting to that solid foundation can be a
little tenuous.
Wouldn't it be great if it were as simple as looking at
the cash spent to set up and maintain the network, measuring the cash generated
or saved by the digital signage network, dividing the latter by the former and
coming up with a return? While that might be practical in some digital signage
applications, the "squishiness" of many others makes arriving at the return on
investment of a digital signage network much more difficult.
To illustrate the difference, consider these two
scenarios: a casino that's replacing all printed promotional signage with
digital signage and a corporation setting up a digital signage network to
communicate with employees.
In the casino scenario, the gaming facility typically spends
$300,000 annually to print promotional signs and an additional $50,000 annually
for the salaries of employees to replace old signs with new signs to update
patrons on the constantly changing entertainment acts, restaurant specials and
casino promotions.
By replacing the traditional signs with a digital signage
network, the casino will have a one-time expense for the cost of the LCD or
plasma panels, the digital signage media players, network cabling, routers, and
ancillary hardware. Say $300,000, and throw in $50,000 annually to maintain the
network.
For the sake of this scenario, the cost of creating
content will be virtually the same. Graphic artists using Adobe Photoshop and
InDesign to create print ads will now use Adobe Photoshop, Premiere and Flash
to create content for the digital signage network.
Figuring out the five year return on this digital signage
network is a snap: $1.75 million in printing and labor savings ($350,000 x 5)
divided by $550,000 ($300,000 for the initial installation and $50,000 x 5
years for maintenance) = 318 percent return for five years, or about 64 percent
annual return.
While there could be other factors impacting the total ROI
of this system -like advertising revenue from allied businesses wishing to
advertise on the network -this scenario illustrates that there can be a
straightforward ROI assigned to some digital signage applications.
Squishy comes into play in scenario No. 2, the corporate
digital signage network. A corporation installs a modest digital signage
network that includes a sign to greet visitors in the lobby, several digital
door cards to identify what's booked for various conference rooms and a digital
sign in the corporate lunchroom.
The squishy factor in this scenario relates to identifying
and measuring employee and visitor behavior as it relates to the digital
signage network. Did a visitor to the company feel more welcomed when she saw a
personal greeting on the sign in the lobby? Did that feeling translate in even
the smallest of ways to a more productive meeting with the person she was there
to meet? Did that translate into some monetary value?
Do the signs used as digital door cards inform the people
of the right conference to attend? Do they reduce interruptions, help meetings
to start and end on time, and in so doing improve productivity? Can that be
measured? What's the monetary value?
Does the sign in the lunchroom create a degree of loyalty
to the company by recognizing achievement? Does it improve the experience of
employees by keeping them better informed of what's going on in and around the
premises? Is there a monetary value that can be measured?
These
sorts of benefits are much more difficult to reduce to a simple ROI equation
because they're squishy. But just because they are squishy doesn't mean they
are not important or real. Being squishy just means it's harder to identify the
true ROI of the digital signage network, not that there is no ROI.
About the author
David Little is a digital signage enthusiast with 20 years
of experience helping professionals use technology to more effectively
communicate their unique marketing messages. He is the director of marketing
for Keywest Technology in Lenexa,
KS, a software development
company specializing in systems for digital signage creation, scheduling,
management and playback. For further digital signage insight from Keywest
Technology download our Six
Basic Digital Signage
Applications white paper; subscribe to our digital signage RSS feed
that gives a diverse perspective on digital signage from
experts around the world; join our weekly digital
signage software Webinar; and sign up for our Keywest Update news
brief.
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Written by David Little
Monday, 29 October 2007
Traditional media companies
continue to grapple with tectonic changes in ad buys; maybe it’s time to
leverage their strengths in the out-of-home video ad network arena.
More signs
of the uncertain times ahead for traditional media in this country have emerged
over the past few weeks.
Belo,
which owns newspapers like the Dallas
Morning News, the Providence Journal,
and the Press Enterprise, as well as
owns and operates 20 TV stations, said Oct. 1 it was splitting its holdings
into two companies: The New A. H. Belo Corp., dedicated to the print properties,
and Belo Corp., which will run the TV business.
Then E.W.
Scripps said it would take a similar path Oct. 16 when it announced that it
would break into two companies: E.W. Scripps Co., which will consist of about
20 newspapers and local television stations, and Scripps Networks Interactive,
consisting of Home & Garden Television, the Food Network and Shopzilla.
At about
the same time as the Scripps announcement, McClatchy Co., the third largest
newspaper company in the United
States, said its quarterly profits dropped
55 percent for the third quarter, a result of a weakening advertising market.
It's clear
traditional media companies are suffering a significant decline in readership
and advertising lineage. Many of the dollars once spent on newspaper ads are
being redirected into emerging new media like the Internet as media consumers
increasingly log on to online sources to catch up on their world. Hence,
companies like Belo and Scripps are separating business units into stand alone
companies to cordon off the drag on their revenue and sustain shareholder value
and interest.
These are
among the largest media companies in the nation. If they aren't impervious to the
change brought on by new digital media, it's unlikely other traditional media
companies will be able to continue down the same path they're on without making
some course corrections along the way.
To be
sure, Internet advertising is taking a sizeable bite out of the dollars once
devoted to traditional newspaper, television, radio and magazine advertising.
Another emerging digital media competing for its piece of the ad budget is
out-of-home advertising, and more specifically out of home video advertising on
digital signage networks.
In late
January, the Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) formally launched with
the mission of helping to provide standards and best practices for the newly
emerging slice of the advertising industry. It was created by many of the
largest out-of-home video advertising networks to remove impediments to the
growth of the new ad medium.
One of the
chief missions of the group is to help advertisers and those who run
out-of-home video advertising networks work together "to plan, buy and evaluate
the effectiveness of these mediums," said Mike DiFranza, president and general
manager of Captivate Network, one of the 10 companies that founded the group.
The contrast
couldn't be more apparent: On the one hand, many traditional media are
scrambling to restructure so they can decouple business units with the
potential to be profitable from those suffering from the re-allocation of
advertising dollars to new digital media. On the other, a group like OVAB has
emerged to help the fledgling medium of out-of-home video advertising build the
advertising "street cred" that traditional media long ago mastered.
While it's a long shot, perhaps there's an
opportunity for traditional media and emerging media, like out-of-home video
advertising networks, to help each other. Why shouldn't traditional media
integrate out-of-home advertising networks into their media offering?
Certainly, they have the ability to generate content for the medium, they have
the relationships with local businesses to both sell the advertising and secure
locations for new signs on the network, and they have well-established market
research resources to assist in building new audience measurement metrics. Conversely,
why shouldn't emerging new advertising markets welcome the participation of
tradition media, which can leverage its strengths to assist the new medium in
its maturation?
About the author
David Little is a digital signage enthusiast with 20 years
of experience helping professionals use technology to more effectively
communicate their unique marketing messages. He is the director of marketing
for Keywest Technology in Lenexa,
KS, a software development
company specializing in systems for digital signage creation, scheduling,
management and playback. For further digital signage insight from Keywest
Technology download our Six
Basic Digital Signage
Applications white paper; subscribe to our digital signage RSS feed
that gives a diverse perspective on digital signage from
experts around the world; join our weekly digital
signage software Webinar; and sign up for our Keywest Update news
brief.
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Written by David Little
Monday, 22 October 2007
New
figures from Austin, TX, based researcher DisplaySearch confirm
the rise of LCD panels as the dominant display technology.
If there were any doubt left that flat panels have become
the dominant display technology, replacing big, heavy cathode ray tube (CRT)
technology, the latest findings and forecast from DisplaySearch in Austin, TX,
should put those questions to rest.
In its Q3 '07 "Quarterly Worldwide Flat Panel Forecast
Report," the display market research specialist reveals that CRTs will account
for 5.5 percent of all display revenue in the quarter compared to TFT LCDs,
which will generate 84.5 percent of all display revenue. In dollars that's
$20.3 billion for LCD panels to $1.3 billion for CRTs worldwide.
Granted LCD technology finds homes in lots of applications
far removed from digital signage -like mobile phone displays- so there is a bit
of an apples-to-oranges comparison here. After all, how would you clip mobile
phone with a CRT display to your belt?
Regardless, in the areas related to digital signage, LCD
panels continue their skyrocket-like trajectory. Shipments of LCD TV panels
rose 32 percent quarter over quarter and 64 percent year over year to 19.4 million
units in the second quarter of this year, according to DisplaySearch. As might
be expected, the average unit price for LCD panels fell three percent quarter
over quarter and 16 percent year over year in the second quarter.
For those planning digital signage networks, that's an
important point. LCD panel pricing continues to fall meaning a significant
portion of the cost of their networks is declining. Those savings can translate
in a variety of potential benefits, including:
Broader
reach: For those contemplating expansive networks, lower panel prices can
translate into greater reach. Savings can be spent on more panels to
accomplish the network's primary mission or to fulfill secondary and
tertiary goals. For instance, a digital signage network originally
envisioned as an advertising play could be expanded with strategically
placed signs to satisfy wayfinding needs or serve as reader boards for
conference rooms.
Bigger
signs: Rather than expand the number of signs in a network, savings can be
used to acquire larger signs or multiple signs used in combination to
create greater impact.
Better
content: Savings resulting from lower panel prices also can be used to
improve content played back on the network. Not only can the savings be
used to improve the production quality of video, graphics and other visual
elements, but they also can be used to add an entirely new dimension to
the network's presentation. For example, the addition of weather
instruments to sense temperature readings can be used to trigger
weather-appropriate content. In a retail store, specific weather
conditions could trigger the digital signage media server to playback
sunscreen ads or ear muffs.
Not too long ago, TV sets connected to VCRs or DVD players
dominated what was the precursor to today's digital signage market. However, as
the DisplaySearch numbers reveal CRT sales are trailing off, replaced by what
is quickly becoming the omnipresent LCD panel.
Consumers are voting everyday with their dollars for LCD
TVs, and as they do are creating a mass market with mass market economies of
scale that benefit those who are developing digital signage networks. Choosing
wisely how to use those savings can take the success of their digital signage
networks to new heights.
About the author
David Little is a digital signage enthusiast with 20 years
of experience helping professionals use technology to more effectively
communicate their unique marketing messages. He is the director of marketing
for Keywest Technology in Lenexa,
KS, a software development
company specializing in systems for digital signage creation, scheduling,
management and playback. For further digital signage insight from Keywest
Technology download our Six
Basic Digital Signage
Applications white paper; subscribe to our digital signage RSS feed
that gives a diverse perspective on digital signage from
experts around the world; join our weekly digital
signage software Webinar; and sign up for our Keywest Update news
brief.
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Written by David Little
Friday, 19 October 2007
A
recent survey of marketing professionals revealed a general acknowledgement
that their organizations need to get a better grip on what it takes to succeed
in this emerging digital communications era. Here are a few tips on getting
your interactive digital signage chops.
Fewer than 25 percent of
respondents to a recent study of marketers, agencies and media companies said
their organizations were "digitally savvy," while more than 90 percent reported
they plan to increase what they spend on their digital marketing efforts.
That's an intriguing disparity
and probably indicates a general recognition that the old methods of marketing
must change to accommodate the potential digital media offer and at the same
time an acknowledgement that new skills, tools and approaches must be acquired
and adopted.
According to the study,
"Marketing & Media Ecosystem 2010," a joint effort by the Association of
National Advertisers, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the American Association
of Advertising Agencies and management consulting firm Booz, Allen, Hamilton, 51
percent of respondents identified limited experience with digital media as a
significant as trouble spots on the horizon.
As Bob Liodice, president and
CEO or the Association of National Advertisers put it: "The impact of new media
is changing the way marketers interact, target and distribute their marketing
message. As the marketplace shifts to a digital interactive environment,
marketing organizations, agencies and media companies need to transform
existing marketing agendas and capabilities to succeed."
While marketers retool for the
new demands of the digital interactive, the natural tendency would be to focus
entirely on the darling of the new media stage -the Internet. However, they
shouldn't ignore other, new important members of the cast, including
interactive digital signage.
To that end, marketers looking
to retool for interactive digital signage should consider these five points:
- Repurpose expertise: Many of
the creative skills, such as video editing and creation of graphics and
animation, as well as strategic planning skills, like message development and
demographic identification and targeting may already exist internally or as
services from trusted vendors. Often, those skills can be redirected to exploit
new opportunities presented in an interactive digital signage setting.
- Acquire new skill sets:
Building interactive digital signage presentations may be new to you or your
company, but the skills needed to do so have been around for at least 20 years.
If your organization can't afford to take the time to learn these new skills,
there is a sizable community of service providers who have been developing
branching, interactive presentations for at least 20 years.
- Re-orient thinking about
metrics: Interactive digital signage offers marketers instant access to
consumer preferences and interests. Polling consumer interaction can provide
valuable insight about which messages work, which don't and where to go next.
Taking account of those statistics not only can help with tactical tweaking of
an existing interactive digital signage presentation, it can also provide
valuable audience metrics that can be used to build future strategic plans.
- Exploit opportunity for
customer dialog: The thing that makes interactive digital signage interesting
is the fact that it's interactive. Depending on the application, it may be
entirely appropriate to collect user information and establish an ongoing
dialog that extends beyond the first point of customer contact at the store.
For example, one gardening center that's employed interactive digital signage
collects user information that ultimately gets used to remind customers about
fertilizer applications and other regular lawn and garden maintenance via mail
as seasons and requirements change.
- Recognize and remember consumer
behavior: The fact interactive digital signage is interactive means it's easier
to keep track of consumer interest and respond with the right messages as
needed.
Interactive digital signage
presents marketers with many opportunities to advance their goals. But before
they can be effective integrating interactive digital signage into their
marketing mix, these professionals must absorb new skills and recognize the
opportunities digital communications presents.
About the author
David Little is a digital signage enthusiast with 20 years
of experience helping professionals use technology to more effectively
communicate their unique marketing messages. He is the director of marketing
for Keywest Technology in Lenexa,
KS, a software development
company specializing in systems for digital signage creation, scheduling,
management and playback. For further digital signage insight from Keywest
Technology download our Six
Basic Digital Signage
Applications white paper; subscribe to our digital signage RSS feed
that gives a diverse perspective on digital signage from
experts around the world; join our weekly digital
signage software Webinar; and sign up for our Keywest Update news
brief.
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