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		<title>Can digital signage be profitable for an AV reseller or VAR?</title>
		<description>Discuss Can digital signage be profitable for an AV reseller or VAR?</description>
		<link>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/642-can-digital-signage-be-profitable-for-an-av-reseller-or-var</link>
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			<title>Bill Gerba says:</title>
			<link>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/642-can-digital-signage-be-profitable-for-an-av-reseller-or-var#comment-451</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Hi Greg,
You hit on an excellent point -- too many VARs try to be all things to all people, instead of focusing on the deals and areas where they have a competitive advantage. In doing so, they participate (or try to, anyway) in ways that don't best showcase their strengths, which is why I think there are so many mediocre-looking vendors out there today.
It's a big enough problem that I probably should have written about it in this article, but we did touch upon it a few weeks ago in an article about the trends that separate the winners from the losers in our industry:
[[http://www.wirespring.com/dynamic_digi tal_signage_and_interactive_kiosks_journal/article s/5_crucial_steps_that_can_make_or_break_your_digi tal_signage_project-345.html|5 crucial steps that can make or break your digital signage project]]
Specifically, VARs (and everyone, really) need to be able to completely articulate their business model and competitive advantages so that they can pick areas where their time/effort/money is most likely to yield a positive return on investment. Likewise, they need to set challenging but achievable goals so that they have a clear path and hopefully some way to measure their progress.
While I wouldn't necessarily say that those who don't do these things are doomed to fail, those who **do** do them have a better chance for success.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Bill Gerba</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Jan 2008 15:29:46 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/642-can-digital-signage-be-profitable-for-an-av-reseller-or-var#comment-451</guid>
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			<title>Greg Askew says:</title>
			<link>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/642-can-digital-signage-be-profitable-for-an-av-reseller-or-var#comment-450</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I think there is huge progress in this field. Every mall you go in now has digital signage everywhere. Our company has built a very successful and unique model not in malls but in other high traffic areas. I could care less if a var ever figures out how to pull off a successful way to do this. I do see someone showing up and buying the thousands of digital signage locations and tying them all together.
There is a lot to be said about struggling to find advertisers. There is lot's of hard work going into learning how to sell that space but the bottom line is if you have eyeballs seeing your displays then you will have advertisers.
Add to all of this an interactive component that actually tracks usage and prints out information for the buyer - GENIUS!!
What I recommend is just staying focused and do not try to be all things to all potential clients.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Greg Askew</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Jan 2008 12:29:06 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/642-can-digital-signage-be-profitable-for-an-av-reseller-or-var#comment-450</guid>
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			<title>Bill Gerba says:</title>
			<link>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/642-can-digital-signage-be-profitable-for-an-av-reseller-or-var#comment-449</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Hi Matthew,
Thanks as always for your perspective. While I think your comment is mostly correct, I continue to believe that the issue is not so much the cost, but the determination of benefits. After all, ROI is basically just
$Benefits - $Costs
While the latter is pretty easy to calculate nowadays (and yes, it can be a big number), people continue to struggle with the former, even after nearly a decade of "serious" digital signage deployments.
The way out of this, of course, is to be able to effectively and accurately value the benefit portion of the equation, and as we've seen, that has a lot to do with the specific model that the signage is being used for (check out our articles on digital signage business models for more info on that).]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Bill Gerba</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:44:57 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/642-can-digital-signage-be-profitable-for-an-av-reseller-or-var#comment-449</guid>
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			<title>Matthew Olivieri says:</title>
			<link>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/642-can-digital-signage-be-profitable-for-an-av-reseller-or-var#comment-448</link>
			<description><![CDATA[My response is that perhaps the world wasn't quite ready to fully embrace digital signage in the past- at least not in the ways I envision they will be in the near future...I seem to vaguely remember large record sized laser disc movies that came out 3-4 years before people were ready to start tossing out their VHS cassettes of course later came the first DVD and now that is the industry standard.
Why weren't people embracing D.S. in the past? I don't know if any one reason reigns supreme, perhaps of number of reasons...hardware limitations, government regulations? New technologies always have a high $$$ cost associated with them as well until enough players enter into the industry which makes things more scalable and brings costs down overall, which is what I foresee happening in the next 2-3 years BIG TIME.
Case in point, I asked a random 25 people what the term digital signage meant to them and only 5 were in the ballpark.
Within the D.S. industry I think you will have one company that steps up and who makes D.S. the cool, hip, fresh and exciting medium to advertise on and this group will not only help shape the industry but also society's willingness to absorb the switching costs necessary in learning how to capitalize on this medium.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Matthew Olivieri</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:35:40 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/642-can-digital-signage-be-profitable-for-an-av-reseller-or-var#comment-448</guid>
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			<title>Bill Gerba says:</title>
			<link>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/642-can-digital-signage-be-profitable-for-an-av-reseller-or-var#comment-447</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I applaud your efforts to try and help educate the world on the potentials and requirements of digital signage projects, but after nearly five years of blogging, traveling and working the trade show and conference circuit, I can tell you that we haven't yet created the ecosystem necessary to quickly bring newcomers up to speed, share knowledge, etc.
I do know that there are a number of groups **working** on that very problem right now, but as of right now there are too many people jumping in head-first without first arming themselves with the necessary information.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Bill Gerba</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Wed, 19 Dec 2007 13:23:08 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/642-can-digital-signage-be-profitable-for-an-av-reseller-or-var#comment-447</guid>
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			<title>Matthew Olivieri says:</title>
			<link>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/642-can-digital-signage-be-profitable-for-an-av-reseller-or-var#comment-446</link>
			<description><![CDATA[The two biggest things that struck me in this article were this: 1) "clients either came in with creative assets that weren't appropriate for the store environment, or had no creative assets at all."
2) "It simply means figuring out a way to help companies match the right kinds of digital signage projects with their core competencies."
From my perspective as someone who seeks to be a VAR, these two points are critical to my business. I think companies like mine must effectively find ways of educating the world on not only the potentials, but also the requirements of different digital signage systems-thus lowering the amount of perceived time, effort and money it will cost to get involved and create positive network effects.
The further opportunity to have a ~creativeTM department which assists companies that donTMt have the budget to go through an Ad Agency is simply icing on the cake in my opinion.
I am curious as to your thoughts on our latest blog post as well, if you wouldn't mind:
www.displaydiary.com
Thanks Bill,
Matthew]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Matthew Olivieri</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:32:47 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://www.wirespring.com/30-legacy-blog-digital-signage-insider/642-can-digital-signage-be-profitable-for-an-av-reseller-or-var#comment-446</guid>
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