The "I" effect on Digital Signage

I love my iPhone.  Ipad owners love their iPads.  Ipod users love their iPods.

You know why that is?  Because they're great products: they're well-designed and they work great and do more than you really need them to, but it's great just knowing they can do all that cool stuff.

Digital Signage and Digital Out of Home devices have only partial coolness.  The technology is usually pretty good, but content and ease of use, as well as method, are hit and miss.

That is the great burden which we must bear and find ways to ease:  we live in a generation that is conditioned to unbelievably great products like what Apple has produced and ubiquitously popularized, so everything and everyone else has to try to measure up.  This is a heavy burden indeed.

With DS and DOOH there are very very few places you can go to receive the type of integrated great end result for purposes like retail, at a cost effective price.  The hardware company wants to sell their components, the SaaS or Signage management company wants to sell you their system, the integrator wants to tell you they can put it all together for you, and the content provider wants sell you on their content capabilities.  Imagine if iPhones were sold that way.

You'll argue that apps have to be sold or downloaded separately.  True, but the devices themselves come with so many useful apps and valuable capability, and then the downloading of free apps is so easy, that DS and DOOH pale by comparison.  It is not a end-user-friendly proposition, especially for retailers.

But that is what it needs to be.  Discovering the right level of user tolerance and acceptance/ease-of-use is the task.

I put it to you retail merchandisers:  What would you expect to pay for a Digital Signage solution that was easy for you to use on a daily basis in your store window?  More specifically, what would you expect to pay for a window video system, like a Digital Mannequin, such as the one shown here:

Or such as the one depicted here in the Oakley store:

I would be interested in all your thoughts on pricing such systems.  Let me know!

Engagement is the Goal? What about the Wedding?!

I read a lot about engagement these days, especially as it relates to social media, but also as it relates to DS and DOOH.

One guy wrote:  "It's all about engagement!"

I said to myself, "really?"

If I had told that to my wife in response to her questions about wedding planning, I think there would have been a major sit-down-hash-it-out discussion.

Social media promoters keep telling us it's all about the engagement, but as a consumer/viewer/target audience member, I want to know "When's the wedding?"  What's in it for me?  What's the pay off?  Where's the beef?

And every good business decision maker asks the same thing from their point of view:  "When's this stuff going to start producing a profit for us?"

Engagement is good, but it is only a step in the process which must lead to a wedding, a consummation, a business transaction.  There's got to be a point to it, at least, for us business people who want to make money.

So here's my point:  Engage me, FOR THE PURPOSE OF LEADING ME TO PURCHASE.  If you want to make money, you must engage for the purpose of having a business relationship.  Not just any old relationship, not a casual fling, or a one-night stand.  An honest-to-goodness business relationship, where something is actually sold, something purchased, a want or need is met.

If it's only about engagement, that sounds like an exercise in futility and time-wasting.  I would not suggest investing a cent in a game, event, or display if it doesn't lead, in a direct way, to a purchase, and a successful, satisfying, win-win "relationship".

Now that's something I can "Like".

Look--but don't Touch!

Touch screens are becoming more and more commonplace in the retail environment.  In the search for novelty and "customer engagement" retailers and businesses of other types have installed a variety of touch screen displays for information gathering and general amusement.

When it comes to information gathering, such as kiosks, the touch screen can be useful, but not really necessary.  I happen to prefer pushing buttons to using a touch screen when it comes to getting information or making a transaction.  I like the sensation of feeling or hearing a click when I push on a button.  Touch screens provide no such tactile satisfaction.  In fact, in a lot of cases, they simply don't work very well and require multiple touches or swipes of the finger to produce the desired result.

Talk about FMOT (First Moment of Truth) failure.

Then there's the touch screen "customer engagement" display:  Come and touch the display to play some cheesy game that's not as good as the games I have at home, or to achieve some unimpressive visual result that does nothing for me, produces nothing for me (other than perhaps a momentary diversion) and gains me nothing.

Welcome to customer DIS-engagement.

Don't ever forget: This generation of people cannot be entertained into doing business with you.

Show me something useful, valuable and relevant to ME!  If you try to get me to "touch", you'd better make it worth my while.

Remember, I carry a fantastic touch screen device in my pocket (my iPhone/Android, etc.) that I have customized to my own needs and interests (apps) and I'm in a hurry, so your touch screen had better do something incredible, or you run the fatal risk of becoming irrelevant and/or annoying to me.

Far better to utilize the incredible power of digital visual displays to entice, seduce, interest, inform or engage me.  Show me or tell me something interesting and important to me, and then I'll think about buying from you.  I want to know more about your product, service or offer as it relates to my wants, needs and preferences.  That is all a function of powerful initial display/messaging, which could then possibly could lead to me wanting to "touch".

As businesses and digital communicators we can't put the cart before the horse.  "Touch" isn't necessarily a problem, but it had better lead to a solution.

Change and Motion

One of the great advantages of Digital Signage is that you have the ability to change message.  This does wonders for the sheer volume of messaging afforded to the messager; but it is not by any means the only advantage.

Research has shown that while ongoing motion in images and messaging does not necessarily add to attraction, the onset of motion definitely increases attraction in viewers.

So a big part of the power of Digital Signage is the ability to attract attention by using motion onset, or by the motion inherent in the changing of the message from one message (or screen) to the next.

This, in itself, is a quantum leap for advertisers, display, and other visual communicators.

As this video of the Digital Mannequin illustrates, when that "live" model is up front, doing her thing, the rest of the window display tends to fall out of your view.  That is an example of how overwhelmingly powerful a little change and motion can be in retail and commercial messaging environments.

The projected digital signage systems we use, Window Video Systems (WVS,) allow full motion video, static type messages, limited motion graphics or any combination of all three.

With WVS, change and motion in your messages virtually GUARANTEES eyeballs!  At that point, the only thing limiting your success in selling is whether you can put a selling proposition up there that people are interested in!

Don't worry if you don't have a graphics department.  We provide digital content production and messaging, as do many others.  What matters is putting change and motion to work for you to sell more.

IPhone to run your DS?

After viewing this video, a number of people have inquired whether they could do something like this for their retail signage.

The answer is, "well, yeah, I guess, if you really wanted to..." but why?  I suspect it reflects a desire to try something cool with their iPhone which they already have, so then, "All I'd have to get is that little projector and a screen-thingy like that!"

Which really is great.  I know I sound like I'm laughing at them, and it is kind of amusing, but it is also great that people think DS is cool and want to try something with it.  And at some point, this could make sense.  But the great thing is that this is one of the great advantages that we, in the DS and DOOH field have, is that our stuff is (potentially) really cool.

But not guaranteed cool.  Again, CONTENT (and method) is KING!  It's about effective use of our cool gadgetry.  It's all about effect and business-related results!  We have absolutely got to keep our eye on the prize, which is to produce a business result.

Cool, exciting imagery will sell some systems, but a measure-able ROI-related result is what wins the game.  Make sure you, too, don't get too caught up in all the features and benefits of your system, software and components.  If you are not working with top-flight content or content producers, you need to change that, right away.  If you don't know where to look for that, let us know.  If you have a superior content producer that has produced great content that produces ROI for you, let us know as well; we are always interested in winners.

A Bright Idea - Light diffusion

A very common problem with digital signage window displays is reflectivity of the window glass, particularly in outdoor environments with direct sunlight.

The issue is twofold:  First, your signage is not, and will never be, brighter than the sun.  Second, the surface of the window is reflective, picking up every primary, as well as secondary (or reflective) light source which ultimately wreaks havoc with your window display.

One possible solution is installing anti-reflective film on the exterior surface of the window.  Light diffusive film can be an ally in making your display pop better to passing viewers.

Another solution is LED signage, which is very effective (at distance) but with pixels more obvious at close up range.

We are interested in your thoughts on solutions for the ongoing battle with the sun.  What have your results been?

Measure! Measure! Measure!

"If you don't measure it, you're not serious about it."  I heard Tony Robbins say that, and I believe, oh yes, I believe.

BUT, what you spend your time (and money) on measuring is a critical distinction.  So many are focused and measuring eyeballs, footfalls and what-all other traffic-related metrics.  Fine and dandy.  Those will possibly do you some good when trying to sell to agencies.  But you will not convince me (or them) that those metrics are all you need in order to steer their placement dollars your way.

That's the same school as those enamored of "page views" and clicks.

Big deal.  Is there value to know that?  Sure.  Will it help you sell more?  Possibly.  But once again, I mount my hobby horse and ride across the digital landscape sounding the alarm, waking the sleepers to the critical task at hand:  "ROI!  ROI, ROI!!!"

More and more, companies are prioritizing action and transaction based metrics.  This is why "engagement" has become so popular, but it too, can be a mere siren, luring the unsuspecting DOOH investor and network owner onto the rocks of wasted investment and even business failure due to insufficient ROI.

Action, and better yet, transaction is highest and best.  If all you can manage is traffic, then measure as much and as deep as you can.  But if you can create a metric for action and transaction related measurement, which is more of a marketing/sales related function, then that is where the investment in time and money are better spent.  Develop trackable campaigns and messaging.  Promote engagement via mobile, tactile or best of all POP purchasing action.  Be sure, when you can to propose dedicated selling propositions, something which can only be attributed to the action coming as a result of seeing your visual deployment.

Carefully tracking those actions and their financial value is paramount.  Dollars always compare favorably to digital increments like impressions or views.

"15% off all women's left shoes" placed only on your screens, is a message that is trackable.  The only way anyone asks for that, you know, is if they saw it on your screen, since it is a unique message.  This is what is meant by a "dedicated offer".

Always use dedicated offers whenever possible and ensure that your tracking system is sound (that you have a reliable way of capturing that data.)  That is where you gain the edge in selling (advertising, and more displays) with your DOOH displays.