Digital Signage

Star Gazing

One of my favorite places to shop in town reserves a parking space closest to the door for its employee of the month.

That retailer, like many businesses, knows the importance of small, regular gestures that publicly recognize employees. Such kudos build employee loyalty, inspire excellence and motivate workers to perform at a high level month after month.

A recent article by Charles Christian entitled Motivate With An Employee Incentive Program,” summed up the value of such efforts. “Employee recognition programs go a long way to creating a happy and productive work environment. They create an environment that fosters the development of both individuals and the company in a way that is mutually beneficial,” it said.

While a choice parking space may seem somewhat unconventional, especially measured against other more traditional approaches like financial rewards, trips, and other tangibles, it does provide a concrete illustration of what makes employee recognition and rewards so powerful: namely, they’re public.

Writing in the Portland Business Journal, author and president of San Diego-based Nelson Motivation Bob Nelson advised employers to: “Present rewards in a public forum. Rewards are not meant to be presented in the privacy of an employee's office. Schedule a special meeting for the occasion, and don't camouflage the rewards. They must stand out and be highlighted; don't squeeze praise among a dozen other topics of conversation.”

Traditionally, company newsletters and paper notices posted on bulletin boards have provided a degree of public awareness about employees who’ve achieved excellence. However, some employers are using a far higher-profile means to recognize company stars publicly.

Honoring employees on an in-house digital signage system elevates the visibility and effectiveness of employee programs. If executed properly, the digital sign-based recognition can enlist some of the intangible power and attraction broadcast television often imparts to an event or person.

Honoring employees on an in-house digital signage system elevates the visibility and effectiveness of employee programs. If executed properly, the digital sign-based recognition can enlist some of the intangible power and attraction broadcast television often imparts to an event or person. What makes digital signage so well suited for employee recognition is the fact that by its very nature it is public. Scattered strategically around a corporation –- in the lobby, the cafeteria, the corporate recreation center or on the factory floor-- digital signs sew a thread of community awareness throughout an organization, uniting it in its endeavors and providing a public forum to recognize employees.

Recognizing employees on a digital signage network can be as simple as displaying a picture and text or as sophisticated as a video of the recognition ceremony complete with a few words from the award presenter and the recipient.

Recognizing employees on a digital signage network can be as simple as displaying a picture and text or as sophisticated as a video of the recognition ceremony complete with a few words from the award presenter and the recipient. Equally important is the fact that digital signage taps into our culture’s obsession with and attraction to television. The very fact that the employee is recognized publicly on large plasma or LCD screens throughout the company carries a bit of the status the public ascribes to being on television. Thus, in the minds of those who are honored the perceived value of the public recognition on a corporate digital signage network is likely to be higher than similar recognition in a company newsletter or notice posted on a bulletin board. To be sure, corporate managers are unlikely to decide to install a digital signage network solely to recognize outstanding employees. However, for those companies with digital signs, publicly recognizing the achievements of employees in living color for everyone to see makes good sense.

Doing so can amplify employee recognition programs intended to validate the contribution of an employee or group of workers in an organization. That in turn can motivate workers to turn in stellar performances, which is a critical ingredient to the success of any enterprise.

Doing so can amplify employee recognition programs intended to validate the contribution of an employee or group of workers in an organization. That in turn can motivate workers to turn in stellar performances, which is a critical ingredient to the success of any enterprise.

Free White Paper available for download here. Why Digital Signage Works gives a quick overview from an industry perspective on the fundamentals of digital signage. Included are some recently published findings by Neilsen Media Research on the measured impact of strategically placed digital signs.  

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Rethinking the Media Mix

Happy with the results from your TV, radio and print advertising? Ever feel like you aren’t getting the bang for the buck you envisioned?

Maybe you should consider rethinking your media mix. The concept of an advertising media mix is straightforward: Since no one magazine, newspaper, Web site, or broadcast outlet is likely to zero in on your target customer, choosing a variety of media based upon their ability to reach your desired demographic is more effective.

At leading advertising agencies, building the right media mix has become a near science where days untold time is spent honing, polishing and refining media selections to create a mix with sufficient reach and frequency to deliver. Gaining a thorough understanding of their client’s product and universe of customers, analyzing ratings data and circulation statements, and weighing certain intangible benefits each media candidate brings to the table, are but a few of the steps necessary to build the right media mix.

While the process has proven itself to be highly effective over the years, changes in technology that give consumers greater freedom to control media consumption demand new solutions and a rethinking of what goes into an effective media mix. Armed with remotes and digital video recorders, TV viewers easily circumvent commercials. Newspaper and magazine readers are now just a click away from the same content on the Web sans the full- or fractional-page ad adjacent to the article they used to pore over on the printed page. In effect, technology is short circuiting the rather simple media equation that implicitly promised advertisers the attention of customers as they consumed the content their medium had to offer.

Consider the impact of digital video recorders and remotes on the effectiveness of television advertising. A Feb. 13 article in The New York Times reports that an estimated 7 percent of the 110.2 million TV households in the United States are equipped with digital video recorders (DVRs). If that weren’t enough to give pause to TV advertisers, the article reports that estimates hold “that 50 percent to 70 percent of viewers playing back shows zip through the commercials.” How many TV households will have DVRs next year and beyond?

The story isn’t any better in the print world.  “The State of the News Media 2004” from journalism.org puts it bluntly: “Newspaper circulation is in decline.” The report states that the percentage of people reading newspapers began a long decline in the 1940s, but was masked by a growing U.S. population. By 1990, “circulation began to decline in absolute numbers,” according to the report.  Between 1990 and 2002, newspaper circulation dropped 1 percent per year, it says.

However, there is a bright spot on the horizon, especially for those who are willing to rethink what makes up the media mix. An emerging technology that brings together dynamic display and media control at the point of purchase may be just the ingredient advertisers need to reinvigorate their media mix. In fact, a recent article in Media Daily News quotes Leo Kivijarv, vice president-research at Stamford, CT-based PQ Media, who identifies this slice of the media pie as one of the smallest advertising niches, but among the faster growing.

It goes by different names. In the retail environment, it’s called In-Store Digital Media (ISDM). At hotels and resorts, it’s known as digital reader boards. In public venues, like a sports arena, it’s called digital signage. But regardless of what you call it, advertising to people when they’re away from home, -often at the point of sale- is where you may find the most bang for your advertising buck.

The Media Daily News article quotes the author of a new study on out-of-home advertising as saying that this approach to advertising is about to transition from a relatively obscure marketing niche to a widely used, mainstream advertising medium.

In the article, Stephen Diorio, author of the report, says out-of-home advertising is “at the tipping point. This is a market that is poised to explode.” Since 2002, the article says, 700 digital out-of-home networks have been launched, accounting for $1.2 billion in advertising this year.

What’s in your media plan? Maybe it’s time you rethink your media mix alternatives. This may be the moment to redirect a portion of your advertising budget away from declining media mainstays and into alternatives on the rise, like out-of-home advertising.

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Technology Can Cut Both Ways

While new digital technologies threaten the effectiveness of traditional television advertising, interactive digital signage can amplify the impact of your marketing message.

If you’ve ever wondered how digital video recorders and remotes challenge the effectiveness of your TV advertising dollars, a new report from Jupiter Research may bring things into a little better focus.

The report, “Evolving Business Models for Television & Filmed Entertainment,” points out that new digital platforms –like digital video recorders- will generate $5 billion in yearly spending by 2011, but DVR commercial skipping puts $12 billion at risk.

In other words, the viewers who record their favorite television shows on a digital video recorder may fast forward past $12 billion in advertising by 2011. How much of your ad budget will contribute to that sizeable sum?

With so much at stake, it’s no wonder why marketers are looking for alternate advertising avenues –ones that can target their desired audience, deliver control over playback to defeat ad zapping, and provide interactivity to engage potential customers.

Retail digital signage offers an appealing alternative –or at least supplement- to traditional television advertising. Delivering valuable product information and appealing marketing messages to consumers with dollars in their hands advances the goal of your advertising message. That’s exactly what digital signage can do in a retail setting.

Add to that the impact of interactivity via a touchscreen interface, and you have a technology to draw in consumers, engage them in your message and ultimately direct their buying decisions. Compared to a digital video recorder and commercial zapping, interactive digital signage offers you a technology for marketing that works with you to capture consumer attention and dollars –not against you.

Free White Paper available for download here. Why Digital Signage Works gives a quick overview from an industry perspective on the fundamentals of digital signage. Included are some recently published findings by Neilsen Media Research on the measured impact of strategically placed digital signs.

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Remember the Consumer

Much has been made of the benefits digital signage offers marketers, but to truly succeed don’t forget the context in which digital signage viewers will see your message.

Successful marketers know their ads exist in a context that enhances the value of their message to consumers. For instance, a billboard lets Interstate drivers know a gas station is at the next exit. Or, a print ad for a high-performance CD player runs in a magazine with a focus on high-tech gadgets. Even the nightly news has commercials relevant to its audience. Who doesn’t need an antacid or hemorrhoid relief after plugging into the latest news?

The same is true for successful digital signage ads. To succeed for the marketer, digital signage ads and messages must deliver value to the consumer. A new free guide from KioskMarketplace.com and SelfServiceWorld.com entitled “Digital Signage and One-to-One Marketing” sheds light on the value proposition digital signage delivers for consumers.

Digital signage captures the attention of consumers and focuses it on a product feature of retail special, it advises. Digital signage also combines all of video, graphic and text tools at the disposal of marketers using other media to convey clear messages to consumers and keep them entertained, according to the report.

From delivering an appeal message at the point of purchase to customizing a marketing message for a specific place and time, digital signage offers significant benefits to marketers and retailers. But for the emerging medium to flourish, marketers would do well to deliver on the value proposition of digital signage for consumers: make their shopping experience better than it would have been without the presence of the digital signs.

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