Split Screen = Divided Loyalties

I know this has been addressed before by other of my fellow curmudgeons keeping an eye on the doings in DOOH.  Yet the issue remains:

More than one message per screen diminishes the effectiveness of the whole.  The infamous "L".  A main screen, with a column on the right or left side, accompanied by a lower banner across the entire bottom of the screen, often with a data stream.

Two words:  TOO BUSY!

I know this will not stop anyone from using this screen configuration.  I know it will not stop the average ad salesperson from trying to sell all those different screen opportunities.  But people, please, listen: as a visual layout, this absolutely blows!

The next time you see a digital screen in the marketplace, if it has this layout, I want you to consciously try to notice whether your own eye finds it easy to take in all the messages, images and data that this format presents.  I already know the answer.

I totally agree that all of the small screen should be utilized; just not in this manner.  This is a content creation issue.  This is an issue of actually thinking about your viewer, and caring about whether they will care.  Your content better be interesting and relevant.  It better grab their attention and deliver the "goods" (message) in a meaningful, useful way, or you risk committing the deadly sin of diminishing (or even completely immasculating) your own medium.

Focus on the want/need/interest/preference of your target viewer.  Spend some serious time and money on your content development.  You might make a little money this month with a poor ad campaign on behalf of your clients, but not next month.  If it does not work, they will not continue to buy.  If your network does not produce the desired effect (usually some measurable business-related result) your clients will stop buying and go elsewhere.  There are too many opportunities and options available to their ad dollar.

There may (on rare occasions) be legitimate times to utilize a split screen, but I can't think of what they are off-hand.  Don't divide your screen (message).  Better to shorten your ad units and ad more inventory, than to have multiple disparate messages on one screen at the same time.

Selling WVS: Who to Leave Out

"This could work anywhere!"

It's tempting to think that way, very tempting. But probably fatal. Window Video Systems are cool, very cool.

And WVS will "work" in a large variety of venues and applications. But don't get greedy, and don't get wild. Find a niche you know, a niche whose needs you are very familiar with, where you have experience selling into, or for. Know that niche intimately, so you can USE WVS TO FILL THE NEED! That is where the money is. Not merely wowing a few diverse clients here and there. Know your chosen niche well, and develop your own ideas of how you would use WVS, particularly, to create PROFIT for your target client/user. How would you prove or demonstrate that PROFIT/return?

As mentioned in the previous post, the numbers on ROI/effectiveness of Digital Signage are coming in, and they are all good, baby. But it's up to you to know them and how they can apply to your chosen market, segment or niche.

So where do YOU think WVS will be successful? What market or segment are YOU expert in? Here are just some of the retail segments we like:

Auto Dealerships
Jewelry Stores
Retail Clothing
Design Studios
Hair Salons
Cellular Stores
Supermarkets
Electronics/Appliance Stores
Clubs
Bars
Restaurants

We could go on. Any large chain in any one of these segments would make a nice career. But you can't sell all of them, because no one can be really good at penetrating and effectively serving ALL those markets. So which do you leave out, and shich ONE would you choose?

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.