Image + Effect = Winning Message

The hardware is the easy part of Digital Signage, even when it comes to Projected Digital Signage by Looknglas.

The really important part is what you do with that cool hardware. With commercial Advertising or Point of Purchase (POP) messaging, it is so important to use that Digital screen, whether LCD or Digital Window, to the maximum effect. That means large size, but also, changing messages, looks, and especially, effects.

Effects are what you do with the graphic to make it interesting: Color, size, font, background, still images or motion video, movement, fading in or out, or any visual change or metamorphosis of the afore mentioned elements.

No one pays much attention to static signs; you perceive them in a moment and quickly discard them before even consciously taking note, in most cases. Using visual effects properly will not only give you attraction, but also "sticking". That is, retention, repeat viewing, or best of all, response to a good selling proposition.

Using effects properly also means not overdoing it. Constantly trying to out-entertain your competitors is a losing proposition. The presentation that gets them to look, consider, and respond is the most effective. Be careful not to get carried away with effects, but rather use them to mix up the look, as well as creating intrigue. The bottom line is to sell the viewer on whatever your proposition is. Don't go overboard with the creativity or the hunt for interactivity. Use effects to make a powerful selling proposition to your target, and they will notice and respond.

iPhone, iPod, and the Window Video System Display

Shortly after I launched into projected Digital Signage, or Window Video Systems (WVS), I realized I needed to create a demonstration method for WVS that was portable and fast to set up. So I created this product which is now a kit that we sell for showing a Video Demonstration using rear projection.

I didn't realize I was creating a product at the time, but since then, it dawned on me how superior a larger screen for showing video or still graphics is, to say, showing your client or prospect your graphic on a computer screen. Many images just scream out for size, and the computer screen often just doesn't do justice. So the next best thing might be to run the image to a TV, or use the large conference room projector, but that is often such a hassle.

Well now, you can leverage your iPhone (that ultimate business tool) or iPod, or now, your Android phone to do Video presentations. Here is the marketing video we put together for the 2-foot Video Display screen for the iPhone.



Intrigue and Attraction are 2 of the most powerful elements of any presentation or display. This video illustrates how even in a presentation-style display, the intrigue of rear-projected images take your images from commonplace to "WOW". And it runs on an iPhone or iPod??? That's nuts! But it's really fun and potentially very powerful for more effectively conveying a sales message, or any other type of video or still graphic presentation.

This is just a small demonstrator version of the larger window video systems we are pioneering, some of which you've seen on our website or Youtube. Interested to know your thoughts.

How Much Does It Cost?

"How much does it cost?"

Well, it is a necessary question, but out of order. The real question is, "what will this do for me?"
Or how about, "How will this make/save me money?"
Or about 100 other more pertinent, important questions.

Digital Windows or Window Video Systems (WVS) by Looknglas are definitely affordable, but the price depends on the size and placement of the viewing area.

Viewing are size means more window treatment or rear projection screen. Placement or location determines the projector

specs and type of rear projection screen used. Are you after a holographic effect? Maximum contrast? Maximum brightness?

How will the screen be used? Pictures? Type (Messages)? Video? All the above?

Will you want to use or create your own content, or do you need us to produce content for you? Do you have a specific plan for how much and how often you will use the system, how many hours and what hours per day? Do you want to be able to load your own content manually, or do you want us to manage the system for your remotely?

Do you want to turn it on and off, or do you want it programmed?

There are a lot of considerations. This is not a one-size-fits-all proposition.

The answer to the cost question is either "too much for you", or "incredibly cheap." It really depends of whether you have the vision to maximize this incredibly powerful new medium.

For any retailer that knows how to market effectively at the Point Of Purchase, the Looknglas system will be a watershed investment, arguably the best investment in your store that you have made in years. When used properly, WVS by Looknglas will transform your retail business and increase profits significantly.

Going Large

One of the greatest advantages of projected digital signage like Looknglas' Window Video Systems (WVS) is the ability to message directly onto a window in large size.

The competition, (LCDs and LEDs) are less exciting, and in large size, more expensive and more cumbersome. WVS provides large size, an exciting presentation (converting storefront windows into Digital motion billboards) lower power consumption and lower cost.

Talking with my friend Tom Gullo, of TJG Signs, he mentioned a new player device from Corn Digital that allows splitting and synchronizing of digital images on a delivery medium.

For projection, this means that an even larger, brighter image is possible, by duplicating lower cost projectors to gain more lumens, or by splitting the screen image between two smaller screens (left and right) where half the image goes on one screen via the left projector and half goes on the right via the second (right) projector. The synchronized split image means a much larger total screen size for a cost.

Wow! A screen size exceeding any LCD screen with high resolution, low size/weight characteristics, low power consumption and low cost. Most important, a beautiful screen. This is just another reason why WVS projected digital signage is so superior and so exciting.

Going Green

"Green"!

It's a critical watchword for many corporations these days. The drive towards eco-conscious business practices and investment in green technologies, and practices, such as recycling and replacement of equipment in favor of more environmentally friendly systems is more intense than ever.

Most signage today is still in the form of replace-able hard copy. That is, posters and banners made of either paper or vinyl (petroleum based products) and designed to be discarded and replaced. That's a lot of oil for the vinyl, and that's a lot of trees for the paper.

Window Video Systems are Green Signage. WVS is the ultimate "replace-able" or re-usable signage. In fact, you don't replace anything except a lightbulb on an infrequent basis. The rest of the system does away with posters and banners as it puts signage images directly onto windows and glass panes. Once installed, the system need never be replaced, allowing constant new messages without any need for banners or posters or waste.

LCD screens are not particularly green, except that they are recyclable. But they require a good deal of energy to produce, and especially, to recycle. Hopefully they are not merely thrown out. But if they are discarded, LCDs in the landfill are not a good thing for the environment.

So in Signage and Display, let's go green. Let's eliminate as much paper and vinyl (petroleum product) waste as possible, with Green Signage from Looknglas.

Go green with Window Video Systems from Looknglas. The Window Of Opportunity is here.

Digital Banner Great for Large In-Store Messaging

Change. Didn't someone win election to the most powerful office in the world recently on that premise?

Change truly is powerful. The ability to change, add to, alter, and enhance your message is extremely powerful.

This is the essential power of Window Video Systems (WVS) particularly, the Digital Banner. The advantages are:

Size
Attraction
Changing Message
Control
Impact
Affordability

The Digital Banner enlivens an entire room or store. Everyone in the store can see what the store wants them to know. Essential to a delivery system like this is to use it to message effectively to promote buying. Retailers will need to become more comfortable with using their signage more assertively in this way. But Digital Banners, Digital Posters, Digital Mannequins and Digital Window Displays will completely transform retail in-store display and marketing. There is no better time or place to message to customers than at the point of purchase.

The Window of Opportunity is here.

Getting the Buy

Wouldn't it be great if you could just get people to "Buy"?

That is the dream and objective of Marketing. So many are lost in the process of marketing, where things like social networking and online marketing strategies become ends in themselves.

Real business people (that is, people who are accountable for sales and profit) prioritize "the Buy". That's where the action (and the money) is.

But you can't go from zero to "Buy". These are the steps any buyer goes through before they become a buyer:
1. Awareness
2. Interest
3. Motivation
4. Decision
5. Action
6. And finally, TRANSACTION, or "BUY".

TV is indirect. Radio is indirect. Online is mostly indirect. Social networking and social media is indirect. Direct mail is mostly indirect. Print is indirect.

Window Video Systems, (like the Digital Mannequin,) on the storefront window, and inside the store, are Direct. They are a messaging medium at the Point of Purchase. They allow the business to take a potential customer from steps 1 through 6 all at once, in just a few moments. From unaware to BUY in seconds.

That is the power of Window Video Systems by Looknglas. You move a potential customer from unaware to BUY in seconds.

That is enormous marketing power in one affordable system. That's why we say,
The Window of Opportunity is Here.

How Window Video Systems Work

We're getting more and more questions about Window Video Systems (WVS), (especially Digital Mannequin,) and how they work.

In the broad strokes, WVS is rear projection (but not always.) Window glass will not hold a projected image. When you shine a light, it goes right through the glass. So a treatment or special pane or screen is required, which will hold your projected image.

Many factors can and will affect the Digital Window displays, so the correct specifications are critical. The type of screen, size, brightness, components, install and integration, ambient lighting, content and marketing message, are all factors. And that doesn't even scratch the surface.

It is always exciting to see a window light up like a giant lcd screen (without the associated cost,) and convey advertising and marketing messages effectively. "Effectively" is the key word here.

People want a widget; a silver bullet that does everything and solves everything, and costs next to nothing. WVS are not widgets. They must be tailored to each situation and use.

Looknglas makes the medium affordable and easy to use. Entry level systems are comparable in price to large LCDs.

Customers don't go to your business to watch headlines, weather, or even music videos. Looknglas Window Video Systems, designed to convey images and messages that produce traffic, sales, and profit, are a bargain compared with most commercial LCDs. Customers have TVs at home, and they have mobile phones; they can get all that stuff there. What they want to know is what they should buy from you and why, so you have to illustrate that and convince them to buy. That's what WVS and Digital Mannequin do.

Looknglas approaches your install from the standpoint of making your WVS install do what you want it to. We pay close attention to the technical implementation, but we also prioritize the effectiveness of the content. Without the focus on effective use for marketing and sales promotion, any system will become another piece of technology that underperforms. Gadgets are cool. Results are cooler.

Window Video Systems by Looknglas: The Window of opportunity is here.

"AND" Is The Enemy

In advertising, the word "AND" is very popular. But it needs to be put to death.

Advertisers always want to tell you something more, besides their core message. The temptation is overwhelming.

When all you have is a short-form message, dropped into the middle of some other type of content, the advertiser feels rushed, forced into cramming so much into so little time, that "AND" becomes the means to getting it all in before your time is up. Which of course, makes it sound that way to the listener.

Unfortunately, those types of ads don't work very well. Every new element added to the original message, increases the liklihood that the listener or viewer forgets what came before. And voila! Suddenly you've managed to make your message UN-MEMORABLE.

"AND" may seem like your messaging friend, but in short-form advertising, it's actually your worst enemy. It always drags the target audience away from the core message! If whatever preceeded "AND" was not your core message, then it likely shouldn't have been in there at all.

So I have always advised clients to pick one powerful, compelling, trackable message and push it hard.

Until now.

Window Video Systems are an exception. Each message is its' own campaign, and can be repeated as frequently as desired, right at the point of purchase.

Hallelujah! Unlimited messaging, AND repetition, right at the point of purchase! Window Video Systems (WVS) enable advertisers to ATTRACT customers, INTEREST customers, MOTIVATE them, and MOVE them TO ACTION all at the point of purchase, and then REPEAT. Digital Mannequin is a great example; the DM catches the eye, interests them, and can then be followed by product info and offers. Properly implemented, WVS will produce TRAFFIC, SALES and PROFIT. All by activating and existing under-utilized asset: the storefront window. Wow!

The Window of Opportunity really is here.

Retail Window Displays

OK, I admit it: Messaging is my personal hobby horse.

But it's so totally justified, because I just don't see people doing a good job with it. Either they don't create compelling messages, or they don't know how to target, or they don't target correctly, or they don't understand their own target, or they don't know how to motivate the target.... ad nauseum. There are so many ways to message poorly.

But rather than talk in generalities, let's focus on one very important thing: How to message effectively with large-screen lcd, or better yet, with Window Video Systems (WVS).

To define even further, let's talk about clothing retailer's need to display and message to people passing by their mall store. What people do now is dress up mannequins and place them in the window, and perhaps add posters, signs, or an lcd. The posters/signs might give pricing or promo info about specific product, but it can only do that in a blanket way, (Everything 20% Off!) or a specific way (Shoe Sale). But you can only do so much, usually one thing, at a time. And then you have to live with it for a while or replace and reprint constantly. And the LCD is usually used simply for ambience like music videos or fashion-show looking loops.

What the customer wants to know is, "what do you have for me, why is it better for me, and how do I get it (for less)?

Window Video Systems, displaying the Digital Mannequin, allow the store to display clothing on a "live" looking model, front and back, with pricing or promo offer, along with any other important product info (i.e., "It's Green! Made with only Organic Recycled Hemp, Domestically Grown, with a Negative-One Carbon Footprint, Endorsed by Al Gore!")

Ok, sorry for the sarcasm, but you get the point: that's a lot of very specific messaging AND display info that you can get out of one system in a very short period of time. And THEN, Digital Mannequin enables the store to go to the next ensemble and do it all again with new information. Or not. They could just repeat. Or go to a different type of info, or mini-campaign.

The advantages are numerous:

1. Better display capability
A. life-size,
B. multiple poses,
C. multiple views,
D. multiple ensembles with multiple articles
E. different or changing backgrounds
F. different presentations - stills, motion, video
AND

2. Better Messaging capability
A. multiple messages,
B. multiple offers,
C. variable appearances - colors, size, motion
D. faster changes in messages/campaigns - even to the day or days, or daypart,
E. no changing out of posters,
F. no waste

That's a LOT of improvement in your messaging! That's a lot of flexibility and potency with which to improve your message to your target customers!

And to think you can do that for a comparable price to a large LCD? Fuggedaboutit! Who do I call?!

Call Looknglas. We'll hook you up.

The Window of Opportunity is here.

Talk to your Customers

Sure you should engage customers when they come into your business environment. But I'm talking about before they enter. That is what signage is for.

Digital Signage, and particularly, Window Video Systems, allow you to engage them before they ever enter your store or business. You can prep them, educate them, lure them, promote to them, compliment them, entice them, display to them, invite them, incent them, empower them, offer them something, give them another step towards engaging with your product or business, ask them a question, give them an answer, show them something new, remind them of something they should do, promise them something, and most importantly, sell them. That is the point of advertising, marketing, and signage, is it not? Sell them something. Use your entire window space, empowered and illuminated by a Window Video System, to sell them. They just might appreciate that you did something new and different. They just might go and tell other people about your Window Video System, or your Digital Mannequin, that got their attention, and brought them in to buy.

You have what your customer wants. Use the Looknglas systems to help them buy from you.

The Window of Opportunity is here.

Your Message is the Answer

At the risk of hurting my own sales effort, let me confess here and now that media, and the various new forms technology has enabled ARE NOT THE ANSWER!

But before I go further, let's make sure we agree on the question. I say the question is:

"How do I achieve more sales and profit?" Ok, really that's two questions, but sales and profit are directly related, and most would agree that sales without profit are not so helpful. So they tend to go together.

Now back to the answer. Twitter is not the answer. Neither is Facebook. Neither is Google, your website, e-mail blasts, direct mail, SEO, LCDs, and (OUCH!!!) not even Window Video Systems.

Your Message is the answer. What do you have to sell, to whom, and how, that will motivate them to buy from you? That is the question, the answer to which, will determine your Message. In other words, have you defined your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)? It is your USP which is the engine that drives all of your selling, marketing and advertising. Absent a compelling, motivating USP, you're in for a long haul. You can "reach" an ever-increasing audience, but without a USP, you won't get them to buy.

Much has been said and written about USP, and I won't attempt to reconstitute it all here, but invest the time and brainpower in developing your USP before you invest a cent in marketing or advertising, because it will be many, many dollars saved, as well as many more dollars earned. A strong USP enlivens all campaigns, justifies marketing and advertising investment, and supercharges the sales team. It is a reason to be excited about your business once again. It makes things happen.

A strong Unique Selling Proposition: get one now. And then buy a Window Video System from Looknglas and put your USP on your storefront windows.

The Window of Opportunity is Here.

Rear Projection Digital Signage

We like rear projection as a Digital Signage tool because of the "WOW" factor. It is just so cool to have the images right on your window!

Can YOU do that?!!! This is so powerful and we are continually refining the method and content. These aspects are critical. Everybody wants to buy a widget. Sorry. It doesn't work that way. This is a sophisticated method, and we don't intend to allow the clients to diminish or devalue it. However, having said that, this is not difficult for us in most cases. There are exceptions, but typically, in low light, nighttime, and indoor situations, rear projection is simply beautiful and exciting. Why aren't there more people doing it? Give it a chance. Within 24 months you will see it everywhere.

Did I mention we can do this in the rear window of your car?

Digital Mannequin - Tonic for Retail Display

The Digital Mannequin, exclusive product concept of Looknglas Window Video Systems, will put the retail industry on its ear. The Digital Mannequin is a projected window front display that allows the retailer to put a live looking model right on the window, modeling clothes, accessories, etc.
The Youtube videos above illustrate it pretty well. What they don't illustrate is how easy the product is for the retailer. There is no training involved, and installation is done in one day. The retailer only need supply the video or still photography. Well, actually, they don't because Looknglas can provide video and production services as well. So the retailer really doesn't have to do anything.
Brainchild of Darren Porter, video genie and Grand Poobah of DGP Films and Raging Nation Productions, and myself, Ed Personius, mad scientist marketing/advertising innovator, we formed Looknglas and created the Digital Mannequin out of the Window Video System product. Digital Mannequin lets clothing retailers finally put their goods on the front window in a way that absolutely stops shoppers in their tracks, and allows the store to display more product with pricing or promo messaging that will literally drag the shoppers into the store. Sheer genius!

Granted, Digital Mannequin in Victoria's Secret makes us a little nervous. Ok, maybe really nervous, but we trust their good judgement and honorable intentions. And hey, malls can use some sizzle. A lot of sizzle, which is good, because Digital Mannequin is a sizzling product.

The Ultimate Retail Signage and Window Display

The video below illustrates what Window Video Systems, and Projected Digital Signage can look like in your business. The video is compliments of my partner and video genie, Darren Porter, who is a videographer, producer, and all around radical creative dude-guy.

Talking to your customers and potential customers about the best of what you have to offer is the essence of signage and marketing itself. You have to do it, and you have to do it well. Window Video Systems help you do that better.

Digital Window Display
Digital Banner
Digital Poster
Digital Mannequin

Get 'em. You can definitely afford it, and you probably can't afford not to. In retail, it's time to step up. You improve or die. This should be a no-brainer.

The Window of Opportunity is Here.

Social Media vs Signage

Which would you rather do, Tweet, or message at the point of purchase?

Not that the two are mutually exclusive, but hey, if you or your marketing people have figured out that somehow a sales or promo message is better on a phone than on your storefront window, then by all means, tweet.

On the other hand, you might conclude that it is better to message to the customer when they are right in front of your store, and that creating a way for them to look more closely at your window and tell them to come inside and get 10% off anything in the store, is a more effective investment of your marketing dollars.

You may have plenty of money for either investment, but then again, maybe not. If not, invest in your own location and make it as powerfully attractive as possible. This is the entire premise of Window Video Systems, by Looknglas. Put a bright, moving, motivating message in your window. And then refresh it whenever you want. Or improve it. Or add to it. Or put accompanying product images along with. As many as you want.

Can't do that with texting, can't do that in a tweet. Do the smart thing. Get a Window Video System.

Retailers - Step Up!

It's about time retailers started becoming more aggressive about real change. Not just changing displays, or ordering a new set of posters; that's tantamount to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. With something close to the same consequences.

I am talking about really significant change in how you display and message. That is why we started Looknglas Window Video Systems: To usher in an entirely new medium for retailers to exploit and change the way they do business.

Customers will buy if you show them your best product, and your best selling proposition. It's that simple. Either you have product that is important and relevant, or you don't. If you do, then displaying it the same old way, will not sell more product.

You must put more product, in a more compelling way, on display RIGHT NOW, and change it up tomorrow. Competition is moving too fast. You must improve the buying experience, otherwise customers will go elsewhere, or just not spend their money. You must message to them, relate to them, bribe them, entice them, cajole them, reason with them, excite them, and service them.

You have to do it in a compelling way. Dummies in the window doesn't quite do it anymore. This is the hi-tech age, and dummies are hundreds of years old, static, and uninteresting. Put a live model in your window, or better (cheaper anyway,) put a Digital Mannequin in your window. Or a large-scale Window Video System (Digital Window Display.) These are large, colorful, moving, and changeable from one moment to the next. You can literally change campaigns in the middle of the day.

Wow them. Bowl them over. Intrigue them. Invite them. But just don't bore them with the same old stuff.

Looknglas, the Window of Opportunity is Here.

LCDs - TV on the Ceiling. So What?

That is what the customer thinks when they see an LCD in your business. I have no doubt about this, because I make it a point to observe people when an LCD is present in a retail business. Most people ignore them. Even in lobbies and waiting rooms, usually they are ignored.

That is because someone is failing to make them relevant or useful to the customer!

Dick Morris is famous for his line to Bill Clinton when running for the presidency: "It's the economy stupid!"

Well, I have a modified take on that, which is the key to selling and buying digital signage, whether DOOH or in-house.

It's not the hardware; IT'S THE CONTENT AND USAGE!

Technological hardware will never achieve anything or solve anything or improve anything if you don't use it effectively. This is what's wrong with so many lcd installations. We just pitched a company who has edgy, hip, imagery, product, and branding, but they haven't even integrated their retail store lcd deployment, and they aren't using them for messaging.

LCDs as a medium have to work that much harder to overcome the unspoken but manifest bias in customer's minds that they are just TVs (and not even as good as the one at home.) Much better to jolt that viewer with a Window Video System (WVS) and then message them into doing what you want them to do. Ideally that should be something sales-related, or at the very least, something trackable. But always lean toward selling. Otherwise you run the risk of lapsing into that grey area where business justifications start to veer away from dollars, sense, and profit.

LCDs - Problems with DS

So much of Digital Signage (DS) is focused on LCD screens, and LED types of boards. Much of the implementation is kinda clunky. It seems that the DS Industry is dominated by techies, and even the people who plan advertising campaigns are often not real swift at creating compelling ads or playlists.

Further, many retailers have installed LCD screens, but are merely streaming television or just a limited playlist loop. I think of a restaurant chain here in Southern California with a beach theme; they play surf videos non-stop. Neat-o. (But I thought they wanted to sell more burgers?!!!) Many clothing chains have LCD screens playing music videos. As if that has something to do with selling clothes.

I don't know; I guess I'm not sophisticated enough to realize how useful that is. From my point of view, I would rather spend 5 minutes selling than 5 weeks entertaining. I think, ideally, the retailers would too, but the ad industry and their own in-house marketing people probably have them bamboozled into thinking they have to do this.

Or then there's "Walmart TV". Large LCD's hanging in Walmart stores playing who knows what. Sound on, blah blah blah, some fake tv show. I have never observed anyone standing there watching those things. I think it's because the content is pretty useless relative to making a buying decision right now.

So Looknglas works with clients to create and mnanage content designed to sell, to cement their relationship with their customers, to motivate them to buy something else, RIGHT NOW. Or to cross pollinate with the client's web-based strategies. Or to get the customer to use their mobile phone to get a promotional benefit, offer, coupon, whatever.

Because of this lack of focus in the use of LCD's, Looknglas now offers integration and management of existing LCD's. A chain with standalone LCDs in their stores can now have a network that runs company-designed playlists, updated as often as everyday, with new, fresh selling messages.

So now companies can leverage their existing investment into something a lot more powerful and effective. A few low cost digital control devices installed, and Voila! Instant retail POP network prodding customers to buy more. Yeah!!! Use technology to make more sales and more money?! What a concept!

Looknglas - Window Video Systems, and LCD System integrators. The Window Of Opportunity is Here.

Why Retail Needs Window Video Systems II

"I am told that the clinical definition of insanity is the tendency to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results."

Whoever said this, might have been having a prescient moment, contemplating the current state of retail in the US. What seems to pass for creativity in display is video screens playing music videos. Many clothing retailers have perfectly good product, some of it really good, that goes unsold because they cannot attract enough customers.

Yet retailers continue to do the same old things, display-wise, over and over again, while watching their sales go down, and their competition (online retailers) eat their lunch.

Many are targeting a "younger demo", but the problem is that younger demo is extremely distracted, and putting your clothes on mannequins in the store window or interior simply does not attract attention to the product when your prospective customers are busy texting or talking or surfing on their smart phone.

HELLOOOHHH! Something bigger, better, more interesting and attention grabbing is due. Like yesterday.

Window Video Systems bridge this technology chasm between retail clothier's product and the technology-fascinated target audience. WVS brings the product to life, a la the Digital Mannequin. Digital Mannequin puts the clothes front and center, and displays them on moving "live" models so you can actually have an idea what they will look like on YOU.

Displaying clothing by hanging it on a rack, or even in the window, or putting it on a dummy, just won't cut it. It will not attract the eye, because, again, the target is already distracted, and the mall environment is already crowded with many of the same such displays. Your clothing cannot compete for attention all by itself!

Retailers need not limit themselves anymore, since Window Video Systems can provide all the flexibility they could want and then some. The Digital Mannequin provides superior "real life" display of the product, while simultaneously allowing the retailer to create sizzle with a myriad of potential effects, such as different backgrounds, the model moving, changing poses, acting natural, pricing, promos, and offers displayed alongside the model, etc., etc., etc. The potential for much more diverse types of messaging is there.

More importantly, the potential to completely transform retail store marketing and messaging into a strategy for producing direct and trackable sales results, just went through the roof.

Looknglas Window Video Systems exists to help retailers design their own cutting edge strategy for more effective POP display and Direct Response store marketing.

Why Retail Needs Window Video Systems

Retail really needs a helping hand. Internet sales are eating their lunch. The mall effect is not working as well as it once did. Retailers have lost the initiative to online sellers, and are not doing enough to retake the ground they have lost. But the reality is, they will always be viable if they adjust. They do have advantages over online sellers.

Some of those advantages are: You cannot try on clothes online. You cannot see how they will look on you. You can't see how they will fit on you. You can't tell how the clothing feels. You can't handle it. You can't see how it looks with other items, and on and on. So many important advantages. What does the internet offer?

Price and convenience. Sort of.

But the downsides are, you do have to use a credit card, exposing yourself to the dangers of online fraud, and you do have to wait for the clothes to arrive, and you do have to wait to find out any "surprises" that may require that you send the merchandise back, and importantly, you have no human assistance. And others as well.

Retailers need to fight this battle more effectively, and they simply haven't stepped up.

Window Video Systems can help them in many ways. WVS is a more powerful, attractive way for retailers to communicate with buyers. They can display much more merchandise. They can do it more effectively, with the Digital Mannequin, for example. Casual passersby can be quickly converted into buyers using the Digital Mannequin to attract their attention, show them how the products look (on a "live" model) and tell them instantly how much and what their sales incentive is (selling proposition). Then inside the store they can cement the sale with a touchscreen self-ordering system, so that they don't lose the sale and have the customer walk out just because they don't have the right size in stock.

Retailers can also use WVS to drive traffic instantly to their website and back again to the store with coupon downloads via cellphone or wireless offer. Retailers can start to win the game again, but they need to wake up and be willing to make the smart investment, instead of wasting money on things like LCD screens that play music videos. That kind of investment may add "ambience" but will drive them into financial oblivion.

Window Video Systems can and will revolutionize retail display and marketing, and produce tangible ROI. Will retailers have the eyes and the dollars and sense to see that for themselves? As a retail display professional, you need to take the initiative.

Call us, and let Looknglas help you design a winning Digital Signage solution. That's why we say "The Window Of Opportunity is Here."

Projected Digital Signage

Our company, Looknglas Window Video Systems, specializes in projected Digital Signage. We call it "Window Video Systems", which is our way of describing projected images on window or storefront glass.

Not a lot of people are out there doing this. In fact, although you can find websites for companies that specialize in rear projection, the ability to execute this type of imaging and messaging at a price point that companies are willing to spring for, is something that most integrators haven't seemed to arrive at. Don't get me wrong, there are people who have managed to sell installations here and there, but it doesn't appear that anyone has decided to make it their business.

We have, and whether that is a smart thing from a business perspective will be proven by history! The advantages that projected Digital Signage provide are: lower cost for size, and flexibility for size and location of the image. You simply cannot install an LCD screen in a business window without it looking like a tv stuck in the storefront. No matter how hi-def the image, people are going to have something of similar quality at home in their living room, so a great deal of the power of the effect is lost.

Moving, video images, directly on glass, now that's cool, and worth stopping to look at. When the image shows you how good you're going to look in these clothes, and how little it will cost you, now that's a money-maker!

We have a clear, linear model for how projected Digital Signage, and Window Video Systems, will make money and drive sales for the retailer. The ability to demonstrate how these systems go beyond the "wow" factor, and actually produce revenues is essential.

That is our mission. We think we are on track so far.

Making a buck in the Digital Age

There is so much cool technology out there. So many different ways to create an effect. It sounds strange, but to me, LCD screens seem almost quaint. After all, the effect, in most cases is pretty much like a tv mounted somewhere in business. When you get to larger sizes, then the effect is like the screens in sports stadiums. So here you have this emerging giant, Digital Signage, awakening, and yet the available technology for delivery is actually far beyond what most businesses will be purchasing for quite some time.

The point is, technology has already far outstripped the market's willingness to buy. It is not merely a matter of familiarity, but more important, a necessity to make your systems cost effective to the user/buyer. This is where a lot of the leading edge stuff (touch screens, wifi integrated screens and projections) lose their way, (in this writer's opinion.) You can never forget what is in the customer's mind:

"How does this make me money?"

Your DOOH system had better be good at helping your client make money, in an easy to understand way, or you will have a tough time selling the systems on a repeated, broad basis. So you are not just in the hardware sales business, and you are not just in the digital advertising business, you are in the Business Development business. Get used to it. And adjust your sales and presentation methods accordingly. That is the key to survival and growth in this economy. Which, by the way, is not going to return to the "good old days" anytime soon.

Digital Signage has an immense potential to generate sales and move product for business, but we have to show them how the technology will do that.

Fatal Attraction

I like that title because it's catchy, but in reality, for retailers, creating attraction is their life blood. You can't sell product until you figure out how to attract customers. This is true online, and it's more true in the brick and mortar world than ever before.

Window Video Systems (WVS) is one of the most powerful methods of attraction to come along in a long time. There are few things in today's retail environment as dynamic and visually powerful as a well implemented Digital Window Display featuring product in use, directly on the storefront window. Our Digital Mannequin concept is a great example of this. Why would a retailer be satisfied with putting clothes on a lifeless, static, motionless dummy, (with or without hair, makeup, facial or other anatomically correct features) when they can have a "live" video model showing off the product in its entirety, along with accessories, with the outfits changing repeatedly?
(See Youtube Digital Mannequin video:) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO7upknEiGk

WVS and specifically, Digital Mannequin, are extremely potent when combined with the right imagery, promotional content, and selling propositions. Anything you can do with video, can now be put directly onto the storefront window, in large scale. The Digital Signage industry is throwing confetti over the ability to put tv screens (LCDs, video walls, etc.) in businesses, but even the largest of those types of screens shrink down in the actual retail environment. WVS allows the retailer to go large, and right out front, affordably, with much simpler equipment install.

WVS puts the product, and the selling message front and center where they belong, in large scale. THAT'S how you attract business!

How to Transform a Car Dealership

There are not a lot of things a business can consider, short of remodeling, that will completely transform the physical appearance and perception of their business, without killing their budget.

Window Video Systems strategically placed, in large scale on the windows throughout the dealership, will do exactly that. If you look at the photo in this blog, you can see how the digital image of the car is lighting up the window over the showroom door. What you can't see, is the customer's reaction, and what they are thinking as they walk up.

"Wow! That's cool!"

Creating a very positive impression as your customer walks in your door is huge. The same is true for literally any retail business, and even some non-retail situations where the customer or client's first impression is essential to the transaction.

Even one Window Video System, strategically placed front and center for the customer's viewing, will create a completely different and more positive impression of the business and it's products, services, and even people. An essential key is the content of the WVS display. Video is great, movement is attractive, but a really good presentation of image along with a strong selling proposition is what drives sales and profit. I leave the marketing analysis to people who like that; numbers and data without transactions don't excite me. But this is a system and method that can and will drive sales, and dealers are starting to sit up and notice. If every window in a dealership is working to convince that customer of why buying now is a good idea, sales are going to go up. That's why we say, "The Window of Opportunity is Here."

What is a Window Video System?

In a nutshell, a Window Video System (WVS) is a system, typically, rear projection, whereby a business can display moving images directly onto window glass. Another way to describe it is, what if your posters or banners which hang in your windows, could change their messages? What if the messages could move?

The power and effectiveness of that type of signage and messaging would be enormous. It is many times more powerful and effective than static signs, posters or banners. It is much more attention grabbing than digital readouts. It is even much more exciting and interesting, more attention-grabbing, than LCD screens which have become popular in businesses.

We use projectors, strategically mounted to project images on window panes, which have been specially treated. Then we use digital players, activated by a programmed timer, and fed images and video data via digital signage control systems over the internet. This allows us to load images and messages, and manage and control them remotely. Lastly, we provide video/signage graphics, production, and management services.

There is no one out there, that we know of, besides Looknglas WVS, who is doing this.

The advantages are significant.

Businesses can message LARGER. (Large LCD screens are prohibitively costly.)
Businesses can message MORE. You are limited primarily by the hours in the day.
Businesses can message BETTER. Messages, phrases, sales incentives, discounts, images, product education, etc. call all be accomplished in real time with the one system.
Businesses can message in MORE DEPTH.
Businesses can CHANGE MESSAGES QUICKLY. This is simply a matter of planning, or close communication with the management team.
Businesses can DISPLAY MORE EFFECTIVELY. Imagine being able to display all of your inventory!
Businesses can RESPOND QUICKLY TO MARKET CHANGES.
Businesses can ATTRACT MORE CUSTOMERS.
Businesses can MOTIVATE AND PRE-CONDITION CUSTOMERS.

In fact, Window Video Systems are virtually infinitely superior to traditional signage methods.

When Business figures out these advantages there will be a rush to implement WVS. Fortunately, even as we speak, component pricing are dropping quickly, which makes WVS even more cost effective relative to LCD technology.

WVS is the future of Signage.

Digital Signage - The Wave is Building

When I'm surfing, it's a lot harder to catch a wave that is not yet ready to break. The key to catching a lot of waves is to get in position and paddle hard right before the wave is ready to break. If you try to catch the wave before it's about to break, you'll do a lot of paddling, and not much catching. If you try to catch it after it's already broken, the energy from the breaking crest and all the whitewater will knock you down, roll over you, and leave you behind.

You have to catch the wave just before it crests.

Digital Signage is a wave that's building, and almost ready to crest. It's almost ready to break. Looknglas, a company devoted to Window Video Systems, and rear projection, is positioning and "paddling hard" (to continue the metaphor.)

Window Video Systems are our proprietary term for what we do: We make video and moving messages appear directly on windows.

Ordinarily, if you were to try to project an image on a window, the light would simply pass through the glass and no one would notice. We treat the glass so that the glass holds the image in bright, hi-contrast, and we use various technologies to manage the projection system. In essence, you don't want a display system you have to turn on and off. Ours does that by itself. And as a retailer, you don't really want to have to become a Digital Signage manager; we do that for you. And you don't want to have to render video, or convert images, or create new moving images, you just want the thing to do what you want it to do. We provide the creative and production and management services to make Window Video Systems work. That might sound expensive, but it's really not. We have distilled the technology and methodology down to a tight, no-hassle system and service. Kind of like having a website built, updated and managed/hosted for you. Yeah, all that costs, something, but when you use it right---it's very worth it.

Looknglas Window Video Systems far outstrip posters, banners, and window paint. They are far superior to LCD screens. How? We can go much larger, and we become more inexpensive the larger we go, in contrast to LCD. We also are superior in that we provide the full array of service to make the system work well for the client/business.

Window Video Systems represent a completely new medium that will be with us for a long time to come. These systems allow for a much more accurate and comprehensive display of product, as well as sales or even educational messaging that changes and updates ongoing. Business has no category for window video systems, but they will learn to love them. This is a wave that will roll for a long time, and it's gonna be one heck of a ride.

Retail Display

There are all kinds of ways people do retail display. Window displays, signs, posters, neon signs, Digital signage, LCD screens, video walls, mannequins, product racks, on and on and on. Most of them aren't very exciting in their execution, which of course, is more critical even, than the medium itself. But if you don't have a good medium, your method suffers, and your message gets hurt even worse: mangled, strangled, tangled, dissed, missed, lost, tossed, and all at great cost. People just won't consider your message if it isn't executed well, and DELIVERED well.

That's why we came up with Window Video Systems. For many years people would plaster posters or banners in their business windows, or sometimes, even paint their windows. Many car dealerships and other retailers still do this. Boy, talk about cheesy. But if the message is right enough, or motivating enough, it will overcome the cheesy delivery system and method.

But Hey, this is 2010---why live with Cheesy if you don't have to?

Window Video Systems put your business message right on the glass of your storefront window. Amazing. Awesome. Cool. Interesting. Attractive. Eye-catching, attention-grabbing, flat-out better. Moving, changing messages on your window. MOVING. CHANGING.

Get it? You are able to do a much better job of conveying your message to potential customers. Imagine being able to display every single item in your inventory, right in your window on a rotating basis!

Window Video Systems use rear projection, video, wireless, the internet, digital signage control, and various other elements to accomplish this, but the end result is that now your business can display product and messages, large scale, on a changing basis, with movement, color and sizzle right on your storefront. Why wouldn't you want that?!!!

Imagine, a Digital Mannequin? Yeah, actual live-looking models modeling clothing, accessories, and other products right in the storefront window. Oh, hey! We have that on our website! Did I mention it's affordable?

As a retail, signage, digital signage, advertising professional, you need to know about Looknglas Window Video Systems. Message us, call us, or check out Looknglas' Youtube videos.

Attention Investors: We are interested in the right "Angel Investor" relationship.

Thing One

"In the beginning was the Word..."

I don't want to in any way compare what we do to the meaning of that phrase, but from a business messaging standpoint, it is very illustrative of the importance of your message. It is the articulated word that defines an entity, or an endeavor.

If you don't have the right word or message for who or what you are, everything else suffers, often fatally.

This is why your message must be right. This is why you continue to work on it, refine it, hone it, grow it, distill it.

Because nothing valuable happens without doing that. Say what you will, do what you will, if you start with the wrong message, you are working uphill with an avalanche coming at you. Business is challenging enough as it is, with competition breathing down your neck, or worse, eating your lunch. So get your message right, and get it out there pointedly, targeted, aggressively, consistently, repeatedly. Do it right. Do it better. Do it louder. Do it more.