Digital Signage Insider Blog

P&G's Store Back: Why DOOH Will Be Critical to Campaign Planning

Bill Gerba

This month's Shopper Marketing magazine features an interesting article on a P&G program dubbed "Store Back," which encourages the firm's plethora of media agencies to consider the retail environment when coming up with marketing campaigns. Noting that big media ideas dished up by highfalutin traditional agencies don't always translate well into store-level fixtures and media, Store Back dictates that the in-store executions get considered first. If they work well at-retail, they can be converted for use with other communication channels and media. If not, the brand won't suffer from having an otherwise great above-the-line campaign that can't effectively be applied in-store, at the First Moment of Truth. If Store Back and other similar programs do indeed take off with agencies, they may represent the best chance the digital signage industry has encountered to involve above-the-line media agencies in digital out-of-home campaigns. Plus, the Store Back approach might pave the way for content and campaigns that work better and are more tightly integrated with traditional media.

How does Store Back work?

According to P&G's Phil Duncan, the program encourages brand teams and agencies to "start with the store in mind as they evaluate their big ideas, because what we have found is we actually develop better big ideas if we think about the store first and work our way back." Working on the premise that "if it doesn't work in the store, it doesn't work," P&G's own internal brand managers are working with the agencies that represent them to refine the way product campaigns are created. As Andy Murray from Saatchi & Saatchi X notes, "you still start with the idea." But that idea gets tested, either literally or figuratively at the store level, before being considered for a wider rollout on the Internet, mobile, print and TV. Consequently, ideas that can't be properly demonstrated in the retail environment may get left behind, while those that excel in the selling space will be given a more prominent role in mainstream media and marketing channels.

And this is good for DOOH?

Image credit: Robert Couse-Baker

You bet, and for a few reasons. Those mainstream media agencies aren't going to "get" marketing at-retail any time soon, so their impulse will still be to go with what they know. More often than not, that means TV. Since the most similar in-store medium to TV is digital signage, we'll be seen as the "low-hanging fruit" in their quest to transition to a Store Back-like mentality. From a content and execution standpoint, we'll see plenty of mistakes in the short run. But these will be mistakes that the agencies can learn from at their own pace, without us having to harangue them (which I think just encourages them to ignore us more).

Additionally, as the agencies become more adept at this kind of work, in-store digital media will become a natural part of their repertoire -- again, without us having to wring our hands and explain how great DOOH really is. With first-hand experience and at the demand of major marketers like P&G, they'll be forced to experiment and adapt, or else potentially lose business in their bread-and-butter business areas like TV commercials. Let's face it: big media agencies aren't going to bother with our fickle little networks unless there's a big reason (read: $$$) to do so. P&G and other store-centric brands have deep pockets. They've also shown a willingness to both try out new things in-store and push their agencies around to get them done. Initiatives like Store Back thus offer a compelling reason for big agencies to look at digital signage right now -- maybe even on the customer's dime.

Can we speed things along?

I doubt it. Don't get me wrong -- I'd love to help push agencies in the right direction. But if P&G is only just starting this program and other marketers haven't even embraced it yet, there's little hope that our ragtag band of misfits has any hope of changing things. And the very sparse attendance of agencies at events like DSE's Content Day indicates that they're not (yet) really interested in the educational expertise and advice that we have to offer. Expect this to change as Store Back and similar programs become the norm (if they do), but it seems unlikely that we can do anything to hurry this along.

Wait, so we can't do anything?

Well, I've come to the conclusion that it's a waste of time to go after the Madison Avenue clan. If they have a client that wants or needs to do some digital signage work, they'll call us. But trying to push them into more complex, less lucrative digital signage work from the bottom up seems implausible right now.

Where we can make some potential headway is with digital agencies who are already doing digital out-of-home-esque things. Twitter, Foursquare, social networks and viral video are being adopted as legitimate techniques by large, respectable digital agencies working for large, respectable clients. The unique properties and capabilities of digital signs offer a lot of synergistic opportunities with those channels. If you're planning to lobby an agency, I'd focus on one of these guys first. You'll at least be speaking (approximately) the same language.

P&G's earlier work on the "First Moment of Truth" added much-needed legitimacy to the marketing at-retail argument. Do you think Store Back will have the same effect? Will it be more or less important? Leave a comment below and let us know.

Click here to leave a comment

What's WireSpring's Blog All About? WireSpring provides hardware, software and services for digital signage and kiosk projects. But our blog is a labor of love. Our posts cover everything from case studies to creative briefs, and are authored by some of the industry's most well-respected leaders.

Why I'm (kinda) Excited About DSE 2010: POPAI, MicroTiles and More

Bill Gerba

Like many of you I'll be heading to Las Vegas shortly to visit the industry's big trade show, the Digital Signage Expo. The nice thing about the show is that it has become a de-facto meeting time for vendors, clients, partners and (dare I say it) friends, and has spawned a number of other meetings and events that take place at the same time. There's sure to be plenty of eye-popping tech on display, and I'm certain that the hyperbole will be thick enough to cut with a knife. But I'm most looking forward to spending a little time with clients on the floor, and then catching up with folks in a few of the side-lined events.

POPAI's technical standards meeting

Yes, I'm one of those digital signage geeks who can actually get charged up about attending a standards committee meeting. For what it's worth, the POPAI Digital Signage Standards Group shindig at the DSE is one of those rare opportunities for a bunch of smart people who normally compete with each other to get together for the greater good. During the meeting, we'll take the time to exchange ideas and compare approaches to the various problems we've all had to solve over the years. The goal is to work out some of the details for our standard for creating playlists that are interoperable with many different digital signage software packages. While our weekly meetings are generally restricted to members of the group, anybody can attend our live events (held at DSE and Infocomm). The discussion always starts out with a broad overview of past accomplishments and current goals, though after that the discussion can definitely get pretty technical. Still, if you or anyone you know would like to stop by and join the meeting, you'll be more than welcome. We'll be meeting in room N260 at the LVCC on Wednesday afternoon from 4:15-6 pm.

Seeing MicroTiles up close

Image credit: DailyDOOH

I've heard a lot of exciting things about MicroTiles over the past few months, but for one reason or another, I haven't yet been able to see them up-close. That'll change on the DSE show floor, where MicroTiles will be on display in a number of places. In case you haven't heard about this technology, Christie's MicroTiles are basically small projection screens that can be stacked in virtually any configuration to make nearly-seamless, high-definition video screens in all sorts of weird shapes and sizes. They've gotten a really good reception from digital signage and AV industry experts who've seen them up-close, and WireSpring's own limited opportunities to work with them have proven very positive so far.

Gaggles of new, small-form-factor Atom and ION players

Ever since Intel released their Atom processor in early 2008, we've had prospects and customers ask about using Atom-based systems for digital signage applications. That's not too surprising, since you can get a tiny, Atom-powered PC for about $200. While we haven't been too impressed with straight Atom offerings, some of our customers have had great success with Atom-based PCs that use NVIDIA's ION chipset to do things like HD video acceleration. While these devices were few and far between in 2009, 2010 seems to be the year of the Atom/ION combo. In fact, I expect that a number of little booths in the back of the show hall will be demonstrating inexpensive, tiny media players capable of driving full-HD video, with power to spare.

The Preset Group's first annual mixer

I have to imagine that Dave Haynes, Pat Hellberg and David Weinfeld know how to throw a party, but come Tuesday night I'll know for sure. The dynamic trio (and founders of the Preset Group) are hosting a pre-DSE kickoff mixer that sold out within 24 hours of being publicly announced. At about 200 people, it's big enough to be productive (and fun), but small enough to stay intimate (and hopefully quieter than the jet-engine caliber din of the DSE's own open house the next day). I'll be looking forward to catching up with old acquaintances in a vendor-neutral environment, and possibly watching Haynes do some cage dancing after one too many vodka and tonics.

When it comes to finding sources of digital spectacle in Las Vegas, I've just scratched the tip of the iceberg. But to me, these things will go a long way towards making my trip to DSE interesting and hopefully worthwhile. And I'm sure that everybody heading out there this week has an agenda of their own. So tell me...

What are you looking for at DSE? Which other events shouldn't be missed? Leave a comment below to keep us informed!

By the way, if you need to get a hold of me during the show, I've set up a special email address that goes right to my Blackberry. Just email billg-dse@wirespring.com and I'll get back to you as quickly as I can.

Click here to leave a comment

What's WireSpring's Blog All About? WireSpring provides hardware, software and services for digital signage and kiosk projects. But our blog is a labor of love. Our posts cover everything from case studies to creative briefs, and are authored by some of the industry's most well-respected leaders.

Digital Signage Federation to Digital Signage Association: It's On!

Bill Gerba

The big news in digital signage circles this week may require you to pull out your acronym dictionary. You see, ExpoNation, the parent company of the Digital Signage Expo (DSE), announced the creation of the Digital Signage Federation (DSF), an organization to rival the Digital Signage Association (DSA), which is owned by NetWorld Alliance (NWA). Can the two associations coexist and thrive? Is the DSA SOL? Could the DSF be DOA? IMO it's a bit more complicated than thinking that one group or the other will prevail to the detriment of the other. After all, we're all in this together, right?

Alphabet soup

All kidding aside, what the industry is now facing is a showdown between two for-profit groups backing two different industry organizations. And I say showdown because, despite whatever political posturing may be going on in public, it's clear to all that our tiny little industry simply doesn't need two dedicated organizations to foster education, advocacy and similar goals. Simply put, NetWorld Alliance, the publishing company behind DigitalSignageToday.com, has been nurturing the Digital Signage Association for several years now. The group has been very successful in signing up members, and has held a number of well-attended webinars and talks, but has been hampered by the fact that they're essentially owned and operated by NWA. Meanwhile, many digital signage companies have been critical of ExpoNation for running a successful trade show but not doing enough to be an advocate for the industry.

Image credit: C'est la Viva

While the formation of the not-for-profit Digital Signage Federation would seem to be a sign of ExpoNation's desire to play nice with the industry veterans that pay for all that exhibit space at the DSE, the announcement of the DSF was not met with universal enthusiasm. For example, Adrian Cotterill -- perennial fuss pot that he is -- wondered whether the DSF is "really riding to to the industry's rescue as they described late on Wednesday or is this a knee jerk reaction and an attempt to protect [ExpoNation's] own business interests in the trade show arena?" That's a fair question, since in recent months there has been plenty of gossip in the channel about the DSA pressuring ExpoNation to cede a bit of control of the DSE show over to them (or a similar entity). If that's true (and I'm not saying it is -- you should know it's dangerous to believe everything you hear!), ExpoNation's move to create another organization could be seen as a defensive play. And by making it a bona fide 501(c)(6) not-for-profit, they also nicely side-stepped a lot of the criticism handed down to the DSA and their owners, the for-profit NetWorld Alliance.

Can't we all just get along?

I'd really, really hate to see two anemic organizations competing for resources and mindshare, so it'd be best for ExpoNation and DSA to work out their differences. As Adrian also noted in the article I mentioned above, the DSA folks were due to vote on whether to detach from NetWorld Alliance and become an independent not-for-profit entity next week. With 420 members and a fair amount of inertia, it seems like the best possible outcome would be for the DSA to detach, establish themselves as a new 501(c)(6) -- or become a chapter of some other similar organization -- and have Exponation serve as a contributing member. Or if the DSF really is properly incorporated already, perhaps the DSA simply transfers their membership (and even their name) to the DSF. Either way, the industry would wind up with a single, unified organization with an instant member base, sound financial backing, and an appropriately open and unencumbered legal standing.

  To an outsider like me (WireSpring doesn't belong to either the DSA or the DSF), a single combined organization seem like the best outcome. However, I'm sure that the people looking out from the inside have their own opinion of what the ideal outcome of this situation would be. And considering that next week's DSE show will feature both the general meeting of the DSA and the formal introduction of the DSF, it seems safe to assume that some significant changes will be coming to one or both of these groups in the near future.

Who will prevail in the struggle between the Digital Signage Federation and the Digital Signage Association? Weigh in by leaving a comment below.

Click here to leave a comment

What's WireSpring's Blog All About? WireSpring provides hardware, software and services for digital signage and kiosk projects. But our blog is a labor of love. Our posts cover everything from case studies to creative briefs, and are authored by some of the industry's most well-respected leaders.

POPAI Code of Conduct: Taking a Stand on Digital Signage Privacy

Bill Gerba

In the past two months, I think I've seen more articles relating to consumer privacy and in-store tracking and measurement techniques published in major, mass-market publications than ever before. Starting with the Intel/Microsoft digital signage "platform" unveiled at the NRF in early January (which prominently featured gaze tracking and demographic analysis features), and continuing with the World Privacy Forum's recent report on the privacy implications of such systems (PDF format) last week, there's a lot of hype and misinformation surrounding the issue of consumer privacy and the effect that "active" digital signage may have on privacy in the near future. As one of the people who actually instigated this discussion a few years ago, I thought I'd try and set the record straight about what's going on in the industry, what the real concerns are, and what various industry groups are trying to do about it.

A brief history of the in-store privacy discussion

About four or five years ago, a number of companies came to market with products that could analyze live video feeds to see where people were looking (called "gaze tracking") and also recognize certain demographic characteristics of people caught on camera. Many of these companies originally devised their systems for military or civilian security use, and were seeking to adapt it for other purposes. By 2008, some of these companies were courting digital signage networks and software companies to integrate their wares. Their arguments for doing so were fairly straightforward. First, by identifying how many people were looking at a digital sign at a particular time, it would make the screen time that much more valuable for advertisers. Second, by identifying a person by demographic, the network could immediately display information thought to be relevant to that group. But people seemed to be glossing over the privacy implications of the technology, which led me to write an article explaining why digital signage networks must guarantee viewer privacy.

Image credit: Rob Pongsajapan

Over time, a number of articles appeared in the mainstream media (including the New York Times) asking whether this kind of tracking should be allowed without providing any notification to the people being recorded, whether its abilities should be restricted in some way, and what the ethical and legal implications of using such solutions were. About 18 months ago, Laura Davis-Taylor of Retail Media Consulting (and now CRI) and I both found ourselves fielding questions from potential customers over whether the ability to use gaze-tracking systems and other methods of collecting in-store demographic data were useful and/or ethical. Lacking sufficient domain knowledge to make an educated statement at the time, Laura and I brought the topic up at a regular meeting of POPAI's Digital Signage Advocacy group in mid-2008. POPAI decided to adopt the issue as its own. Over the ensuing months, I contacted a number of privacy and consumer advocacy groups and experts -- including Pam Dixon, author of the above-mentioned report from the World Privacy Forum -- to learn about the current state of affairs with regard to out-of-home consumer privacy. The field turned out to be much bigger, more complicated, and more riddled with existing laws and loopholes than I ever expected. But after working with the other members of POPAI's Digital Signage Advocacy group, we eventually authored a draft set of best practices for people involved with collecting and using "Observed Tracking Data" (OTD).

In early 2009, I spoke out again about the topic, this time asking if digital signage is invading consumer privacy. By mid-2009, the POPAI best practices document was finalized, and was reviewed by members of POPAI's board of directors, as well as POPAI's strategic planning committee. Dick Blatt (POPAI's President at the time) took the draft document to an informal working session at the FTC, which is the government body that manages most of the legislation surrounding consumer privacy. The FTC folks agreed that our draft was the correct first step toward the kind of industry self-regulation that, if properly managed, would keep members of our industry out of the FTC's targets later on. At roughly the same time, Nathan Purcell of DCSI reviewed a draft of the best practices document with former House of Representatives member Barry Goldwater Jr., one of the primary authors of The Privacy Act of 1974, and a recognized expert on consumer privacy matters. The positive feedback from both government-related endeavors led us to believe we were on the right track.

What are the best practices for collecting and using data?

The POPAI document is called "Best Practices: Recommended Code of Conduct for Consumer Tracking Research", and you can download the full 11-page document directly from their website (PDF format). In general, we tried to focus on the four or five things most likely to get you in trouble with your local, state or federal government, your customers, or both. If you are planning to collect, store, process or use any kind of surveillance-like data gathering (especially with technology that can uniquely or individually identify consumers, which we'll cover in a minute), then you really need to:

Disclose data collection methods: Put up some signs, make some pamphlets available, put up a web page. I know that this will be anathema to retailers, but our expectation -- which is mirrored by the FTC's own recommendations to related industries -- is that the more potentially privacy-invading the tracking technique, the more good you can do by plainly disclosing it ahead of time.
Get customer consent to be monitored: I know this isn't going to be practical in all cases, but again, giving your clientele a modicum of power inside your venue translates to an improved sense of trust and a stronger customer relationship.
Know the difference between unique and individual identification: In short, unique identification means that you can track an individual apart from other individuals as they travel through the venue. Individual identification means that you can take that tracking data and correlate it to a specific person, either via some personal information like a name or address, or via an account number.
Allow customers to opt in (or opt out) of more intrusive monitoring practices: Like getting consent, I know this isn't going to be practical or even possible in many cases. But the opt-in (and even more so, the opt-out) is the thing that will keep our industry out of the hands of regulators.
Practice cross-channel and cross-domain marketing constraints. This is another area that may get our industry into trouble in the future. Imagine a scenario where a cross-retailer loyalty program can track an individual as he goes from the supermarket to the dry cleaner to an apparel store to a big-box retailer. Such a system would clearly be able to collect a vast amount of personal information. Just as the FTC is currently trying to limit the ability of Internet marketers to track consumer behavior over a large variety of Internet properties, they will certainly try to do the same thing in the real world at the first sign of trouble.

The fact is, there's a lot more to following best practices for consumer privacy than what we crammed into the 11 pages of the POPAI Code of Conduct. A lot of it comes down to common sense. Before you implement a system that shows different ads based on viewer gender, ask yourself whether the ads that show up (or don't) could even remotely be considered discriminatory. Ask whether the techniques used to identify the viewer might be considered invasive. And ask whether a shopper might want to opt-out if they knew what was taking place.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (or: Who will watch the watchers?)

Who's watching the watchers, you ask? My personal belief is that we'll eventually need a fully independent, non-commercial, global not-for-profit organization set up to align shopper and marketer interests. POPAI would be a great choice for this role given its current global presence, non-profit status, and clear interest in seeing the digital signage industry continue to expand and flourish. (For a truly excellent analysis of why our industry needs a non-profit advocacy organization like POPAI at the helm, I highly recommend Ken Goldberg's recent article on the subject.) For now, given the early stage that we're at and the hard time we're having just getting the message out, I think such a move is a bit premature. But rest assured that government and private entities alike are keeping a very close eye on what's going on with real-world consumer marketing programs, and that one of them will ultimately pounce.

So, that's the digital signage privacy debate in a nutshell. If you're angry or upset about it, I guess you can blame me, since I'm as responsible as anybody for perpetuating the discussion. And if you think it's a non-issue, then at least you can take solace in the fact that I'm wasting my time on it.

But if you're the least bit concerned, or you're a major brand or retailer thinking about implementing tracking mechanisms, or you're a company that deals with gaze tracking, RFID tracking, mobile tracking or anything like that, then I highly recommend you spend a few minutes with us at the Digital Signage Expo, where we'll be doing a seminar on the best practices for using observed tracking data. Here are the details:

Opt-in or Opt-out? Navigate the Consumer Privacy Issue for Future Profit
Seminar #S21
Thursday, February 25 at 8-9 AM

Hope to see you there!

What do you think of the new POPAI guidelines? Leave a comment and let me know.

Click here to leave a comment

What's WireSpring's Blog All About? WireSpring provides hardware, software and services for digital signage and kiosk projects. But our blog is a labor of love. Our posts cover everything from case studies to creative briefs, and are authored by some of the industry's most well-respected leaders.

Is the Digital Signage Industry Still Growing?

Bill Gerba

Whether you pose this question to a wide-eyed entrepreneur or a seasoned veteran in our space, it's pretty obvious what the answer will be. In fact, ever since the term "digital signage" gained traction about a decade ago, the hardware, software, services and advertising segments of the market have seen double-digit gains (or more!) every single year. And new reports from Frost & Sullivan, PQ Media and a number of others tell us that that while the rate of increase may start to decline a bit, we should continue to see healthy growth for some time to come. I was thinking about this while studying the web analytics for wirespring.com and this blog's subscription sources -- via RSS, email and plain old web page views. You see, starting in 2005, the blog saw geometric growth in its number of subscribers every year until 2008. Then, suddenly, the growth rate became linear. In searching for an explanation, I noticed something interesting: according to the Google Trends tool, the growth in the number of queries for key terms in our industry has slowed down dramatically in the last year or so, mimicking what I'm seeing on our blog. While I don't think this is a perfect analogue to what's actually going on in the market, it could indicate that we're reaching a critical growth point where hype and volume matter less. Well... maybe.

What does Google Trends say?

Google Trends is a web-based tool that tracks the number of search queries and news articles submitted for various keywords. Although Google is immensely popular, and so many people use it, the main shortcoming of Google Trends is that it can be unreliable for search terms that don't have a huge amount of volume. This latter group includes the vast majority of search terms important to our industry. However, when you plot a few of the popular-enough terms over a couple of years, Google clearly shows a slowing growth curve. Take, for example, these queries for two popular search terms, "digital signage" and "digital signage software". I added the green line to the first graph to show the approximate "best fit" curve, but these are otherwise unchanged from the Google Trends output:

Discarding seasonal anomalies like the year-end slowdown well known to so many industries, search volume actually peaked in 2008, and saw a very slight decline in 2009. I'm sure the recession played a large part in that, but even during the bulk of 2008 there was little change in the search volume for these terms. What's more, the overall news volume at best held steady during that time. This tells me one of two things: either those companies who normally do lots of PR aren't accelerating their actions (probably because determining the ROI for a given piece of PR is very challenging), or, since there are more companies in the marketplace than ever before (which seems true, anecdotally), the average number of releases per company may actually have declined a bit. If you're wondering about those flat lines on the "digital signage software" trend graph, that's because that term just barely has sufficient search volume to register on Google Trends. If you graph "digital signage" and "digital signage software" together, you can see that "digital signage" by itself gets about an order of magnitude more search volume, on average:

Less hype? Isn't that just wishful thinking?

I'm no fan of industry hype, and I suspect everybody knows that by now. So I suppose the above analysis could simply be a case of me wishing that things would change for the better. On the other hand, my company's success depends on the growth and success of the industry, so it's really not in my best interest to think that our growth rate is going to fall off a cliff.

Are there other ways to explain what's happening?

Of course there are, and most of them make things look less dire. For example, since 2007 our industry's main news portals and blogs have become much more popular and professional, so they may be absorbing some of the traffic that would previously have gone to Google. Likewise, there are newsletters, clipping services, magazines and e-zines, and other forms of marketing and news publications that get pushed out to hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people now, which again may be taking some amount of search volume away from Google.

Another explanation is that as our industry matures, we ought to see fewer tire kickers and more serious buyers. On the high end of the business spectrum, these buyers may do fewer and more concentrated searches, or might be turning to other avenues like consultants, trade shows, and partnerships with existing vendors and VARs to learn about products and services. On the low end, mom and pop businesses are probably using a wider variety of search terms based on their particular needs. For example, if people are getting useful search results from a query like "digital restaurant sign" because there are now enough vendors providing that service (and enough articles about it) to make the first web search a success, they might never have the need to do a broader search for "digital signage." Both of these trends -- if correct -- would be great, because they signal the start of our industry's next phase, where solution specificity and bona fide business relationships become increasingly important, making general hype less effective (and thus theoretically less pervasive over time).

What about additional data points?

If it were up to me, I'd have to say that yes, the digital signage industry is growing. It doesn't take a $1,500 research report to notice the huge number of screens being placed in virtually every conceivable out-of-home space these days. However, when it comes to the volume of research being conducted over the Internet, I'm less sure. It seems possible to me that we may have plateaued, in which case we might not see another big spike in activity until a) the economy improves, b) some technical innovation is made that significantly lowers the cost of entry, or c) something dramatically increases the amount of attention that our technology and medium receives. The question is, which of these things will happen, when, and what will be the driving force behind them?

Is the market for digital signage still growing? If so, how quickly, and what's driving that growth? If not, what do you think will spur the next wave of development in our space? Leave a comment below and let me know!

Click here to leave a comment

What's WireSpring's Blog All About? WireSpring provides hardware, software and services for digital signage and kiosk projects. But our blog is a labor of love. Our posts cover everything from case studies to creative briefs, and are authored by some of the industry's most well-respected leaders.

Intel, Microsoft and the Open-Standards Digital Signage Platform

Bill Gerba

At last week's NRF show, Intel and Microsoft introduced a new prototype design that they're calling an "open-standards platform for digital signage." As summarized in this nice writeup from eWeek, the platform consists of Intel-based hardware, Microsoft-based software, and a bevy of peripherals like holographic film, large touch screens, and cameras for detecting a viewer's age, gender and ethnicity. The idea that titans like Intel and Microsoft would bother dabbling in an industry as small as ours perplexes me. That they'd refer to it as "open-standards" leaves me wondering if they speak English as a first language. So, I've spent some time thinking about Microsoft and Intel, why they've decided to do what they did, and what it could mean for our industry.

A standard by any other name...

Microsoft. Open standards. Microsoft. Open standards. They just don't go in the same sentence -- unless featured in the minutes of an antitrust hearing and separated by a clause like "is once again subverting." Whether ignoring the W3C or convincing Congress that their closed-source, undocumented Office formats are "open", Redmond is far better known for their "embrace, extend, extinguish" strategy for dealing with competitive products than their non-domineering work on truly open standards -- which they've admittedly done quite a bit of. The case here seems less nefarious so far, though, given that there are about 50 digital signage companies actually working on open standards for interoperability, and we've never heard the merest whisper of desire from either MS or Intel to join. In short, I think using the phrase "open standards" is basically just a marketing ploy.

Image credit: Frits Ahlefeldt-Laurvig

Given that Microsoft's main contribution here is the Windows operating system, I don't see how the software component of the platform differs much from the $30 copy of Windows 7 that comes on the $500 PCs my customers frequently buy -- which they end up reformatting with our Linux-based software, anyway. But then it's possible that all of the snazzy functionality that Intel's Paul Otellini showed off only runs on the $200 Windows 7 Ninja Elite version (or at least a non-OEM copy of Windows Embedded Standard 2011), which would partly explain Microsoft's eagerness to jump into our industry. The rest of the software might as well be off-the-shelf from any of the myriad vendors already servicing our industry. Perhaps there really is something new and remarkable about their offering, but if so, they're having an awfully hard time articulating it.

Did I mention $500 PCs?

Considering that your options for a computer CPU are -- for most intents and purposes -- limited to just two competitors (Intel and AMD), it's a little surprising to see that both of these firms are bothering to engage our industry. On the other hand, much like Microsoft trying to get you to buy a higher-end Windows license, it makes sense for Intel to look for ways to compel high-end business applications like digital signage to use bigger, faster, more expensive processors whenever possible. To wit, Intel's Core i7 processor is an absolute beast when it comes to performance, and given the complexity of the application that they were showing off, was an apt choice. But all that performance comes at a price. A quick scan of newegg.com (one of my favorite e-tailers) shows that the lowest-priced Core i7 costs about $280 in small quantities. Meanwhile, I have clients who are seriously considering large scale deployments using $300 computers equipped with $25 Intel Atom processors (albeit heavily aided by powerful-but-cheap NVIDIA graphics processors). Will such a machine do camera-aided identification? Probably not. Will it render flawless HD video, animations, web pages, and text crawls? Yup. It will even handle touch screens, gesture recognition, and holographic projection. For 99% of the market, that's more than good enough.

  Consequently, both Microsoft and Intel face an uphill battle here. They need to convince not only solution providers, but also their cost-conscious customers, that there are tangible benefits to be had by going with a beefier processor and more expensive software. And as somebody who's been working in this industry for about a decade now, I can tell you that price is simply the most important factor for the majority of buyers. So unless Intel and Microsoft can show a truly remarkable ROI with their digital signage platform, they're facing a very tough sell.

What does it all mean for our industry?

Needless to say, as a purveyor of digital signage software (Linux-based, no less), I was initially a little concerned to hear about this new "Wintel" offering. However, given what Intel and Microsoft are really pitching here, I think this platform will ultimately turn out to be less of an offering to end customers, and more of an integration point for those looking to do digital signage-like activities inside of their already-customized Wintel enterprises. Kind of like how Cisco often bundles its digital signage players with its routers and other networking equipment.

Now, on the other hand, if Intel or Microsoft really did decide to get serious about our industry, it could be a big wakeup call for many of us in the software game, as well as many of the second-tier hardware integrators that build custom media players for digital signs. Likewise, one or both could join the POPAI Digital Signage Standards Group and bring some much-needed big company perspective. However, given that the combined sales of digital signage software and media players is still well, well south of ten digits, I don't believe either of these firms can justify a real investment in the marketplace any time in the near future.

What do you think about the Intel/Microsoft "open-standards platform" for digital signage? Is it all hype? Is it just more of the same? Or is it something truly revolutionary? Leave a comment and let me know!

Click here to leave a comment

What's WireSpring's Blog All About? WireSpring provides hardware, software and services for digital signage and kiosk projects. But our blog is a labor of love. Our posts cover everything from case studies to creative briefs, and are authored by some of the industry's most well-respected leaders.

Tracking Digital Signage Trends: 3 Dubious Predictions for 2010

Bill Gerba

Happy New Year, all. Though the holiday season may have come to an end, the digital signage prognostication season is in full swing right now, with predictions for the coming year and top 10 lists dominating our news outlets and blogs. I decided to get out of the prediction business a number of years ago, since apart from not wanting to give away my business plans, I'm just no good at guessing what the future holds. Thankfully (or not), there are plenty of other people out there who are more than happy to fill endless web pages with lists of all the new, game-changing, paradigm-shifting events that they expect to see in the coming months. To my eye, some of these predictions look really good. But some... don't. Let's investigate three of these supposed digital signage trends in more detail.

Dubious Prediction #1: VUKUNET will let AV integrators make big money from DOOH advertising

Image credit: Valerie Everett

Gary Kayye is a highly-respected AV industry guru, and a genuine, honest, straight-shooter to boot. While he only touches on digital signage stuff occasionally, I tend to agree with most of his assessments as they relate to the AV industry. So I was pretty surprised to see that one of his predicted game-changers was none other than NEC's VUKUNET, which is essentially a network aggregation service in the vein of SeeSaw Networks. To somebody unfamiliar with SeeSaw, Adcentricity, BookingDOOH, rVue, or any of the myriad other booking and aggregation services out there, something like VUKUNET might sound pretty interesting. But considering that aggregators with bona fide media people running them and dedicated exclusively to ad sales on DOOH networks are struggling, I can't possibly fathom how an electronics company that caters to IT and AV groups can make such a service work. Even more so if NEC really plans to target AV dealers. Remember, if you've never sold ads before, there's a very high likelihood that your ad-funded network will fail. I'm talking about a 96% failure rate, based on a sample size of over 600 companies. That's a pretty clear trend, if you ask me. I know a lot of AV folks haven't heard this statistic, and might not want to believe it even if they have. But it's the sad truth, and will probably be the thing that prevents VUKUNET from achieving any serious penetration into the ad market -- perhaps even killing it before the end of 2010. I certainly have no vested interest in this being the case -- we sell through the AV channel, and if VUKUNET was successful it'd probably help our sales. But unless the folks at NEC have some serious tricks up their sleeve when it comes to ad sales, they face a significant uphill struggle with their new service.

Dubious Prediction #2: Content will be a top priority

I disagree with a couple of the predictions made by industry veteran Keith Kelsen. But rather than pick apart his whole list (or focus on something too easy like the notion of 2010 as a "tipping point" year), I want to call attention to Keith's very first prediction -- that content strategies and discussions will "dominate the launch of new networks and the re-thinking of older networks." Oh, how I wish that would be true. There's no excuse for the poor content still running on so many networks today -- especially when there are so many digital signage content resources and repositories available. However, despite great conceptual gains, poor economic conditions have limited the adoption of new (and frequently labor-intensive) best practices this past year. While many people predict that 2010 will be better, the proof is in the proverbial pudding. Consequently, the focus this year will be the same as it has been in past years -- making money any way possible. Advertising networks will continue to sign up with multiple ad sales services (despite Ken Goldberg's excellent analysis of why that might be a bad idea), experimenting with different formats that allow them to sell inventory that advertisers might actually be willing to buy. Meanwhile, the vast majority of non-advertising-oriented display networks -- whether they be for corporate communications, trade promotion or other kinds of general messaging -- are run by people or groups that have many responsibilities, not just managing their digital signs. While that's certainly fine, these people are pressed for time and tend to be budget conscious, and most of them won't have the time or money to get trained or outsource production to digital signage experts. Consequently, I expect 2010 to be another year of slow, gradual evolution, not revolution, towards better content on digital signs.

Dubious Prediction #3: Retailers, brands and agencies will dedicate a lot more resources towards measuring the sales lift from digital signage spots

Matt Schmitt has just started posting Reflect Systems' top 10 predictions for 2010, but I'm already afraid that they're going to be far too optimistic about business conditions and the general state of readiness of retailers, brands and agencies. Will these groups pay more attention to digital signage than they have in past years? Yes, I think they pretty much have to. But that's mostly because they paid very little attention in the past -- so they can only improve! Now, many people who know me will readily call me a pessimist (I think I'm a realist, but I also know that's the classic pessimist's defense). But if you take a broad view of the business climate -- not just our little niche, but everybody that feeds into us -- there just isn't a lot of justification for the kind of massive spending that would make us top-of-mind for agencies, retailers and brands. Our part of the media mix is still too small to be interesting to most agencies, buyers and planners. It will take more than a year to change this. So once again, I expect a gradual evolution of their acceptance and understanding of us.

If you've made it through this article and all the pages it links to, and you still want to read more predictions, I highly recommend the list that Barnaby Page put together at SCREENS.tv. His points are concise, demonstrate a strong understanding of the global market, and, in my opinion, reflect reality. Of course, the folks I mentioned today aren't the only smart people in the industry, so I'd love to hear what our readers think.

Do you have any predictions about what we'll see in the digital signage market during 2010? Leave a comment and let us know.

Click here to leave a comment

What's WireSpring's Blog All About? WireSpring provides hardware, software and services for digital signage and kiosk projects. But our blog is a labor of love. Our posts cover everything from case studies to creative briefs, and are authored by some of the industry's most well-respected leaders.

The Top 10 Digital Signage Insider Articles of 2009

Bill Gerba

Unless a Hollywood-style disaster manages to destroy the Earth in the next few days, Friday will mark the start of a new year. While it might not be as climactic as Y2K (remember partying like it was 1999... when it actually was 1999?), for many people the year 2010 will bring change and mark important events. Here at WireSpring, we'll soon be celebrating our 10 year anniversary. Despite making me feel uncomfortably old, this milestone gives me a great sense of satisfaction. The market has changed dramatically since we set out in early 2000, and somehow along the way we've managed to roll with those changes -- and occasionally even use them to our advantage. In fact, this blog started WAY back in 2004, and ended up being an early and accidental "innovation" that has helped us grow personal and professional relationships for years. After thinking about that some more, I decided to take a look through our web server's logs to see what people have been reading, and which of our articles have been the most popular this past year. (These are the articles that got the most page views during 2009, regardless of which year they were originally published.) I've listed the top posts below, and I think you'll agree that while the list is a bit peculiar, it underscores just how broad and diverse our industry -- and the companies and disciplines that feed into it -- really is.

Let's start the countdown...

Image credit: Sally Mahoney

#10: Is Wal-Mart's in-store TV network really more effective than TV?

Let's face it: love 'em or hate 'em, Walmart's actions frequently define and dominate whatever industry they're playing with at the time, and that's certainly true within the digital signage community. Between giving PRN their big break, forming the Saatchi & Saatchi X agency to manage in-store marketing activities, and launching the new Smart Network this year, Walmart has given us great examples of what to do and what not to do over the years. So it's no surprise that people want to find out whether they know what they're talking about.

#9: Budgeting for a Digital Sign or Electronic Sign Network

Budgeting articles made a strong showing in this list, as you'll soon see. And why not? With so many people citing cost as a major factor in considering whether to implement a digital signage network, there's still a strong need in the industry for reliable pricing data. This article is the grandaddy of them all, hailing from way back in September of 2004, and pushed us to establish the annual pricing guide as a tradition here at WireSpring.

#8: Making great digital signage content: A quick reference guide

Our series on content creation best practices continues to draw plenty of visitors from around the world -- despite the fact that several companies have copied our content wholesale and are passing it out as part of their presentation materials (without attribution, the jerks). This handy reference guide gets updated every time we add a new article to the series.

#7: Focus on shopper marketing to improve store experience & ROI

Shopper marketing has been a buzzword for a few years, although it means different things to different people. For some, it's a full-cycle marketing program encompassing in-store marketing, in-home branding, trade promotion and more. For others, shopper marketing exists only within the store. With so much confusion surrounding the term, people are scouring the web -- including itty-bitty digital signage blogs like this one -- for any information they can find on the subject.

#6: Using in store advertising to win the First Moment of Truth (FMOT)

The "First Moment of Truth" is another buzzword that people in the marketing world have really been pursuing for a couple of years now, and is again something unfamiliar enough to force them to research on the web. And as we've learned, digital signage can certainly affect the first moment of truth, making it last longer and feel stronger.

#5: Five visual merchandising tips for your in store network

Retail digital signage installations often take the form of a bunch of screens tacked onto existing retail fixtures wherever the host venue will allow -- and not necessarily where they'll work best. More progressive venues know that merging digital signage best practices with tried-and-true visual merchandising techniques will help them derive greater value from their networks.

#4: An Updated Budget for Digital Signage Hardware and Software

Yup, another budgeting article -- this time, from 2008. Like all of our annual pricing studies, this one has a link to our master pricing article so that readers can see how things have changed over the years.

#3: 15 Digital Signage Blog, News, Magazine and Forum Sites You Should Be Reading

Once upon a time, ours was one of about three or four blogs dedicated to digital signage and/or interactive kiosks. Today there are literally HUNDREDS of sites, magazines, blogs and social media feeds devoted to these topics. Some are really good. Some are... not. This article lists a few of the high-quality sites that I use to keep up with the latest news and trends.

#2: Digital Signage Cost Estimates and Price Guidelines

ANOTHER pricing article elbows its way up to #2 on our top 10 list, further highlighting the industry's desire for dependable pricing information. This page is actually our master pricing article, which contains links to every pricing analysis that we've done over the years. That's cool for a couple of reasons: first, readers can easily peruse each article to get a feel for overall historical pricing trends. And second, since we cover different elements in each year's article (like content costs, staffing costs, and other non-capex things like that), it gives people an easy way to go through all of those estimates from one place. Plus, it has a pretty interesting comment thread.

And our #1 article is...

#1: Electronic Billboard Pros, Cons and Safety Information

Despite the fact that we derive practically no revenue from electronic billboard software, we have a couple of blog articles devoted to the cause, and they seem to attract a lot of visitors. Electronic billboards are big, and apparently make a big impact on people. That's probably why this article has been viewed over 10,000 times this year, has nearly 70 comments, and gets more every month.

Wishing you a great 2010

Congratulations! If you've made it all the way through this article, you probably have some free time at work today, so enjoy it! If you're reading this from your ski chalet whilst on vacation... what on earth are you doing? Turn off the laptop and get outside! And of course, we here at WireSpring wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

Finally, I'd like to extend a big thank you to everyone who took the time to read our articles and contribute to the conversation during this past year. We look forward to bringing you an ample supply of thought-provoking, fun and useful articles in 2010.

Click here to leave a comment

What's WireSpring's Blog All About? WireSpring provides hardware, software and services for digital signage and kiosk projects. But our blog is a labor of love. Our posts cover everything from case studies to creative briefs, and are authored by some of the industry's most well-respected leaders.

Digital Signage Screen Placement: Targeting the Attention Zone

Bill Gerba

As an industry, we have always struggled with the seemingly basic question of where to place our screens. I've lost count of the number of people that I've consulted with over the years who wanted to know the "best" places to put their displays. That's a noble goal to be sure, especially when tackled before the screens have been deployed, found to not work, and are in danger of being scrapped. Unfortunately, we still run into plenty of situations where the host venues aren't as cooperative as we'd like, and we're forced to make changes to our "best possible placement" plan to account for the realities of retail fixtures, shelf space, and store traffic patterns. While we've written a bit about all of these things in the past, I thought I'd share a few more of our analysis techniques today. That way, when you're out there planning your next deployment (and you don't decide to call us to ask for help), you'll have a few more resources at your disposal.

Where people look

If you've been reading this blog for a while or happened to drop in on my presentation at the Digital Signage Expo last year, you may have already seen the first two charts above. They appeared in our series on Digital Signage Screen Placement, which you can peruse using the handy links below:

In the article about angle, height and text size, we examined the field of view that a typical person of normal vision has, and how large the field of view becomes over typical in-store distances. Specifically, we found that a typical shopper walking the "power aisle" of a store moves about 20 feet in 5-7 seconds. To maximize the number of viewers that might encounter a screen, many networks have opted to raise their screens up high. But as we discussed in that article, this actually decreases the amount of time that a screen can appear in a viewer's active attention zone. Honest Abe can help explain that one:

The first thing you'll notice is that when somebody looks straight ahead, they don't really get an even view of what's above and below their direct line-of-sight. That's because our eyes have a wider field of view below the level plane -- we see about 75 degrees below level, but only about 60 degrees above. Consequently, the 20-or-so degree active attention zone is pitched slightly downwards too. Translation: the further up your screens are from the ground, the more likely they are to be outside of the active attention zone for your viewers. Left-to-right, the zone of active attention is actually a bit larger, since humans have a nearly 180 degree field of view, with about of third of that in full, binocular stereo. The active attention area is about half of the stereo area, or about 30 degrees laterally.

What people see

With these two numbers in mind, the next thing to think about is how your screens will appear to the viewer. Since we tend to prioritize the things we pay attention to based on basic criteria like motion, size, color and shape, manipulating those variables can have a significant impact on how and when your screens are noticed, and for how long. Remember, the screens themselves are going to be static: you can only move the content on your screens, not the screens themselves. So in virtually every case, size is going to be the primary determining factor in how your screens are perceived. The basic issue here is that the angular size of an object decreases as it moves further away from you. (Fancy terminology: the angle subtended by an object is the width of that object divided by its distance away from you.) Thus, if you were using 40" screens (which are about 35" wide and about 20" high), and wanted to make sure that they were going to be in the active attention zone (say 10 degrees above or below the level plane, and within 15 degrees of center laterally), you might derive a table like this:

Distance between viewer and screen	Vertical % of attention zone occupied	Horizontal % of attention zone occupied	Total % of attention zone occupied
5 feet	91.6%	100%	91.6%
10 feet	45.8%	50.5%	23.1%
15 feet	30.5%	33.7%	10.3%
20 feet	22.3%	25.3%	5.8%

As you can see, even moving a small distance away from the screen means that people will have many new items thrust into their field of active attention. At 20 feet away, your viewers will have about 17 other visual areas competing for attention. Even if your screen is by far the most interesting (and it might be, considering that the other items in the viewer's field will be things like ceiling tiles, rafters, etc.), that's still a lot of competition to get past. Similarly, because the amount of area one can perceive in the active attention zone gets so big, so fast, using much larger screens (e.g. going from a 40" to a 50") doesn't help much.

How to get people to look at your screen and see your message

Why do so many digital signs underperform in the field? Based on the calculations above, the screens are simply too far away from the target viewers. There are three ways to solve this problem:

Use really big screens. Giant screens can occupy a larger portion of the active attention zone for a longer period of time. Plus, they have novelty value. But they're expensive.
Use regular-size screens, but put them right in front of the viewer. This will work in lobbies and waiting rooms where movement is constrained, but you'll probably have a hard time convincing your grocery store hosts to put screens on top of stands in their power aisles, or place them on their endcaps (even though they'd arguably work the best there).
Guess where attention will be focused, and place screens strategically. If your host won't give up 700 square inches of endcap space for a 40" screen, ask for 300 and use a smaller screen. If you know a particular endcap performs well (based on sales data, traffic pattern analysis, etc.), that might be a worthy tradeoff, because you're essentially increasing the probability of your screen falling inside of the viewer's active attention zone.

  Ultimately, the willingness of your host venue -- whether it's a hotel, retailer, break room or otherwise -- to accommodate the ideal installation of your screens rests on their own ability to calculate a positive return on investment from those screens. If your venues don't stand to gain anything, you're not going to convince them to give you better placement. But if they win when you win, hopefully they'll be more willing to work with you and your data-driven analysis.

What's the most effective digital sign placement that you've seen? Was there a setup that made you or the viewer sit up and take notice? Leave a comment below and let us know!

Click here to leave a comment

What's WireSpring's Blog All About? WireSpring provides hardware, software and services for digital signage and kiosk projects. But our blog is a labor of love. Our posts cover everything from case studies to creative briefs, and are authored by some of the industry's most well-respected leaders.

3 More Tips for Increasing Your DOOH Ad Sales

Bill Gerba

Since there seem to be so many advertising-funded digital signage networks in operation or development today, I'm quite surprised by the lack of resources devoted to the sales aspect of the business. Part of me thinks that it's because the competent guys -- those actually making money -- don't want to share their secrets. The more jaded (and perhaps realistic) part instead wonders if people simply haven't yet figured out a solid approach for selling DOOH ad space. I've spoken with a lot of people over the years who had approaches that either worked really well, kinda-sorta worked, or didn't work at all. Based on this experience, I can tell you that there are more differences between the successful models than there are similarities. Consequently, I want to pick up where we left off last week, and talk about the few tips and best practices that actually do seem to have a positive impact on ad sales.

Tip #1: Make your direct sales efforts more effective

In last week's article, we looked at 3 Tips for Selling More Ads on Your DOOH Network. Chief among the tips: form partnerships with those who have already found some formula for selling ads on their own medium. I don't mean to downplay the potential value of such partnerships, but no matter how many of them you successfully build, you'll probably still need a direct sales force of some sort. While the strength of your sales team is largely going to be based on the skills of its individual members, we've noted a few strategies that seem to help out a bit. These best practices include:

Image credit: Andrew Magill

Never say "free": Just as Goonies "never say die," a DOOH ad sales rep should never say "free." The moment you've accepted a purchase order for $0, you've told your new client that your service is worthless. It's far, far better to offer deep discounts on additional services and spots (most common are discounts for repeat buyers) than to offer spots for free.
Be prepared with out-of-the-box suggestions: I once had a client that was able to close otherwise difficult deals by offering to turn their advertiser's newly-created DOOH ads into miniature videos for their homepage. While I don't think said homepage videos really added a whole lot of value to the advertiser's website, these freebies may have allowed the client to mentally classify the expense of the ad as part marketing, and part website development. The trick is trying to discover what the client might be interested in, and then offering that add-on before he ever asks for it directly, and unfortunately I don't have any suggestions that might help you figure out how to do that.
Offer a payment plan: It's bad to give things away for free, but it's good to work with your clients on payment schedules. You have your own bills to pay, of course, but at the same time the marginal cost of delivering a new ad to your screen is quite low. So if a client needs an extra nudge and you don't want to lower prices, one potential option is to "finance" the sale by allowing the client to spread his payments over some period of time. I've actually seen at least one sales team use this strategy to turn one-time buyers into repeat buyers, essentially by conditioning the advertisers to keep paying over time.
Know when to use math: Some business owners and marketing pros are numbers people who love poring over charts and spreadsheets before choosing from a list of options. Others prefer to use intuition and the wisdom that comes with experience to make decisions. The sales tactics that tend to work for one group might not work for the other. Case in point: while large marketers need to know CPM numbers, simply trying to explain the concept -- along with traffic numbers, store traffic flow patterns, and all of the other trappings -- to a more right-brained sales prospect is going to be very difficult. Even if you use CPM as your base metric, in these cases it might be better to avoid the math and instead sell the top-line number for a week, month or year of exposure on your screens.

Tip #2: Talk to the aggregators

No discussion of DOOH advertising would be complete without mentioning the myriad of network aggregators out there right now. These people play a number of roles, from technical hand-holders to bona fide media brokers. They can also provide you with some initial access to national brand advertisers, while exposing your network to a much larger network of potential clients. The key to using these services successfully is to make sure that your own expectations match up with reality: no aggregator can provide you with enough business to keep you afloat, so if that's your desire or expectation going in, you'll be disappointed. With that said, there are plenty of networks in operation today that count on some incremental revenue from aggregator-sourced ad deals. Another key to best utilizing these services is to understand their relative strengths and weaknesses. Some specialize in a specific vertical market or geographic region. Others differentiate themselves by focusing on smaller businesses. So do your homework before picking your partners.

Tip #3: Keep your friends close, and your "frenemies" closer

We've noticed a trend here that started even before the recession hit and the most recent wave of digital signage consolidation began. More networks are cooperating with each other on ad sales. Medical networks in hospitals and private practice doctors' offices are noticing that they don't really compete for the same ad dollars, since without the right sales pitch and demographics, nobody is going to buy any of their screen time. However, they might make a more compelling argument to a big pharmaceutical company by presenting a unified front. Likewise, the Hispanic grocery networks in the southwest don't compete with those in southern Texas and Florida, so we've seen the beginnings of some self-aggregation and moderation take hold. Of course, making such an approach truly successful requires that all parties remain diligent and honest towards each other. But I think the biggest obstacle to the growth of self-aggregation strategies is simply the reluctance of DOOH network owners to sit down and talk with others in their niche.

If you follow the news in the DOOH industry, you've probably noticed the endless stream of market size projections and analyst reports that show enormous growth rates in the face of an otherwise weak economy. But even as the number of screens increases, our own anecdotal research suggests that the majority of ad-funded digital signage networks (in the US, at least) are struggling. Many are still reliant on outside capital to fund operations. And the waters become even more muddied as some tech vendors -- who themselves are often taking venture capital to stay afloat -- talk in hushed whispers about buying up their clients' networks or starting some of their own. In short, I'm not so sure that the DOOH advertising market is (yet) all it's cracked up to be. There's plenty of potential, but advertisers remain reluctant, and since they're the ones holding the purse strings they get to call all of the shots. About the only thing a typical DOOH network operator can do is work to remove as many barriers and obstacles as possible. Hopefully the tips above will prove useful in working towards that goal.

Are there any obvious tips or strategies that I missed? Leave a comment and let me know.

Click here to leave a comment

What's WireSpring's Blog All About? WireSpring provides hardware, software and services for digital signage and kiosk projects. But our blog is a labor of love. Our posts cover everything from case studies to creative briefs, and are authored by some of the industry's most well-respected leaders.

3 Tips for Selling More Ads on Your DOOH Network

Bill Gerba

Last week's article on the DOOH Advertising Paradox generated some interesting comments, so I'd like to continue with the ad sales topic and look at some of the techniques that we've seen people use over the years. Ad sales continues to be a major challenge for many DOOH networks, even as they reach so-called critical mass (e.g. 100 or 1,000 screens, or a presence in the top 20 DMA's, or some other threshold that media buyers dictate). Taken as a whole, the growing number of screens in the DOOH marketplace may even be contributing to the problem: supply is increasing more quickly than demand. Today, I'll be covering a few strategies that our clients and industry colleagues have used to bolster their sales.

Clarification on Last Week's Article

There was a bit of confusion over the convenience store example I used last week. As Dave Haynes succinctly wrote in a comment:

Where I stumble a little is on the screen placement and viewers thing. Why would screens at 15 feet up be three times as noticeable as screens at five feet? (And do people really put them THAT high??? If so, that's loopy). The OVAB guidelines (if you take two or three weeks and read them) talk about presence and notice, and I would probably argue 10,000 may be in the presence of the screens way up high, but only three in 10 people would notice them... if that.

Image credit: Cosmic Kitty

As I responded to him, the example of having screens placed at 15 feet, 10 feet or 5 feet above the ground was merely an illustration, and was not really meant to indicate what people are or aren't doing in the field these days. With that said, I've definitely seen screens hung at least 14 feet above the ground, so I don't think it's too far off the mark. Likewise, the "hit counts" for each of those screens were really just my own guesses, using numbers that would make my example math easy. However, suppose that the hypothetical C-store had 15,000 visitors/month, which is a bit low, but still a fair guess. At that low level of traffic (500 potential viewers/day), if 2/3 of visitors had an opportunity to see your screen, that would yield about 10,000 potential viewers/month. That's probably in the right ballpark for most above-the-counter screens. So while my guesses on traffic and percentages of people who had the "opportunity to see" were definitely not statistically rigorous, I don't think they were too far off the mark. And in reality, the point of the argument was to show the relationship (which in the real world is almost certainly non-proportional and non-linear) between screen placements and opportunities to see. If you're trying to sell to any medium- to large-sized advertiser, this data is by far the most valuable component in a classical CPM measurement, which itself is by far the most popular measurement metric in use.

Hopefully this clears up any remaining confusion surrounding last week's article. Now, with that out of the way, let's talk ad sales strategy. In general, your business is going to require you to sell into one of two groups: advertisers who handle their placements directly, and those who go through some kind of broker or planning agency. The tips below are mostly aimed at the first group, since planning agencies in particular seem to work with their own set of rules, and those rules seem to change... constantly. (If you're interested in learning how agencies approach DOOH campaigns, check out our article on getting advertising agencies to understand digital out-of-home, which we published earlier this year.)

Tip #1: Find Some Local Partners

  First and foremost, stop thinking about local and regional ad sales as an also-ran. The companies closest to your screens can be your greatest allies and revenue sources. On the downside, it means you need to handle sales at a local level, which often translates into more time-consuming sales activities. While I don't think there's any way to avoid that (especially when you're first getting off the ground), you don't necessarily have to handle it all by yourself. There are still plenty of miniature ad sales teams working on a local level (think local newspapers, coupon booklet printers, church bulletin writers, real estate magazine publishers, and so on). While they're not about to give you something for nothing, there is an opportunity to make a deal with these people, since you have something unique to add to their sales package (namely, your unusual viewing format and screen real estate).

You don't have to stick to "real world" advertising partners, either. Look around and I'm sure you'll find at least a few locally-focused websites that depend on ad revenue as well. Your best bet here is to stay away from big, national sites with local portals (e.g. CitySearch or Superpages) since they're not going to talk to you unless you already have a very large footprint in a number of their most important DMAs. However, for every CitySearch there are likely a dozen smaller sites that focus specifically on your city or region. These guys are going to be more amenable to talking with you, again because you have something unique that may allow them to wring a few more ad dollars out of their advertisers (and might even help them win some new sales). Of course, this is all predicated on your ability to...

Tip #2: Make (and Sell) Your Own Media Mix

People who buy print ads are used to buying print ads. Same goes for those who buy web ads. But you're selling DOOH ads, which are a different beast entirely, with their own unique set of advantages and disadvantages. The downside, of course, is that you have a lot of explaining to do at each and every new client or prospect meeting, since nobody is familiar with your unique format, duration, venues, etc. The upside, though, is that the kind of ads that you're selling are clearly different from any others the prospect is already buying. If you articulate DOOH's strengths properly, it's a hard argument to counter. The key is to start out by making your screens complement, and not compete with, your prospect's other forms of advertising. This ties right back into Tip #1 above about finding partners. By creating a unique media mix (say, combining a quarter page print ad with a 10-sec DOOH tower spot, or a full-page print ad with a 15-second full screen spot), you and your partner now have something unique to offer to the marketplace. By diverting a bit of your revenue to your print partner, he gets a little incremental uptick, as well as a new carrot to dangle in front of potential advertisers. You, of course, get a quicker introduction to a number of companies who are already comfortable with the idea of local advertising, which theoretically should translate to a wider and faster sales funnel.

Tip #3: Put on Your Content Creator's Hat

Of course, any reliance on small, local businesses means that you're inevitably going to run into a situation where your new client has no content prepared for your screens. This isn't uncommon in the print world or the online world either, so I recommend you handle it in much the same way: offer an affordable (or free) low-end content creation service bundled into the ad sale itself. Newspapers and websites often have some basic templates and copy writing services available, and if the client wants anything above and beyond that, they pay some additional fee. The goal here is to essentially remove one more barrier to the sale. The low-end content creation offer acts as a loss-leader and sale enabler, while higher-end creation services (which you can offer yourself or outsource) should be cost-neutral at worst, and quite profitable at best.

While content creation isn't trivial -- far from it -- I've found that most small DOOH networks always have a person or two on staff who are doing content and marketing work anyway. Thus, the additional load from new advertisers (who aren't going to be coming in droves no matter how hard you sell) is more than offset by the said advertiser's revenue. A small library of templates can be built ahead of time, and by using our proven tips and best practices for creating digital signage content, even a modest amount of creative work can translate into a spot that will perform well and have your advertisers coming back for more.

Well, this article is already quite a bit longer than I anticipated, and I'm only halfway through what I wanted to cover. Instead of plowing ahead, let's break for today and pick up next week with some tips for improving direct ad sales, and a brief discussion of the ad/network aggregator landscape.

To everyone in the US, have a happy Thanksgiving and safe travels. To everyone outside of the US, I strongly recommend you lobby your governments to create a national holiday devoted to eating. I'm telling you... it's pretty hard to beat :)

Have you tried out a particularly unique, creative or just downright strange approach to selling ads on your DOOH network? Leave a comment below and tell us about it!

Click here to leave a comment

What's WireSpring's Blog All About? WireSpring provides hardware, software and services for digital signage and kiosk projects. But our blog is a labor of love. Our posts cover everything from case studies to creative briefs, and are authored by some of the industry's most well-respected leaders.

The DOOH Advertising Paradox: Better Spots Are Harder to Sell

Bill Gerba

I received a trio of comments and another trio of emails over the past few days that converged on two topics: pricing/buying/selling ad space, and picking the appropriate size and number of screens for a given venue. In fact, people ask me about both of these things quite frequently. While my in-person answers generally take into account the unique situations of my questioners, I thought it might be useful to lay out some of the basic arguments and logic that I use to make my recommendations.

How screen size, shape and placement impact ad performance

Image credit: Amy Gizienski

Reader Lisa writes:

What do you think would be the best use of digital signage within a small store such as a convenience store, supported by advertising? From an advertiser's point of view, is option 1 or 2 better in your view?

Option 1: A number of smaller (13"-15") screens at shelf-mount or endcap at just around eye level

Option 2: One or two 40"-46" screens at the back of the wall hanging off the ceiling?

This one is pretty straightforward. Except in some very specific scenarios, shoppers simply will not look up. We've studied so, so many networks where screens were dropped from the ceiling (and let's face it, that's how most of them have been done up to this point), and the uniformity of our findings has been pretty remarkable. As we noted in our article on Digital Signage Screen Placement: Modeling Consumer Behavior, people like to look down on their purchases: we pick things up, hold them in our hands, and generally look down at them while doing so. Additionally, in our article about Digital Signage Screen Placement: Angle, Height and Text Size, we found that putting screens high up can increase the raw amount of time that the screen would be visible to the average shopper. However, it actually decreases the amount of time that the screen will lie in the shopper's zone of attention.

So here's my short answer. From an efficacy standpoint, you'll almost certainly see better results with the smaller screens on the endcaps and/or on the shelves, if your host venue will let you put the displays there. That's prime sales space for them, so the typical retailer is loathe to give it up for screens. But you might get lucky, or you might be able to reach some kind of compromise. The second part of your question, though, is which approach advertisers will prefer. That brings up another set of considerations.

The best-performing DOOH ad placements may be harder to sell

How do you price and sell ad space on a digital signage network? This is, hands down, the #1 question I get asked, which is ridiculous considering that I've never sold an ad in my entire life. However, having worked in advertising for a while, and having been party to a number of transactions over the years, I've carried away a number of observations that leave me scratching my head whenever anybody asks why their ads aren't selling, or what they could do to improve sales.

What do I mean? Well, let me give you an example using the convenience store scenario that Lisa asked about. I'm 99% positive that a number of smaller endcap or eye-level screens will perform better (i.e. relay more information to a greater number of shoppers) than a few screens placed high above eye-level. We simply have too much data indicating that. However, depending on who your advertisers are and how they like to buy spots, the performance advantage might not actually matter (initially, at least). That's because big advertisers are still likely to use a very broad metric like CPM when making their purchases. Since you can probably make the case that having big screens up high will result in a much higher number of viewers, that translates to a much lower CPM if the cost-per-spot remains the same. So, it may seem like a better deal to your CPM-happy advertisers. As a hypothetical example, say that you, the network owner, wanted to charge $100 for an ad. You might find yourself running into a problem like this:

Screen placement	Number of monthly viewers	CPM	Face-value "deal" to the advertiser	Likelihood the ad will be effective
15' above floor (ceiling mount)	10,000	$10	Good	Low
10' above floor (wall mount)	6,000	$16.67	Fair	Medium
5' above floor (endcap)	3,000	$33.33	Poor	High

Basically, the entire digital out-of-home industry has a big problem: the best performing ad placements are usually harder to sell, because the raw number of viewers is low and the CPM is high. But on the flip side, if nobody watches the ads on the poorly-placed screens, nobody will act on them, so the advertisers will eventually pull the spots anyway for being ineffective. Because most media planners (the guys in charge of big, name-brand media buys) aren't generally able to "follow" a shopper from ad view to eventual sale, they can't know if a spot on a digital signage network is worth a higher CPM unless they try it out -- or somehow glean data from other advertisers who might have tried it out before them. Consequently, many networks rely on smaller advertisers to fuel the bulk of their sales. These guys are not only more accessible than a Coke or a Nike, but often they're better able to track their media investments (because there are fewer spots to keep tabs on).

So as the owner of a DOOH advertising network, your choice of screen placement may have a direct impact on your ability to price and sell your ads. However, relying on a placement that yields a lower CPM can be detrimental in the long run, especially if the screen is placed in such a way that the ads you do sell won't be effective. If you have the luxury of placing screens at various heights, you might be able to convince your advertiser to run some split tests to prove that some screens actually work better than others. But let's face it: that's probably not going to happen.

There's a lot more to this story, so next week I'll share some of the do's and don'ts that many of our clients have employed to get themselves in front of a larger number of advertisers, bring better advertisers on board, and work cooperatively -- not competitively -- with other networks that were facing many of the same problems as they were.

Have a question about screen placement or ad performance? Leave a comment and let's discuss it!

Click here to leave a comment

What's WireSpring's Blog All About? WireSpring provides hardware, software and services for digital signage and kiosk projects. But our blog is a labor of love. Our posts cover everything from case studies to creative briefs, and are authored by some of the industry's most well-respected leaders.

DIY Digital Signage: Should You Try The Do-It-Yourself Approach?

Pat Hellberg

It's a classic line, the final line from a classic film. Harry Callahan, the maverick cop played by the great Clint Eastwood, shows a slight smile and caps "Magnum Force" saying, "A man's got to know his limitations." What do Harry Callahan and Bill Gerba have in common (besides everything)? Harry and Bill both come to mind as we touch upon a touchy digital signage subject: the do-it-yourselfer.

Bill recently published the results from a survey, asking network operators (or those contemplating DS networks) if they handle essential digital signage services in-house or outsource the execution of those services. For the record, the list of services (generally accepted as necessary, if not flat-out required, for successful DS network operation) included logistics management, strategy consulting, project planning, content strategy consulting, content production, content management, network/operations management, initial project management, ongoing project management, and installation services. And the winner, by a landslide, was:

Image credit: Charles Williams

"We do it in-house."

In only one of the ten categories (installation services) did the majority of operators say they outsource the work. Every other service, the majority of respondents said, is handled in house. Maintaining his objectivity, Bill did not pound the table on this subject. That doesn't mean other digital signage pros can't. "In other parts of our lives, we make rational decisions," says Tom Percich, vice president in charge of business development for Diversified Media Group, a leading integration firm that has planned, installed and maintained dozens of networks. "But when it comes to digital signage, people go a little crazy and think they can do it on their own."

Why? You know why. And you know who you are. You're trying to cut corners and save money. How's that working out, if you don't mind us asking?

Tom notes the example of a client who bought cheaper off-the-shelf monitors at a department store, rather than going with a slightly more expensive pro-recommended industrial model. Sure enough, 7 months later the consumer-grade screens started dying. There was no warranty (it was voided by industrial use), and the client had to replace the consumer clunkers with industrial models at their own cost. The client thus paid for about twice as many screens, without the benefit of actually having more screens in the field. The installation fees were also doubled, of course.

As Tom says, "You don't know what you don't know... there's information everywhere. You can learn how to do open-heart surgery online. But if I needed open heart surgery, I would tend to go to a doctor." Similarly, he notes that any reputable pro will stand behind his or her work. "We have to eat our own dog food -- if we manage the network, we have to live with our recommendations. But that's fine. Those recommendations are based on years of experience. Our expertise combined with that experience usually results in cost savings. We'll live with that."

Another result of the survey, which is borderline stunning, is the percentage of respondents who say they "don't bother with" some of the essential services. Like network management. And project management. And content production. Really? How do you even have a network without those things? But we know that plenty of people will try. "Content is the last thing discussed, which drives me mad," says Stephen Ghigliotty, who for the past two years handled content creative and strategy for Artisan. But a quick survey of many of the screens you run into on a day-to-day basis emphasizes his point: people just aren't thinking about it.

Coming up with a workable strategic operating plan is another service that, when delivered by a knowledgeable professional, is worth its weight in gold. But all too often, the dialogue at the client planning meeting goes something like this:

"The deliverable is a long-term plan, a strategy. The goal is good content on budget and on time. We've got a lot of sharp people on staff. They can knock out this strategy thing before lunch."

Stephen tells the story about one sharp client, with no digital signage experience but ample experience paying broadcast-spot production rates, who commissioned a single (read: one) broadcast-quality piece for their digital signage network. The piece was visually gorgeous, but the client burned their entire content budget on that one spot. Consequently, they played it over and over and over again, leading to burn out, tune out and flame out.

  Brian Ardinger is the marketing director for Nanonation, a veteran digital signage software provider with years of expertise and experience. By keeping the big picture in mind, pros like Brian can help novice clients navigate the minefield. "We have a good understanding of all the parts, the good, the bad and the ugly," he says. "For example, we don't hang the screens but because we've been involved in so many networks, we know who to call to hang the screens." Brian and the others share a common insight: there are many links to the digital signage chain. One link breaks, and there goes the chain.

  But enough already. By now, you've figured us out. We're just self-serving vendors who want to charge crazy rates for work you can handle yourself, right? Well, that's partly true. We do like to get paid. But anyone charging crazy rates in this business does not last long. The true digital signage pro wants your network to thrive. Every blue screen of death, terrible piece of content and blurry display hung 12 feet off the floor where no one can see it drags down our entire industry. We cringe, grind our teeth and lose sleep over these things, whether we had anything to do with the offending network or not. Our goal is most definitely not to gouge. Our goal is to lift digital signage to a new level.

  Still, plenty of do-it-yourselfers will continue to get started on a shoestring budget, doing whatever it takes to get their screens out at the lowest cost possible. And when they have problems, we'll still be around, ready and willing to lend them a hand. Some will be fortunate enough to get everything right and wind up with networks that function well for years. Others will quickly hit the wall of frustration, and will ultimately wind up spending more for repairs and replacements than they would have had they enlisted the right help from the start. It's just the luck of the draw. So as Detective Callahan in "Dirty Harry" might have said, "You have to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?'"

Well, do you?

Click here to leave a comment

What's WireSpring's Blog All About? WireSpring provides hardware, software and services for digital signage and kiosk projects. But our blog is a labor of love. Our posts cover everything from case studies to creative briefs, and are authored by some of the industry's most well-respected leaders.

The 2009 Digital Signage Pricing Study: Costs Have Fallen 23%

Bill Gerba

Five years ago, we started a tradition that -- much to our surprise -- led to industry notoriety as well as more fans and flames than you can count. Yes, that's right, I'm talking about the annual digital signage pricing guide. As the number of articles on this blog started to become unwieldy, we decided to create a single page with all the digital signage cost estimates and price guidelines that we've published over time. This year, we're introducing a brand new feature: the pricing study will incorporate some of the data collected from our "How Much Should Digital Signage Cost?" survey, which we analyzed in a series of recent blog articles. As you'll see from the results below, digital signage has never been more affordable or more available than it is today. So what are you waiting for? Keep reading to find out just what it'll take to get you into your very own 100-screen network today!

A quick review and introduction

For those new to the market (and those who've read these articles before but have forgotten), the numbers below are meant to model a "typical" 100-screen network. What does that mean? I think this paragraph from last year's writeup still says it well:

While our previous cost estimates and ecosystem components have closely matched those from other industry analysts (so we don't think we're too far off the mark), the myth of a "typical" network is more strained this year than ever before. More vendors and network owners are choosing to implement screens with new formats and more varied locations, injecting more diversity into the projects. Plus, the idea that there's a standard staffing requirement for any digital signage network is pretty ridiculous. While we and others have proposed a list of key positions that need to be filled when creating a digital signage team, some networks are still very heavy on content production, while others might be composed almost entirely of sales folks. Still, as we looked across a wide array of networks -- representing not just our products but also our competitors' solutions -- we were able to get a reasonable feel for what most companies needed as far as the human resources side of things.

What's the cost of a typical 100-screen digital signage network?

Despite the many variables that go along with this type of broad estimate, we found that the data we compiled internally -- combined with the survey results that many of you contributed a few months ago -- paint a very logical picture. More importantly, the pricing continues to follow the well-defined trend that we've observed for several years now. The resulting cost estimates appear in the table below. (If you're viewing this in your email or RSS reader and can't see the tables and charts, we encourage you to visit http://www.wirespring.com/blog to get the full experience.)

Cost of a digital sign for 3 years
40" LCD screen	$800
Player hardware	$775
Display mount	$110
Player software	$405
Management software & tech support	$1,300
Installation	$740
Initial project management	$225
Total	$4,355

How have things changed since our last pricing study?

Right off the bat, you can see the dramatic decline in pricing, which we attribute to the confluence of a few things. First, and most obviously, the broad macroeconomic trends that we've all been experiencing the last 12 months or so have made ours an even more dog-eat-dog world than usual. With slower than normal deal flow and a more cautious customer base, many providers have felt compelled to slash prices in order to keep the deals moving. Stemming from this, several of the better-known vendors in our industry have experienced some pain (e.g. running out of working capital, having major investors withhold cash payments, trying to get bought/sold, etc.), and have consequently tried some... um... creative pricing strategies in an attempt to keep their heads above water. And finally, the tireless march of progress (aided by low or negative inflation rates) has simply made some of this stuff cheaper, as it almost always does. Interestingly, looking at the breakdown of costs by component, you can really see the effect of the commoditization of the hardware:

Hardware items are taking up less and less of the pie, while the service-oriented components like management software and tech support take up larger portions. While I don't think we've seen the end of this trend yet, it's clear that those service areas are where the true value to the customer lies, so it's no wonder that they're getting bigger at the expense of the mere "nuts and bolts." The upshot to you, gentle reader, is that there has never been a better time to get into the digital signage business as a network owner or operator -- provided you have the working capital, at least.

As you can see in the tables below, the cost of implementing a 100-screen network has dropped nearly 23% in the past year and nearly 50% since 2004, which is the biggest annual decline that we've recorded since we started keeping track. (Note: to ensure an accurate comparison, we removed the 24/7 tech support line from the 2004 numbers, since this was not included in subsequent years.)

What happens when you consider personnel costs?

As noted, the table above is a composite estimate for running a 100-screen network over the course of 3 years. Building on work that we did last year to figure out the approximate cost (including personnel) for running such a network, we've re-verified that the "average" 100-screen network takes somewhere between 7 and 15 people to run. We stuck with the assumption that the average salary for these personnel is $50K (which is fair, since average salaries haven't dropped that much in the past 12 months). But we reduced the average staff size by one person (to reflect the dismal state of employment today), bringing the average headcount to 9 people. This adds up to another $450,000 in salaries and associated costs every year, for a total of $1.35M over our 3-year planning horizon. That's equivalent to $37,500/month in expenses, or $375/screen/month. When added to the $121/month in capital expenses, the "average" screen in a "typical" 100-screen network costs about $496/month after salaries are factored in. In other words, a 100-screen network would need to pull in just under $50,000/month to break even.

What about connectivity and content?

First, connectivity. To the people who tell me year in and year out that I need to include bandwidth and connectivity costs in my estimates, I once again went out to the masses and asked. Aside from a couple of interesting exceptions, most networks are still sharing the bandwidth that's already in place at their host venues, essentially getting Internet connectivity for free. So while connectivity could easily add another $30-$150/month in expenses to your network if you need to spring for it, in my experience this will be the exception, not the norm. And with airports, malls, superstores and coffee shops giving away free bandwidth to anybody with a wireless adapter, I really don't expect that to change. I know a lot of people are waiting for WiMax to really start making headroads in the market, but today we're still stuck with 3G at best, and 2.5G or worse in areas with poor coverage. So cellular connectivity doesn't really save anything versus wiring into an existing LAN or using WiFi today.

Next, content. In 2007, we took a look at some of the content creation costs that go along with digital signage networks and found them to be all over the map. Since then, content gurus like Pat Hellberg and Gary Halpin have chimed in with explanations of why certain things cost what they do. But during that period, nobody has really ventured forward with a formula for guesstimating the a la carte content production costs. The good news is that the prices in our 2007 budgeting article have likely fallen, thanks largely to the lousy economy, low inflation, greater competition, improved workflow processes, and offshoring. The even better news is that since last year's budgeting article, I discovered that every single network I spoke to has at least one in-house content person who handles some (or nearly all) of the network's content needs. Consequently, at least part of the content creation budget is already built-in to my estimates above.

Closing thoughts (and some more light reading)

So there you have it, the 2009 digital signage pricing estimate. After speaking with a bunch of networks directly and incorporating the data that we culled from the 220+ responses to our pricing survey, I'm more confident of the numbers above than ever before. Want more info on the survey results that informed our final pricing numbers? Check out our recent articles where we looked at each category in detail:

Of course, even with all my number-crunching, I don't claim this data is perfect. That's why I hope you'll chime in with your own thoughts and experiences. So...

Are you surprised by the big drop in costs this year? Do our numbers match up with your own experiences on the open market? Leave your thoughts in a comment below!

Click here to leave a comment

What's WireSpring's Blog All About? WireSpring provides hardware, software and services for digital signage and kiosk projects. But our blog is a labor of love. Our posts cover everything from case studies to creative briefs, and are authored by some of the industry's most well-respected leaders.

The POPAI Digital Signage Study: Is This 550-Page Book For You?

Bill Gerba

I know I'm a little late to the game with a review of a book that's already over a year old -- positively ancient by our industry's standards. But now that I finally got a chance to read through POPAI's digital signage book, I'd like to reprise my role as the haggard old industry "expert" and chime in with some comments. In short, the POPAI digital signage study is a monster: the book weighs in with nearly 550 pages of text and graphics. At around $375 per copy (based on current exchange rates and excluding VAT), it's certainly a great bargain for some people, while others may be disappointed. Which camp do you fall into? Keep reading and find out.

About the book

Assembled by POPAI D-A-CH (the chapter responsible for Germany, Austria and Switzerland) and research firm GIM, the 550-page tome is officially called "Digital Signage. The global study. Opportunities and risks." It consists of genuine research intermingled with expert anecdotes (and I'm quoted in there, so take that for what it's worth) plus whole sections sponsored by industry vendors. That makes it somewhat unique in my mind, since I can't think of many other hardbound publications that take you from scientific data to thinly-veiled advertisements in a page or two. But that's not necessarily to the book's detriment: as you'll see in a minute, that kind of information can be quite beneficial for a certain audience. The editors also did a fair job at pointing out which sections were sponsored and which weren't, though in the future I might recommend that all sponsored sections be relegated to a specific portion of the book, rather than strewn throughout.

Like many of you, I'm always pressed for time. So when I thumbed through this book during various trade shows and events, I always felt that it was great, but just too big for me to ever get through. Having had a copy in my office for a few weeks now, I learned that how you read the book is just as important as how much of it you read. For example, I quickly realized that I could skip several chapters of what I'd call "digital signage 101" material, which is designed for more novice readers. Likewise, I tend to be US-focused, so I skipped a lot of information about the US market that I'm probably already familiar with. This gave me more time to spend on Europe, Asia, Africa and other markets that I'd like to learn more about. And finally, as a very visual learner, I was quite pleased with the number of charts used to distill down the many pages of text.

You said "sponsored sections." So I'm supposed to pay $375 for a wordy book full of ads?

Like I said, this book might not be for you (and if that's your attitude, it probably isn't). The sponsored sections are pretty tastefully done, and in fact some of them are reasonably educational. I could definitely see somebody who is new to the market or trying to gauge their own business model taking some useful bits away from the sponsored case studies like Mood Media's piece on in-salon branded TV networks. In fact, many of the expert anecdotes read more like ads than the sponsored sections did. (One could either make the case for good editing on the sponsored stuff, or bad editing on the anecdotes. Your call.) So is there a bit of soft-selling going on? Yes, here and there. But the Cleverdis SMARTreport or a pull-out section from USA Today this is not, so don't worry about getting hammered with promotional messages.

Who might want to buy this book?

If you're new to the industry and want to quickly gain some global market perspective, the POPAI digital signage book might be for you. That means product vendors, service providers, and companies already working in tangential markets and looking to expand into the digital signage sector are prime candidates. The real selling point of the book (in my opinion) is its global nature, so if that's not something you as a reader would value, you can probably do just as well reading websites or perhaps picking up one of the dozen or so other DOOH books out there already. Traditional media companies and agencies hoping to expand into digital out-of-home would probably find a lot to like, especially if they already have some global exposure and can self-corroborate the book's findings. Likewise, anybody thinking about making an investment in our space (angels and VCs, that means you) ought to find the $375 price tag a bargain, even if they do nothing more than thumb through the 100+ pages of charts and survey results. While this kind of data is going to get stale quickly, it's still a pretty good snapshot of the industry, and again the global perspective is something that very few other resources have provided.

Who probably wouldn't be interested?

If you're already in the industry, you think you have a pretty good idea of what's going on in your particular vertical market, and you have no desire to hear about what some of your competitors or potential customers might be doing, you probably don't need this book. That's especially true if you have no intention of expanding beyond your current country (or continent) -- or if you're already in so many geographic markets that you can provide your own global insight. Similarly, small businesses or do-it-your-selfers looking for a how-to instruction guide for getting started should probably look elsewhere. There are dozens of books, e-books, blogs and websites providing that kinds of introductory information in a more accessible package.

Summing things up

So there you have it: a 1,000 word review of a 550-page book that costs $375 and focuses on a single subject: digital signage. I'm glad I had the opportunity to really give it a chance, because the book has a lot to offer for those willing to devote the time to reading it. It's also a nice complement to POPAI's The Power of Marketing at-Retail, which covers the broader topic of in-store marketing. Finally, if POPAI and GIM decide to come out with future versions of the digital signage study, I really hope they take a more web-centric approach and make the contents viewable and searchable online (for a fee, of course). Some kind of wiki-like revision history would also be great so you can see how market definitions and statistics change over time. And comments. Everything's better with comments :) But on the whole, the digital signage book provides a great deal of valuable information for those readers looking for a truly global perspective on the market. To learn more or to place an order for your own copy, visit the special website that POPAI created for the book. (Full disclosure: I am a member of POPAI's Board of Directors. I received a free copy of the POPAI book from GIM and it was entirely my choice to review it. I don't receive any financial compensation for book sales generated by this blog post.)

What type of info do you wish there was more of within our industry? Do we need more resources like the POPAI book? Leave a comment and let us know!

Click here to leave a comment

What's WireSpring's Blog All About? WireSpring provides hardware, software and services for digital signage and kiosk projects. But our blog is a labor of love. Our posts cover everything from case studies to creative briefs, and are authored by some of the industry's most well-respected leaders.