1. business and industrial
2. advertising and marketing
3. advertising

Digital Signage: The State
of the Art and the Promise
for the Next Five Years
A guide from Digital Signage Today
INSIDE: Digital signage has revolutionized business in the previous months
— and the best is yet to come. What impact will dynamic signage technology
have on your business in the next five years? This in-depth guide will help
you explore the emerging issues and understand how this rapidly changing
technology is going to help your business grow. Plus, learn the results of our
exclusive State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey.
Developed and Published by:
Sponsored by:
Contents:
Page 4
Introduction
Page 5
Part I
Digital Signage: The State of the Art
| The basics
Chapter 1: An overview of digital signage
Chapter 2: Business models and business cases for digital signage
Page 15 Part II
| Digital signage in action, by vertical
Chapter 3: Retail
Chapter 4: Banking/financial
Chapter 5: Foodservice
Chapter 6: Transportation
Chapter 7: Hospitality
Chapter 8: Health care
Chapter 9: Government/public sector
Chapter 10: Corporate communication
Chapter 11: Education
Page 38 Part III
| State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey
Page 53 Part IV
| What the future holds
Mike Abbott, ADFLOW Networks
Brian Ardinger, Nanonation
Bill Gerba, WireSpring Technologies
Rob Gorrie, ADCENTRICITY
Rocky Gunderson, SeeSaw Networks
Jeff Porter, Scala
Nurlan Urazbaev, BroadSign International
Jeff Weidauer, CBS Outernet
Mike White, Multi-Media Solutions Inc.
Sponsors:
About the sponsor
Scala Inc. is the world’s leading provider of centrally
managed digital signage software solutions that are
reliable, easy to use, scalable and extensible, enabling
customers to cost-effectively create and deliver targeted
messages that inform, educate and motivate audiences.
Scala’s innovative multimedia software platform powers
thousands of digital signs around the world, including the
digital signage networks of Rabobank, IKEA, Bloomberg,
Burger King, T-Mobile, Virgin MegaStore, EuroDisney,
Kiwi, McDonald’s, Warner Brothers, Shell, Santiago
Airport and Ericsson. The company celebrated its 20th
anniversary in 2007.
Digital Signage Today, operated by Louisville, Ky.-based
NetWorld Alliance, is the leading online publisher of
news and information on the emerging world of digital
signage, dynamic messaging and cutting-edge business
communication technologies. The content, which is
updated every business day and read by professionals
around the world, is provided free of charge to readers.
Published by NetWorld Alliance
© 2008 www.networldalliance.com
Written and edited by James Bickers, senior editor
Dick Good, CEO
Tom Harper, president and publisher
Bob Fincher, executive vice president and general manager, Technology Division
Joseph Grove, senior vice president and associate publisher
Introduction
When you stop to think about it, digital
signage is one of the most logical
business tools a company can deploy.
For the first time, businesses are able
to have complete control — mastery,
even — over all of their media assets,
marketing materials and public-facing
content. In other words, it gives complete control of the company’s brand
to the people who can make the most
out of having that control.
It is no wonder, then, that digital signage is roaring off, as Helen Reddy
might say, in numbers too big to
ignore.
Digital signage also represents a fundamental shift in the ways businesses
must think about their collaterals and
their communications, and that makes
it challenging. Companies have become very used to the systems and
techniques they have honed when it
comes to communicating with their
employees and their customers. Asking them to set aside those decadesold techniques and replace them with
something entirely new is not something to be asked lightly.
But properly integrating digital signage
into a business environment gives
managers the opportunity to create
entirely new workflows, which often
are far more efficient than the ones
they replace. Since digital signage requires an end-to-end network to reach
its potential, it can work alongside
other network applications and create
possibilities for the sharing of
data, reduction of “busy work”
and more effortless communication.
If you’re thinking about digital
signage and how it can benefit
your business, know that you
are not alone. We’ve compiled
this guide to help you make
sense of the many options
available.
In Part I, we look at the basics: What
is digital signage? What do you use it
for, and how do you monetize it? Part
II looks at some specific examples of
world-class digital signage in action,
broken down by vertical.
James Bickers
senior editor,
Digital Signage Today
In Part III, you’ll see the results of our
exclusive State of the Digital Signage
Industry Survey. We’ve distilled the
pertinent information from the 600
executives we polled about how they
use digital signage now, and how they
plan to in the future.
Part IV allows you to tap the collective
wisdom of the industry. Nine leading
digital signage experts have shared
their thoughts on the ways digital
signage is used today, where the untapped potential lies and what exciting
things are on the horizon.
I hope this guide is valuable to you,
and I hope you’ll drop me a line to
let me know about it. I’d like to thank
Scala, whose sponsorship allows us
to provide this guide to you at no cost.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
4
Part I
The Basics
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
5
Chapter 1:
An overview of digital signage
I
n a landmark Supreme Court case
from 1964 (Jacobellis v. Ohio, for
you trivia buffs), Justice Potter
Stewart remarked that although he
couldn’t provide an iron-clad definition of obscenity as it applies to the
cinema, “I know it when I see it.”
Providing an iron-clad definition of
digital signage proves to be less of a
challenge, but, once again, seeing is
believing. Semantics can be argued
and hairs can be split about what,
exactly, constitutes digital signage;
but on the whole, it can be expressed
in simple terms that are intuitively
understandable:
Digital signage is any form of
business communication where a
dynamic messaging device is used
to take the place of, or supplement,
other forms of messaging.
Until very recently, this simply wasn’t
viable or cost-effective. Screens were
too expensive, too big and wore out
too quickly. The return wasn’t strong
enough.
But the LCD/plasma revolution
changed, and is changing, all of that.
Screens now are so affordable they
can rival the printing costs of static
posters over the course of time; they
are thin and can hang on a wall (no
more CRT units suspended from
frightening-looking ceiling mounts);
they can communicate with computer
networks and fetch new content,
eliminating the “sneakernet” days of
employees trotting from screen to
screen with armloads of VCR tapes.
Some of the ways digital signage is
used today include:
• In retail, communicating with customers about in-store specials,
directing customers to other parts
of the store, managing traffic and
hotspots, and conveying brand
messages
• In banks, displaying interest rates
and product information, as well as
lifestyle messages and branding
• In airports and bus stations, keeping travelers up-to-date on arrival
and departure times while providing
an advertising vehicle for shops and
restaurants
• In casinos and entertainment
venues, creating a customer experience that is consistent with
the ambiance and atmosphere of
excitement
• In doctors’ offices and waiting
rooms, providing entertainment to
bored patients while giving an ad
vehicle to pharmaceutical companies and other providers
• In schools and on corporate campuses, facilitating a level of communication between parties that would
have been unthinkable just a few
years ago
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
6
Chapter 1: An overview of digital signage
And the list goes on. Virtually any
place that has printed signage — bus
shelters and payphone booths, shopping malls, the tops of gas pumps —
has the potential to improve its worth
with an upgrade to digital, dynamic
messaging.
Despite all the progress that has been
made, digital signage still is a very
complex proposition for the company
installing it. Mike White, president of
systems integration firm Multi-Media
Solutions, called digital signage “one
of the toughest A/V installs in the
world.”
Why is it so challenging?
On the surface, our definition might
make digital signage seem like simplicity itself. After all, most everyone
has a television set in his home and,
in most cases, that set was installed
by the person who bought it. Take it
home, plug it in, turn it on — that’s all
there is to it, right?
In the case of televisions and homes,
yes, that usually is all there is to it,
although even this is changing as
the evolving nature of home theater
becomes more and more complex.
But dynamic signage in the business
environment is exponentially more
complicated, for a number of reasons:
media assets often provide a good
starting point, but few of them can
be reused outright.
• Content needs will vary across the
enterprise. In all but the simplest
digital signage deployments, multiple screen sizes and orientations
are used — and a 42-inch screen in
landscape mode calls for very different content than a 32-inch screen
in portrait. The greater the number of screens in the network, the
greater the organizational challenge
for content.
• Multiple networks might be involved. The most beneficial digital
signage products touch one or more
networks. In retail, for instance, the
signage network might be designed
to communicate with the POS
network, in order to gauge content
effectiveness versus sales. But
getting any two (or more) networks
to communicate is an IT challenge,
and it increases with the number of
networks and nodes involved.
• Very different business disciplines
are at work. Digital signage appears
on the surface to be an IT project.
And yet it also is a marketing initiative. The rub? It’s both, and calls for
some real teamwork and sharing of
duties.
• The content strategy usually needs
to be tackled from scratch. Digital
signage content has a completely
new set of requirements; existing
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
7
Chapter 1: An overview of digital signage
The unique features of digital signage networks
Place is known. Because the location of any display
will be known, this information can be used to make
the content more appropriate to the place. If a display
is near one particular product, the content on the display can be crafted strategically with this in mind. For
example, the content could promote that product or its
benefits, create an appropriate mind set (ambiance,
reminder) or promote a complementary product or
service available elsewhere. Another aspect of “place”
that is quite relevant is the fact that often a display is
near the point of purchase. A great deal of research
has shown that advertisements near the point of purchase are far more effective. Although the size of this
effect and the explanation for why it happens are both
controversial, it is clear that point-of-purchase information has a massive impact on behavior.
Time is known. Because a digital signage network is
controlled by a networked content manager, content
is “served” as a function of time of day. For example,
content aimed at business travelers might be shown
at an airport on Monday mornings and family-aimed
content might be shown Friday afternoons.
flow can be known. The specifics of an event can be
known (concert, sale, flight delay). Such information
— and its use — is limited only by the creativity of the
digital signage network designers.
Audience is known. Because time and place are
known, audience demographic and psychographic
information can be well specified. This allows for highly
relevant “narrowcasting” that should speak directly to
the audience at that moment.
Content is dynamic. Dynamic digital content has
numerous advantages over other forms of advertising.
Compared to print, the content creation/distribution
process is more rapid and less costly. Also, the content
can be customized and tailored “on the fly” to each
display device separately. Finally, the medium allows
for animation and, in the case of kiosks, interactive
opportunities.
(Excerpted from “Digital Signage Networks: Theory,
Psychology and Strategy” by Pixel Inspiration Ltd.,
reprinted with kind permission.)
Events are known. Information related to the fusion
of time and place also can be known. For example,
current weather conditions can be known. The traffic
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
8
Chapter 2:
Business models and business cases for
digital signage
W
hatever digital signage is
and however you choose to
think about it, it is important
to remember that it does not exist in
a vacuum — it is a business process
that will become a daily part of operations the moment the screens are
turned on.
Companies thinking about implementing digital signage need to carefully
lay the groundwork, and this chiefly
consists of asking the big-picture
questions: Why do we want to do
this? What do we want the screens
to accomplish? How will we judge
whether they are working?
Most digital signage installations fall
into one of four broad categories:
1. Sales augmentation: These screen
networks take specific aim at
increasing sales using digital messaging. Examples include “sale
on aisle four”-type messages,
countdown discounts (i.e., sales
that will expire in a certain number
of minutes), cross-sell messages
located in strategic parts of the
store and direct calls to action.
While this type of display network
is of primary interest to retailers, it
is used in other verticals such as
banking and foodservice.
2. Brand messaging: These networks concern themselves with
extending the business brand and
enhancing the customer’s opin-
ion and experience of that brand.
Examples include the in-store
network at Target, for instance,
which continually beams lifestyle
messages (animations of happy
people using and buying Target
products). In the case of large
retailers like Target, those messages usually are planned to work
in tandem with other advertising,
chiefly television.
3. Third-party advertising: This business model probably has received
more attention than any other,
because it speaks directly to ROI.
Under this model, businesses that
own or host the screens sell some
or all of the screen real estate to
third parties. Convenience stores
may allow candy makers and beer
companies to buy ad space on
a rotator or a crawl; screens in
public areas often are subsidized
by ads for local restaurants and
attractions.
4. Entertainment/customer engagement: Customers hate waiting
in lines, and retailers long have
known that if you give those customers something interesting to
look at, they’ll feel as if the wait is
shorter than it actually is (this is
why tabloids are positioned near
checkout lines in grocery stores).
Digital signage can be used to accomplish this “wait-warping,” providing entertainment and lifestyle
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
9
Chapter 2: Business models and business cases for digital signage
content to catch the customer’s
eye and improve his mood.
For No. 3, measurability is easy. The
advertising model provides a built-in
set of metrics that allow a deployer to
determine how well the signage initiative is working: advertising sales.
For the other three, though, the business case is a bit tougher. Brand
messaging and entertainment/customer engagement are long-term
endeavors that are not as easily
measured; both work on a psychological level with the customer and
the results might not be noticeable for
some time, if ever. Deployers using
digital screens for either or both of
these purposes need to incorporate
the signage budget and workflow into
the overall business plan, and not
expect it to “prove itself” as a silo.
Sales augmentation proves even
trickier, because another layer of
measurement is required. So you’re
running promotional spots for a
certain type of candy bar — how will
you know whether those spots were
effective?
The data exists in the POS system, but it will need to be stacked
up against the playlist of the digital
signage network to see what, if any,
relationship exists.
Measurement and analysis:
Ad-based messaging
Selling ad space on a digital sign is
not for everyone. Many retailers will
find that they are better off sticking
to retail, rather than trying to branch
out into ad sales; others blanch at the
thought of content from other sources
appearing alongside their carefully
developed brand. But in many cases,
the model is a good fit.
The growth of in-store media comes
at a time when ad buyers are at a
crossroads. Brands are experimenting with new media of every sort,
looking for ways to staunch the bleeding caused by personal video recorders (PVRs), ad blockers and a general consumer “tuning out” of traditional
advertising.
“Media buyers are between a rock
and a hard place today,” said Brian
Dusho of BroadSign International.
“They are increasingly pressured by
advertisers to research and buy new
media, but doing so means spending much more time and effort for
less revenue than buying TV, radio
or print, which is fast and easy for
them.”
One common concern is the possibility of cannibalizing existing co-op
funds — in other words, will convincing brands to advertise on digital
screens just cause them to reduce
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
10
Chapter 2: Business models and business cases for digital signage
the money they spend elsewhere in
the store?
According to June Eva Peoples, vice
president of business development
for measurement software company
DS-IQ, the answer is no.
“Most of the CPG advertisers we work
with bring new dollars to the medium,
often from a separate bucket dedicated to experimentation with new
media offerings,” she said. “P&G, Unilever, Hershey and others have said
publicly that they intend to expand
the promotional money they spend
in-store, reducing general broadcast
dollars. We expect that manufacturers
will bring a more rigorous cost-benefit
analysis to many areas of marketing,
including media spend. This should
benefit in-store networks, which are
measurable and have very attractive
rate cards.”
Scott Templeton, senior vice president of business development for
Intellimat, said retailers need to totally
change their thinking when it comes
to co-op money.
“Retailers need a frontal lobotomy
to fix how they look at this,” he said.
“They are paranoid that a digital
signage application may cannibalize their co-op money, yet they don’t
know how much they are really
getting and what percentage of their
channel co-op dollars they are getting. If digital signage has proven to
be more effective than most other
forms of advertising, why wouldn’t
you want to shift some of your existing co-op money over to it and sell
more product? Selling more product
with the co-op dollars you get is what
gets you more co-op money next
quarter or next year.”
Templeton, whose company sells ad
space on floor-mounted displays, said
digital signage is attractive to brands
looking to spend their co-op money.
“The fact of the matter is, a digital
signage network makes better use of
existing co-op dollars, helps attract
more dollars from existing pools and
allows retailers to tap other pools of
money that brands and product companies have. I have attracted brand
and new product introduction money
from Coke and Pepsi because I had a
digital network and a proven track record, and this was incremental money
the retailer would not have received
without the network.”
Dealing with media buyers
The ad-buying business is very different now than it was just a few years
ago. While this obviously has much
to do with new media, it is largely
affected by one particular innovation
by one particular company: Google’s
search marketing.
“Media buyers have lately been under
pressure from advertisers to buy media that provides more accountabil-
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
11
Chapter 2: Business models and business cases for digital signage
ity and higher ROI than traditional
media,” Dusho said. “When Google
made their paid search marketing
model transparent and accountable
— you only pay for click-throughs to
your ad, not for impressions — both
media buyers and advertisers became excited and comfortable with
it and started spending more money
on it.”
“The No. 1 thing is audience,” said
Bill Gerba, president of WireSpring
Technologies. “The ability to hit a
certain target demographic — and,
more importantly, a large number of
individuals in that demographic — is
what media planning and buying is all
about.”
To that end, screen deployers that
want to court media buyers need to
spend some time and money doing
audience research, building a comprehensive profile of who exactly will
be seeing the screens. That information needs to be distilled into a
compelling media kit, that describes
the entire value proposition of the
screens at a glance. (See sidebar for
more on being prepared for dealing
with media buyers.)
For retailers, the potential client list is
obvious: brands that are already sold
in the store. However, this can create
an interesting dynamic when the retailer sells competing products — for
instance, a grocery store with its own
private label foods.
What screen owners need to reach
ad buyers – a checklist
•
A compelling media kit, fully describing the audience
•
Third-party audience measurement studies
•
Campaign success stories
•
A list of repeat advertisers
•
A competitive rate card
•
Accurate proof-of-play and proof-of-performance reports
— Nurlan Urazbaev, BroadSign
For instance, if a given chain sells
Nabisco cookies for a net margin of
five cents, but sells an equivalent
house-brand cookie with net margins
of 25 cents, it is in the chain’s best interest to emphasize the house brand.
On the surface, this would seem to
imply that courting Nabisco as an
advertiser would be a bad idea.
Not so, says Gerba.
“When you look at the Nabisco brand
as a whole and take into consideration all of the products under its umbrella, letting them advertise in store
makes more sense, since it lends
some brand authority to the store,
and also primes customers to notice
Nabisco’s other products, which might
translate into incremental sales,” he
said.
Gerba said his company is seeing
retailers experiment with advertis-
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
12
Chapter 2: Business models and business cases for digital signage
ing packages — for instance, selling
a distributor space on an entire end
cap, which includes a screen, for a
period of time. That package might
include other types of in-store marketing — fliers, for instance, or a display
at the store entrance — with one or
more screens included in the mix.
“Think about how you communicate
the total value delivered to advertisers when they place content on your
network,” Peoples said. “The audience, who are they? What is relevant
to them? How does your audience
reflect demographics and behavior
that might be valuable to specific advertisers? Think about how to include
measurement services that develop
ongoing insight about how your customers respond to the network and
specific kinds of campaigns, so that
advertisers are buying more than eyeballs — they are getting intelligent,
behavior-based targeting.”
Measurement and analysis: Brand,
entertainment and promotional
messaging
Companies often will use digital signage to enhance their customer’s experience, deliver branding messages
and communicate with employees —
with no advertisements to be found.
Even though there is no ad buyer to
report to with such a network, good
measurement numbers are just as
necessary. And it is wise to begin
with some of the same strategies that
apply to ad-driven networks — chief
among them, the mandate to know
your audience.
“People shopping stores are the
same ones zapping out TiVo and
blocking banners online,” said Laura
Davis-Taylor of Retail Media Consulting. In other words, if you want to effectively communicate with the people
in your space, do so in a way that will
not intuitively feel like an advertisement.
“The shopper is in a store,” she said.
“Motivate them to buy, to engage, to
explore a new product or simply make
them happy. There’s a lot of powerful
things that can be done to add value
to the shopping experience.”
All of the actual methods of measuring customer activity that work for
ad-supported networks also work for
brand-driven ones, but the data is
inferred differently. On an ad-driven
network, a manager might look at the
sales data for a specific product at
various times of the day and compare
that to the playlist to see when ads for
that product ran.
For branding messages, that manager would look at specific business
aspects emphasized in the digital
content. For instance, suppose a
sporting goods store loops a promotional spot for its free loyalty program.
This playlist could be correlated with
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
13
Chapter 2: Business models and business cases for digital signage
POS data on how many new sign-ups
were generated.
Some other examples of how data
from an informational network can be
read:
• A bank uses digital signage to loop
through promotional spots for home
equity lines, certificates of deposit
or safety deposit boxes. After a
month of running this particular
playlist — long enough to establish
benchmark data — one or more
of the spots are switched out, and
end-of-day sales results are compared.
set-up. Traffic data can be visually
mapped to show “hot spots,” giving
instant visual confirmation of where
people are most likely to linger within
the store.
If the store’s signage content is compelling, red spots on the map (indicating long dwell times) will align with
locations of screens, enabling store
planners to push the flow of traffic to
desired areas by repositioning the
screens or adding new ones. On the
other hand, if those red spots are not
aligning with the screens, that could
be a sign that the content is not resonating with customers.
• A quick-service restaurant shows
combo meal specials on screens
above the counter — and includes
some sort of customer trigger
(“Mention discount code XYZ to get
a dollar off this meal!”). Not only is
the “coupon” data captured, but the
customer is trained to look at the
screen from now on.
• An automobile dealer uses digital
signage to convey branding messages, emphasizing new vehicles
and additional features. End-ofmonth sales figures can easily be
correlated with the cars and features that were looped.
In addition to matters that are directly
related to sales, measurement numbers can help companies refine and
improve their physical space and its
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
14
Part II
Digital signage in action,
by vertical
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
15
Chapter 3:
Retail
L
ocated in approximately 40
store locations in major cities
throughout the Russian Federation, the Ramstore Retail Network
deployment of state-of-the-art digital
signage networks represents a new
era for in-store advertising.
tion and video clips and incorporate
promotional messages. In addition,
local content, including news, sports
and weather, is included at each POS
location. To maintain relevancy, content changes weekly and varies over
the channel.
Ramstore Retail Network is a retail
chain composed of shopping centers,
hypermarkets and supermarkets. After
two years of investigation and evaluation, Ramstore management settled
on a contractor able to implement this
new professional in-store TV platform.
Indoor Media TV (IMTV), a Scalacertified partner in Russia, is the
integrator and investor in the Ramstore project. To introduce this new
media to the Russian market, IMTV
produced the Interactive MediaTV for
Ramstores across the Russian Federation.
To initiate the deployment of the digital signage network, Ramstore stores
with high sales volumes and large
customer volumes were identified.
Ramstores were deployed in Moscow
and major regional centers including
St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk, Kazan,
N. Novgorod, Rostov, Podolsk and
Zelenograd.
“The project represents a unique advertising opportunity for the Russian
marketplace, providing store managers with a new vehicle to influence
their target consumer audience,” said
Tony Yammine, IMTV’s European
chairman of the board. “We know that
75 percent of purchases are made at
the point of sale, and we are expecting a sales uplift of 30 percent.”
Interactive MediaTV Network was deployed in high-traffic zones throughout hypermarkets, supermarkets
and shopping centers. Content was
designed to provide product informa-
The IMTV system, combined with Panasonic LCD screens and the Scala
InfoChannel platform, provides the
complete solution. All media is transmitted simultaneously to all screens
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
New media is
born for in-store
advertising at
Russian Ramstore
Retail Network —
IMTV-Russia.
16
Chapter 3: Retail
using a satellite or an Internet connection.
“We are proud to announce that in
the second quarter of 2006 the total
number of displays for the first phase
of the project will reach 1,000,” Yammine said.
The Dynamic Messaging System
gives West 49 the power to distribute
messaging to all store locations, tailor
it to the store display as needed and
change it as often as desired.
West 49 skateboard shops
West 49 is a retailer with an attitude.
This skateboard, snowboard and surf
shop provides customers with a laidback atmosphere and a vast amount
of gear and apparel. Recently, rollouts
of several new stores have begun
and many existing stores are having
their looks updated. The look and feel
of the stores are being tailored to the
type of crowd that shops at West 49 –
young, hip 12- to 20-year-olds.
Digital signage is a logical fit in this
environment, where most of the audience is very technology-savvy. West
49 selected ADFLOW Networks to
provide the company with an in-store
digital media network that captures
the attention of its demographic.
ADFLOW Networks was selected because of its ability to cost-effectively
deliver in-store video to a network
of point-of-purchase display screens
and TV monitors, while simultaneously delivering in-store audio through
the existing sound system.
Oftentimes, West 49 customers are
buying skateboards or snowboards
that involve some behind-the-counter
work, thus requiring the customer
to wait. ADFLOW was tapped to
provide an interactive touchscreen
entertainment system for West 49.
The “Entertainment Centres” enable
customers to watch and listen to
skateboard video and audio content,
learn more about what is happening
at West 49 stores and receive promo
information on products offered at
each location, while they wait.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
Digital signage
enables West 49
customers to watch
and listen to skateboard content.
17
Chapter 4:
Banking/financial
R
abobank is composed of approximately 1,363 independently operated local banks
throughout the Netherlands providing
financial services and products to the
Dutch retail and business markets.
In its Dutch home market, Rabobank
Group has 1.3 million members and 9
million business and private customers and is the market leader in virtually every area of financial services.
The company decided it needed a
modern solution for attracting new
customers to its local banks.
developed to ensure the corporate
message, position and image were
maintained. However, local banks
also needed to develop unique content to deliver to their area of the
country. New capabilities were added
to accommodate the local needs of
the banks.
The Hulskamp Group BV, a Scalacertified partner, proposed a digital
signage network with plasma screens
located in the bank and next to the
bank’s ATMs. Each plasma screen
would display short, focused ads
about the bank’s varied products and
services while customers waited to
use the ATMs. The network would be
managed from a central control location over an ASDL infrastructure.
In 2002, the project started with 25
local banks each outfitted with plasma
screens in the bank and at each
ATM. As of 2005, more than 200 local banks were using the Rabobank
digital signage system. Each screen
displays high-impact short messages
and ads focused at the local customer
market.
Because each local bank is independently managed, standards had to be
Templates were developed by Rabobank corporate, in collaboration
with Hulskamp Group BV, and reflected the image and mission of the
bank. Text fonts, logos and images
were standardized and methods were
developed to allow local bank managers to contribute to their in-house
digital signage network.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
Rabobank attracts
new clientele with
datacasting network.
18
Chapter 4: Banking/financial
Over the period of the project, the
installation rate grew from 20 screens
in 2002 to 390 in 2005. Rabobank
estimated that in 2006 the network
would grow to more than 600 screens
in local banks throughout the country.
To measure growth, plausible metrics
were needed for a ROI justification;
Rabobank began measuring the
number of users, the number of ad
contacts per year and the maximum
effective message length. Users
grew from 28,000 to 43,000 over a
few months. Previously, Rabobank
was measuring 200,000 ad contacts
per year. The maximum effective ad
length was 10 seconds, reaching a
minimum of 70 percent of viewers.
Results showed that Rabobank was
measuring 17,500,000 ad contacts
per year.
facing brand re-enforcement provides
a better ROI, as different startup
costs can be spread across budgets
of multiple cost centers.
Credit union enhances customer
experience with live feeds
To quantify its metrics, Rabobank
calculated the cost of the network
equaled 2.4 cents per ad contact,
based on an initial investment of
€5,000 per screen. Rabobank cites
the advantages of the network as
informative, modern and innovative.
With screens running 24/7 in all local
banks, the ad contacts attained far
outmeasured the company’s traditional television ad campaigns.
Since first opening its doors back in
1976, the Polish & Slavic Federal
Credit Union (PSFCU) consistently
has strived to offer the highest level
of customer service to its everexpanding member base, which has
more than 68,000 customers. Propelled by its desire to offer customers
more, PSFCU contracted ADFLOW
Networks to integrate digital signage
networks into its store environments
in lieu of static signage.
As the system grows, Rabobank will
use the same network infrastructure
to communicate with customers and
employees. Sharing the same infrastructure for training and customer-
The digital signage initiative had to
serve multiple purposes. The main
objective was to improve the in-
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
Rabobank’s
installation rate grew
from 20 screens in
2002 to 390 in 2005.
19
Chapter 4: Banking/financial
branch customer experience. Another
key component was to inform customers of the many products and services PSFCU provides.
By watching eye-catching, captivating screens, patrons are entertained
while waiting in queue, which helps
decrease perceived wait times.
This initiative saw ADFLOW Networks
install display screens in each of
the PSFCU branches in the United
States. The screens display live Polish TV feeds, promotional content in
support of marketing campaigns and
other fact-based information relevant
to members and staff alike. The digital signage offers great flexibility of
programming, enabling content to be
changed as necessary, depending on
the time of day.
The network arms PSFCU with an
enhanced brand experience, an internal communications tool and entertainment for patrons. The benefit is
significantly greater than that of static
posters, which don’t have the flexibility or impact that dynamic messaging
offers.
The Polish & Slavic
Federal Credit Union
deployed digital signage
to improve the in-branch
experience and inform
customers of products
and services.
ADFLOW Networks configured the
network so PSFCU would have the
flexibility to switch between a split
screen (Polish TV, brand and product
awareness content) and a full-screen
feed of Polish TV, utilizing ADFLOW’s
Dynamic Messaging System.
PSFCU installed screens at its corporate office to monitor, manage and
continue to promote the usage of
in-branch digital media throughout the
organization.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
20
Chapter 5:
Foodservice
M
cDonald’s patrons in the
Philippines are enjoying
a new taste at the chain’s
outlets — the taste of dynamic digital
signage. McDonald’s joins the booming multimedia-savvy corporations all
over the world that have embraced the
power of Scala’s visual communications in the current era of technology.
The digital content for all locations is
developed and managed by Globaltronics, and remotely controlled from
the Globaltronics Network Operations
Center (NOC). The content is updated twice a week — or as often as
necessary — for the entire network,
selected outlets or sometimes specific
individual outlets.
Implemented and managed by
Globaltronics Inc., a provider
of digital media management
services and systems, McDonald’s digital signage network
sought to enhance the store
experience and strengthen the
chain’s branding exercise by
keeping customers informed,
entertained and educated with
visually rich content. The signage network also was aimed
to enhance the customer shopping experience and ensure a
focused message is delivered
to its intended audience.
Powered by Scala InfoChannel, McDonald’s digital signage
network runs in most of its outlets
spanning the Philippines archipelago
from metro Manila to Cebu and
Davao City.
Most of the fast-food outlets are
equipped with a 42-inch plasma
screen (several locations have two
screens installed) positioned mainly
at or near the counters in the store
and driven by one Scala InfoChannel
Player.
The media-rich content includes
McDonald’s marketing and product
collaterals, product promotions, video
commercials and special announcements. Further revenue is generated
from the sales of advertising space to
McDonald’s business partners as well
as third-party advertisers.
McDonald’s
digital signage
network runs in
outlets from metro
Manila to Cebu
and Davao City.
The management and control of the
digital signage network is supported
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
21
Chapter 5: Foodservice
by an infrastructure comprising a
proxy server installed at the main
server that is used to distribute the
content on McDonald’s WAN system.
A 256Kbps VPN connection links the
Globaltronics NOC with the proxy
server at McDonald’s headquarters.
Restaurant integrates 12 screens
of digital signage
Owned by Canadian restaurant brand
SirCORP, Alice Fazooli’s Italian Grill
is an upscale casual Italian restaurant
chain with locations across the country. The chain used ADFLOW’s DMS
for a digital signage deployment in
one of its restaurants.
ADFLOW worked with SirCORP
to come up with a strategy for an
in-store digital signage solution to
broadcast sporting and other events
and to make a significant contribution
to the atmosphere of the restaurant.
The restaurant has a bar/lounge, but
wanted to broadcast sports without
giving it the feel of a sports bar.
atmosphere, ADFLOW partnered with
Artisan Live to create content that
could span all 12 screens. For example, one piece of content that runs
at Alice Fazooli’s makes the screens
look like an aquarium and features a
shark and whale that swim from one
side of the bar to the other.
ADFLOW created
a video wall for
Alice Fazooli’s
Italian Grill.
ADFLOW’s solution was a video wall
that was spread out across the back
of the bar. The wall consists of 12
42-inch LCD screens arranged in a
1x12 format. The screens are visible
from all parts of the restaurant.
ADFLOW supplied a technology that
enables each screen to be controlled
individually to broadcast sports or
other live television. To add to the
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
22
Chapter 6:
Transportation
S
antiago International Airport
deployed a large digital signage network using Scala
InfoChannel offering those passing
through the airport critical flight information combined with advertising via
multiple channels and a video wall.
ters assignment, counters, boarding,
baggage claim, arrivals and departure
information, and pure advertising. In
addition, a video wall of two 4-by-4
plasmas was installed in a strategic
location of the airport for advertising
and public announcements.
ViewMax, a Scala-certified partner
based in Chile, designed, installed
and operates this large network for
the Santiago International Airport.
Santiago International Airport, the
main airport in Chile, has more than
7 million passengers passing through
each year, 60 percent of whom are
international. The airport has 115
service counters in its 90,000-squaremeter facility and was chosen by
passengers as the best regional
airport by Asociación Internacional de
Transporte Aéreo Latinoamericano
(AITAL).
The airport decided that digital signage was what it needed to improve
the service experience of the passengers, modernize the infrastructure of
the airport and obtain advertising income. The airport chose to leverage
the combined expertise of Scala and
ViewMax and the sales and marketing expertise of Massiva to make the
project successful.
“The main challenge of the project
was to improve the quality, visibility
and design of the information provided to passengers, and to generate
revenue for the concessionary. After
two years, our evaluation, as well
as that of the passengers, has been
very positive. We are very satisfied
with the project,” said Antonio Smith
de Aguirre, commercial manager for
Santiago International Airport.
A total of 281 42-inch Samsung
plasma screens were deployed
throughout the airport (domestic and
international) in six channels: coun-
“We are very pleased with the evolution of this complex digital signage
project. The technology has proven
to be robust and flexible, and we are
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
Scala InfoChannel
shows advertising and
public announcements
at Santiago
International Airport.
23
Chapter 6: Transportation
experiencing a sustained growth in
advertising revenues showing the maturity of the new media. We are quite
confident that at the bottom of all this,
working closely with our partners at
the Santiago Airport, we have developed a strong business model that
really improves the customer experience of passengers, who were the
focus of the project,” said Mauricio
Carrasco, general manager of ViewMax.
Nuance installs duty-free shops in
Toronto Pearson Airport
To travelers, nothing is more important than getting where they need to
be on time. This presents a challenge
to companies that market their products in airports, where most of the
traffic is hurried.
“Travelers do not have much time to
browse, and, therefore, you do not
have much time to influence their purchasing decision,” said Wayne Ruttle,
vice president of digital signage provider ADFLOW Networks. “The airport
is a hustle-and-bustle retail environment with customers on the fly, and
attracting their attention and trying
to influence their buying decisions is
tough.”
With 320 stores in airports, The Nuance Group is the largest global dutyfree retailer in the world. In 2004, the
company’s North American branch
decided to install seven digital dis-
plays at its stores in Toronto Pearson
Airport, in an attempt to catch the
attention of some of the estimated 25
million people that pass through each
year.
“The screens allow for vivid, animated
visuals to be changed in a very short
period of time, and also allow the
flexibility of updating and changing
communications almost instantly,”
said Mona Lee-Tam, Nuance’s North
American director of marketing and
promotions. “It is also more cost-effective than updating traditional print
media.”
The screens, connected to ADFLOW’s media player hardware and
Web-based content management
system, serve two purposes: Some
are mounted in store windows, facing
outward to bring in traffic, while the
rest are situated strategically inside
the store, strengthening merchandising efforts and allowing the retailer to
tap co-op advertising dollars.
Case in point: A key liquor supplier
wanted to run a national promotion
on one of its products within Nuance
stores. It created a one-minute video
clip and purchased a month’s worth
of time on the in-store displays. The
result? A sales record for that product
during the promotion.
The screens also provide significant
operational efficiencies for the retailer. Since Nuance has suppliers all
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
24
Chapter 6: Transportation
over the world, managing its media
assets is no small task. But the ADFLOW Web-based content management system provides the company
with an always-open pipeline for
incoming content, from anywhere in
the world.
Ruttle said the Web-based system
was one of the main reasons Nuance
chose ADFLOW; the other was the
fact that it offered an IT-free solution.
“Since their corporate network infrastructure was off-limits to any digitalsignage initiative, our Web-hosted
solution was ideal,” he said.
Growth is on the way for both the
airport and for Nuance. Toronto International is in the middle of a 10-year,
multibillion-dollar expansion and development program. By 2010, Nuance
will have expanded its signage program to 36 display screens throughout the airport, all networked and
controlled by the ADFLOW system.
“Millions of people every month will
see the screens and react accordingly,” Ruttle said. “Digital signage works
best when it is strategic in nature and
designed to meet specific retail objectives.”
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
25
Chapter 7:
Hospitality
C
arnival, recognizing the need
to deliver information to its
guests quickly and effectively, decided to look toward digital
signage, and the potential this form
of communication held in enhancing
guests’ “Fun Ship” vacation.
The challenge was to inform, entertain and enhance the guest cruise
experience. In addition, recognizing
the potential for advertising, a digital
signage network provided a foundation to build an advertising platform.
With the implementation of digital
signage, other obstacles became addressable, including reducing the wait
time at information desks by supplying an alternate source of on-demand
information.
The solution
Carnival chose Scala InfoChannel as
the solution to drive its digital signage
endeavor.
Scala InfoChannel powers a variety
of Carnival Cruise Lines shipboard information displays. From large-format
61-inch plasma screens to 32-inch
LCDs, Scala InfoChannel adapts to
a variety of display platforms, including several large-screen interactive
kiosks, providing Carnival’s guests
quick, easy access to large amounts
of information. The touch-enabled
digital signage kiosks are used by
guests to access information about
deck plans, onboard events, dining
times, shore excursions and other
port-of-call information.
Carnival Cruise Lines implemented
Scala InfoChannel on its vessels in
2001, with the introduction of the
Carnival Spirit. Since then, Carnival
has deployed more than 150 units
across the fleet and has extended
installations to the cruise terminals
in a variety of embarkation ports. To
run the operation, Carnival employs
a group of A/V professionals dedicated to the installation, maintenance,
programming and design of the entire
network of units. All content updates
are performed from the company’s
Miami headquarters via satellite.
Carnival Cruise
Lines uses digital
signage to provide
guests access to
large amounts of
information.
The benefit
Guests now have quicker and ondemand access to vessel and cruise
information. At the same time, the
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
26
Chapter 7: Hospitality
company is able to cross-promote
other itineraries with further information about the Carnival fleet.
with cutting-edge graphics, in all of
the public areas and on the guest inroom channel.
“The goals of Carnival’s digital signage network is to effectively inform,
entertain and enhance our guests’
cruise experience,” said Tony Manthe,
production and design manager for
Carnival Cruise Lines. “Ultimately,
our goal is to enhance our guests’
vacation experience. With the Scala
InfoChannel product, we are able to
achieve this objective.”
The hotel is implementing real-time
scheduling information for bus schedules interlaced with traditional casino
marketing of upcoming events and
facilities. Implementation of wireless
Symon digital appliances has enabled
it to change and modify the locations
of signage without regard to the facility’s previously planned wired locations.
“Utilizing Scala InfoChannel, Carnival is able to produce an industrystandard product, demonstrating to
their guests that they are dedicated to
researching and implementing available technologies to better enhance
every aspect of the customer experience,” said Samantha Kelly, design
and multimedia supervisor for Carnival Cruise Lines.
In addition, it has integrated real-time
point-of-sale meal order information with rich casino graphics in the
food court area. For the majority of
the facility’s 30-plus restaurants, rich
graphics are mixed with the daily
menus. The portrait LCDs mounted at
eye level add to the friendly customer
service attitude that the Mohegan is
known for in the industry.
Mohegan Sun Hotel & Casino
utilizes digital signage in
hospitality setting
The entire digital signage experience
is well placed around the complex
with world-class fixture design that fits
very well into the theme and motif of
Mohegan’s unique style.
The Mohegan Sun Hotel & Casino in
Uncasville, Conn., has utilized digital signage in a hotel setting better
than most and may be the best in the
United States. By using Symon Communications hardware and software
systems, the hotel displays all meetings and events, along with marketing
images promoting all of the its amenities. The information is presented
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
27
Chapter 8:
Health care
M
onopoly Media, a Scala-certified partner, has enhanced
its digital signage network
based on Scala InfoChannel, to 40
private medical clinics in Bucharest,
Romania.
The network, named Clinic TV, was
implemented to entertain and inform
patients waiting for their medical appointments. The objective of Clinic
TV was not only to achieve a more
modern image and improve customer
service, but to generate revenue by
allowing third-party advertising on the
network.
Finding themselves in the clinic’s
lobby and having an average waiting
period of 15 to 20 minutes, patients
are more than willing to be informed
and entertained. The patients represent a target audience for direct campaigns and brand advertisements.
Throughout all high-traffic areas in
the 40 clinics, 40 42-inch plasma
screens and 32 19-inch LCD screens
broadcast via a high-speed Internet
connection.
“Since Clinic TV is a specific targeted
channel, the nature of most content
is medical and includes information
on different diseases and their cures,
medical tips, medical curiosities, answers to frequently asked questions,
symptoms for diseases and so on,”
said Gabriel Faflei, Monopoly Media
general manager.
“Also, the digital signage network is
the perfect medium for third parties
promoting different medical seminars,
symposia, conferences and also
advertising for medical products that
do not require medical prescription,”
he said.
Additionally, the clinic can distribute
its own messages to patients. Therefore, the network can broadcast information concerning the clinic’s floor
plans and doctors on duty and also
promote services offered by the clinic
or special promotions. Monopoly
Media plans to enhance the Clinic TV
network in Bucharest and across the
country.
Clinic TV operates
in 40 private medical
clinics in Bucharest,
Romania.
Digital signage educates shoppers
at Moroccan pharmacies
Impact Net in Morocco has deployed
a Scala InfoChannel digital signage
network at more than 100 pharmacies
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
28
Chapter 8: Health care
throughout the country. The Pharma
Channel was created to offer a new
digital and interactive advertising
channel for pharmaceutical companies, focused on enhancing their
sales.
“The most significant challenge in this
project was to convince each pharmacist to approve the implementation
of all necessary equipment, including
LCD screen, computer and Internet
connection on their premises”, said
Imane Mikou, Impact Net’s general
manager. “While the equipment remains the property of Pharma Channel, coupled with the fact that pharmacies in Morocco are independent
and not part of a franchise network,
implementation of Pharma Channel
must be undertaken pharmacy by
pharmacy.”
About 100 pharmacies in main locations in cities such as Casablanca
and Rabat contracted Pharma Channel partners for a three-year period,
with no charge for the deployment.
“This network is the largest InfoChannel network in northern Africa
and consists currently of more than
100 InfoChannel players”, said Alain
Bodenstedt, Scala’s regional executive. “With Scala’s InfoChannel Suite,
we are able to provide highly professional, effective communications
more quickly and efficiently.”
The heart of the equipment package
is the Scala InfoChannel software
suite, which manages content from
a central location and transfers the
ads, or health-related information, via
a Wimax connection to the points of
sale.
The solution was accepted widely
by the pharmacies and, more importantly, by the pharmaceutical companies. The content, mainly videos,
is either created internally by Impact
Net’s graphical team or provided by
the clients. The ads are updated once
a month.
Pharma Channel,
deployed in more
than 100 Moroccan
pharmacies, was
widely accepted
by the pharmacies
and pharmaceutical
companies.
“This initial deployment with more
than 100 pharmacies installed within
three months is proven successful,”
said Mikou. “The clients showed their
interest in having a wider audience
through an extension of the network
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
29
Chapter 8: Health care
to a larger number of prime sites, not
only in Casablanca and Rabat, but
also in other major cities throughout
Morocco. Our goal is, therefore, to
reach the critical number of 300 pharmacies by the end of 2010.”
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
30
Chapter 9:
Government/public sector
W
hen a natural disaster or
terrorist threat strikes south
Florida, the Office of Emergency Management for Miami-Dade
County springs into action. The OEM
coordinates all aspects of disaster
management for Miami-Dade County,
including the organization of fire, public safety and medical services, traffic
situations and updates on shelters for
displaced residents. To ensure that
critical information is updated rapidly,
OEM needed a software system that
could display immediate changes.
For this, OEM turned to Scala Inc.
and Scala’s InfoChannel 200 software to update information without
service interruptions.
Scala’s software is used to display live information on five plasma
screens set up for specific sections
of OEM’s Emergency Operations
Center (EOC), each concentrating
on a different element of the disaster.
The EOC contains 72 seats occupied
by representatives of each agency or
function to ensure that the community’s needs are met. In times of peak
emergency, 200 to 300 people —
including government officials and
the media — crowd into the EOC.
“We gather all the information to get
a true picture of the disaster, assess
the needs of the community and then
distribute scarce resources,” said Bill
Johnson, OEM’s assistant director.
“Scala’s software allows us to respond to information as soon as it is
available — something that becomes
incredibly important in times of disaster.”
The software is used to update the
five information service screens that
include Miami-Dade County’s areas
of human services, public safety,
infrastructure and operations. Since
response time is critical for the OEM,
four operators collect and update
details via keyboards and the data
is simultaneously updated and displayed on the screens.
Key areas include the capacity of all
area shelters, public safety board
listings of the location and hours of
curfews, possible automobile traffic
issues, road and bridge closings and
power and communication interruptions. The large operations screen
provides the “overall snapshot” of
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
Five screens at the
Office of Emergency
Management for
Miami-Dade County
focus on different
elements of a
disaster.
31
Chapter 9: Government/public sector
what already has been done and
future plans.
“It is essential for the people at these
tables to know what the others are
doing. So we have five status boards
that are continually updated,” Johnson said.
“Prior to our use of Scala, we relied
on flip charts and dry-erase markers, pieces of paper and projection
monitors. Having someone brush by
a board and accidentally wipe off our
disaster plans has been known to
happen.”
The sequencing is done through a
MediaXtreme server from Keywest
Technology. The quad-head server
can output different video to each of
the sections of the display through a
switching matrix, allowing footage to
be shown on different sections at different times.
The result is a more eye-catching
display for visitors to the museum.
Through use of the sequencer, three
monitors can show video or display
museum information, while the other
nine screens run a constant video
loop.
Digital signage at the Naval
Academy
Digital signage has been showing
signs of expansion in America’s military, from on-base notification to Navy
ship command centers. Visitors to the
U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis,
Md., can find some of the most impressive digital signage not on a ship,
but in a museum.
The U.S. Naval Academy Lacrosse
Museum, located on the base, boasts
a 12-screen video wall in its main
lobby designed to show the program’s
accomplishments over the years. The
display is divided into four separate
zones that sequence through game
footage and historical video.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
32
Chapter 10:
Corporate communication
N
ovartis Pharmaceuticals
Corporation in conjunction
with Scala-certified partner
Advanced AV of West Chester, Pa.,
implemented a digital signage network to connect the 15 buildings of
the 200-acre Novartis campus in East
Hanover, N.J. The network, running
over the Novartis local IP infrastructure, informs employees of company
news, employee events and benefits.
work took approximately six months
to implement, including developing
relevant content consisting of 1- to
1.5-minute message loop cycles,
implementing IT protocols and installing screens. Advanced AV performed
the initial implementation work for
Novartis.
Prior to implementing the digital
communication network, the internal
communications team distributing
foam core posters throughout the
corporate campus. Changing messages was difficult and expensive.
After a while, employees ignored the
signage because it wasn’t relevant.
The solution for Novartis was a
digital signage network conceived by
Jim Morgenland, associate director
of NPC Communications, and Kris
Vollrath, CTS, director of Convergence Technologies of Advanced AV.
The goal was to develop a corporate
network that provided real-time communications between the company
and its employees while increasing
employee awareness throughout the
company. Also, Novartis needed to
find a more cost-effective solution
over its current system.
The Novartis digital signage network
is composed of 18 40-inch Mitsubishi LCD screens in building lobbies,
cafeterias and break rooms. The net-
While evaluating the effectiveness
of the network, the communications
team concluded the messages must
be relevant to the employee community. Corporate news and business
issues were not enough to catch the
interest of their employees; the messages had to be focused on the daily
interests of the employees.
Novartis
Pharmaceuticals
Corp. communicates
with employees using
a digital sign network.
“The implementation of our network
represented a significant cost reduction and provided Novartis with
the ability to communicate with our
employee community on a real-time
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
33
Chapter 10: Corporate communication
basis,” Morgenland said. “Upon implementation of the network, the cost
of designing and printing signs was
reduced by 90 percent. Additionally,
the cost of distributing and disposing
of posters was eliminated.”
Adventist Health System: Support
from the top
Adventist Health System (AHS) is
the largest not-for-profit health-care
organization in the United States with
43,000 employees, serving nearly
4 million patients annually. When it
decided to deploy a digital communications application, the organization
wanted to ensure that headquarters
could maintain control of the corporate message, but allow the local
college or university to create and
manage content relevant to the local
campus.
AHS first employed AxisTV in June
2004, and it is in the process of upgrading to the newest version, 6.0,
which was launched in August. AHS
corporate headquarters in Winter
Park, Fla., purchased all software
and hardware, and houses the central
content server, which feeds displays
at the Winter Park complex and six
remote campuses: Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Mich.; Union
College, Lincoln, Neb.; Southern Adventist University, Collegedale, Tenn.;
Florida Hospital College of Health
Sciences, Orlando, Fla.; Oakwood
College, Huntsville, Ala.; and South-
west Adventist University, Keene,
Texas.
AHS administrators keep the program balanced by partnering with
the campuses in lieu of a top-down
strategy. “It’s our product, but we see
ourselves in more of a support role
for the campuses. We don’t want to
dictate to them. We want it to be useful and beneficial to the campuses —
not just a bulletin board for corporate
messages,” said Anthony Vera Cruz,
coordinator of corporate communications at AHS. “The reason we prefer
AxisTV to any other solution is that
it’s so easy to use. With some basic
training, you can put up a text bulletin
in a matter of minutes. We’ve gotten a
great response from the not-so-techsavvy users.”
Corporate uses a 16-by-9 format on a
single plasma in the lobby. Messages
are delivered in a three-window plus
crawl configuration to 42-inch plasma
displays at each of the six remote
facilities, usually in the student center or cafeteria. Corporate uses two
of these windows to deliver inspirational messages, recruiting news
and photos of various AHS facilities.
Local content includes bulletins, video
programs, announcements, news,
weather and event schedules.
“In the beginning, we published more
of the content in order to show the
campuses the potential,” said Vera
Cruz. “Now the campuses are turning
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
34
Chapter 10: Corporate communication
over bulletins anywhere from every
two days to rapid changes within a
day.”
Every site has its own processes
— some with individuals generating
content and others using a team approach, with faculty and students submitting content. Andrews University
uses the video window option to show
its campus-produced news show, and
Southern Adventist University has
incorporated event schedule display.
At corporate, AHS is exploring the
use of its plasma’s picture-in-picture
option to show CNN or Fox News with
bulletins in the background.
“We really like the flexibility of the
system for the different sites,” Vera
Cruz said. “It’s able to accommodate
all types of users and uses. Instead of
making our people fit the product, the
system adapts to our needs.”
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
35
Chapter 11:
Education
T
he Nanyang Technological
University (NTU) became one
of the first educational institutions in Singapore to deploy its own
in-house network channel to serve
as a dynamic visual communication
platform for internal publicity and announcements within the campus.
Implemented in June 2005 and
named ChannelNTU, the system is
based on the Scala InfoChannel platform. The network is managed and
maintained by a small team of three
to four staff members in the Center
for Educational Development (CED).
One staffer oversees the technical
deployments; another staffer handles
the design and content authoring,
while another manages the scheduling. A fourth member is expected to
join the team to manage the content
coordination.
The multimedia content for the channel is developed and managed using
Scala InfoChannel Designer, with InfoChannel Network Manager scheduling the transmission that is broadcast to seven plasma screens around
the campus. The CED team creates
multimedia-rich content that is channeled to the screens in high-traffic
areas in seven locations with three
screens in the cafeterias, two in the
administrative building and the rest
placed in the film school and café.
ChannelNTU provides students, staff
and visitors with content that includes
prime-time news and headlines extracted with the RSS feed technology
(currently in the experimental stage).
The integration with the NewTek
Tricaster Pro provides can broadcast
live events such as graduation ceremonies and freshman orientations.
Nanyang
Technological
University
broadcasts
campus news
with ChannelNTU.
Intranet streaming is made possible
with the addition of the Windows
media encoder that also provides live
webcasts of distinguished speakers
or visitors and Internet video casts.
Student publicity announcements
and trailers also are played on ChannelNTU. The channel flourishes as a
platform for NTU and students’ productions to be aired and viewed.
The infrastructure for this solution includes an audio compressor for audio
normalization, an FM transmitter to
manage noisy locations and remote
software monitoring client to assess
playback. ChannelNTU is controlled
and centrally hosted from the CED
using fiber networks that connect the
plasma screens throughout the vast
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
36
Chapter 11: Education
campus, which spans about
200 hectares with more than
50 buildings. The channel operates for approximately 11 ½
hours daily Monday through
Friday, year round.
The deployment of the ChannelNTU network was implemented with the help of Click
Grafix, a Scala-certified distributor and system integrator
for the Southeast region.
VT bookstore steps up to
Intellimats
Students entering the Virginia
Tech bookstore in Blacksburg, Va.,
are exposed to digital signs used for
promotional advertising, but they’re
not on the wall. Instead, the signage
is on the floor in the form of the Intellimat, a floor display system that supports dynamic digital signage content.
the screens ran content containing
Virginia Tech football clips, customers
tended to stop and pay attention to
the mat for longer amounts of time.
The Virginia Tech
bookstore features
the Intellimat, a floor
display system.
The Virginia Tech deployment was
part of pilot program for Intellimat.
The mats were placed in several college bookstores in hopes of increasing sales for logo apparel. The mats
ran content that advertised sales and
promotions. As a test of the screens’
effectiveness, bookstore owners gave
away VT mugs that were advertised
only on the mats, and received 133
requests for the items.
Sales also went up for VT merchandise. But the bookstore operators
and Intellimat also found that, when
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
37
Part III
State of the Digital Signage
Industry Survey
Digital Signage Today conducted a survey of 600 executives, from companies
that deploy digital signage and the companies that make it. Here are the results
of that survey, showing how digital signage is used today, how it will be used in
the future and which industries stand to benefit the most from the technology.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
38
Part III: State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey
How many digital screens/signs does your
company use across its entire enterprise?
Not surprisingly, most of the companies we interviewed are at the very
beginning stages of exploration with
regard to digital signage — nearly
half of them have no screens deployed, and nearly a third of them
have between one and 24 installed.
More than 1,000
4.3%
250-999
3.8%
100-249
4.7%
25-99
1-24
As material prices continue to fall,
and as the business case for digital
signage continues to emerge and
become clearer, watch for these
numbers to skyrocket. New construction of business facilities, from retail
space to office parks, likely will be a
hotbed of digital signage installations.
8.5%
29.1%
None
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
49.6%
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
39
Part III: State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey
Are all your screens networked and capable
of being managed remotely?
One of the biggest strengths of digital
signage is the ability to update content across all screens from a central
location — it represents the end of
counting on employees to travel from
location to location, changing POP
materials and updating in-store promotions.
But surprisingly, most of the people
we surveyed aren’t taking advantage
of this — more than half of the respondents who use digital signage
have their screens centrally networked. Instead, they are relying on
“sneakernet” update methods, such
:FT
as manually inserting DVDs or flash
cards at the screen level.
Sneakernet allows companies to save
a little bit of money in the short-term,
perhaps shaving a few pennies off of
a digital signage project. But in the
long term, it is unquestionably “pound
foolish”; choosing not to network your
screens guts digital signage of one of
its strongest features. Deployers are
advised to plan for connectivity from
the beginning of a project, not count
on going back and adding it later.
/P
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
40
Part III: State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey
Are your screens plasma, LCD, projection or
a mix?
LCD is in the lead here, with more than half of respondents using the technology either exclusively or primarily. Projection still is in the minority, but watch for
this number to increase in the coming years, as the technology improves and
the unusual and interesting applications continue to proliferate.
Plasma
13.8%
LCD
Projection
31.2%
2.8%
Mixed, primarily plasma
12.8%
Mixed, primarily LCD
Mixed, primarily projection
Other
26.6%
4.6%
8.2%
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
41
Part III: State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey
Are your screens customer-facing or
employee-facing?
Most digital signage applications are designed to face the customer. This is no
big surprise, but it points to an area of untapped potential. Those same screens
can be used for employee-facing purposes, such as training sessions, “morning calls” and internal communication. An added layer of efficiency is realized
when employee- and customer-facing screens are run from the same contentmanagement platform.
44.6%
Entirely customer-facing
Mostly customer-facing
30.0%
Mostly employee-facing
Entirely employee-facing
22.7%
2.7%
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
42
Part III: State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey
For which of the following purposes is your
digital signage network used?
As we mentioned earlier, much of the
attention within the realm of digital
signage has been paid to the ad-supported business model. But our survey respondents are not using their
screens primarily for that purpose —
most of them are using the screens
for brand messages and marketing. Many of those same deployers
also are delivering assisted-selling
information; fewer than a fourth of
respondents are running ads on their
screens.
In the coming months and years,
businesses will start to study the
relationship digital media has on the
customer experience they are trying
to create. Advertising is a portion of
this, but only a small one; the understanding of how digital signage
works in the business environment is
an emerging discipline, with crucial
discoveries on the way in the next
few years.
Brand messaging/marketing
66.3%
Assisted selling/product information
54.3%
Third-party advertising
Digital menu boards
Wayfinding
Entertainment channel
22.8%
21.7%
2.7%
16.3%
13.0%
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
43
Part III: State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey
If you are using screens for advertising,
what percentage of your screen space/time
is budgeted for advertising content?
Less than 10 percent of respondents entirely subsidize their screens with
advertising. Once again, the notion of “hang screens on a wall, pay for them
with ad money” is evaporating. The majority of respondents who are selling ad
space are doing so in measured amounts, devoting between 10 and 50 percent
of their screen time and space to third-party messages.
100 percent ad subsidized
50-99 percent
8.7%
10.9%
21.7%
10-49 percent
Less than 10 percent
16.3%
42.4%
Not used for advertising
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
44
Part III: State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey
Do you create the content for your digital
signs in-house, use an external source,
or a mix?
Content is the lifeblood of digital
signage, and many an initiative has
failed because not enough time or
money was budgeted for the ongoing
creation of fresh content.
For many, the best strategy is to
hire an external agency to handle all
digital content; for larger companies,
such a relationship often already is in
place to handle media such as television and radio. But most of our survey
respondents use a mix of in-house
and out-of-house content creation talent, with only 14 percent outsourcing
all of the work.
We use a mix of in-house and outsourced content
50.0%
We create all of our content in-house
We outsource all of our content
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
35.9%
14.1%
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
45
Part III: State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey
Which software platforms power your digital
screens?
This question may seem incidental and even trivial, given the fact that most
deployers think of digital signage as an appliance. But the coming months and
years will see a move toward integrating digital signage with other business
networks, and at this point the software platform will become a key consideration.
8JOEPXT
.BD
-JOVY
0UIFS
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
46
Part III: State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey
Which software platform will become
dominant for digital signage in the next
five years?
Fifteen percent of respondents said
they believe Linux will become a
dominant platform for digital signage
in the next five years.
In many ways, Linux is an IT developer’s dream — a robust and stable
operating system that also is opensource. That means the IT team can
modify it to suit their exact needs.
This is particularly useful for digital
signage, as it allows developers to
remove all of the unnecessary code
— Windows, for instance, has scores
of features that a digital signage network has no need for — making for a
lean deployment code.
8JOEPXT
-JOVY
.BD
/POFJUXJMMSFNBJONJYFE
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
47
Part III: State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey
How many digital screens do you plan on
adding in the next five years?
Of our respondents planning to deploy digital signage in the next five years,
most of them are taking a measured approach. Roughly one-third will deploy 24
screens or fewer, with 13 percent aiming for up to 100. Seven percent are doing massive deployments of 1,000 screens or more.
More than 1,000
7.0%
250-999
7.6%
100-249
8.6
25-99
13.6%
1-24
32.4%
None
30.8%
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
48
Part III: State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey
Which industry has benefited the most or
stands to benefit the most from digital storage?
Overwhelmingly, the
perception exists
that digital signage is
primarily a vehicle for
retail — nearly half of
the respondents said
retail has benefited the
most from the technology, and more than
half said that segment
stands to gain the most
in the next five years.
In Part IV of this guide,
you’ll meet nine industry
experts who were asked
this very same question
— and their answers
vary, although many
of them point to foodservice, hospitality and
travel as areas of major
growth.
Which industry has benefited the most from digital signage
Which industry stands to benefit the most from digital signage in the next five years
53.2%
Retail
47.2%
9.1%
Entertainment
10.2%
9.5%
Restaurant
6.3%
7.1%
Government/public sector
2.8%
5.8%
Financial
9.1%
4.9%
Transportation
10.0%
4.1%
For now, the fact remains: In the minds
of most people, digital
signage is largely a retail technology. But that
is changing, and the
next five years surely
will bring an expanded
awareness of other
industries that stand to
benefit.
Hospitality
3.0%
2.4%
Education
1.3%
2.2%
Hotel/motel
4.1%
1.7%
Trade show
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
49
Part III: State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey
Which technology will impact digital signage
the most and the least in the next five years?
Virtually everyone has a cell
phone in their pocket or purse,
and increasingly, those phones
are able to do some pretty
advanced things. Our respondents are aware of this, and
most of them look to the cell
phone as the harbinger of the
next wave of digital signage
interactivity.
Which technology will impact digital signage the most in the next five years
Which technology will impact digital signage the least in the next five years
13.9%
RFID
11.3%
37.7%
Interaction with mobile phones/SMS
9.5%
5.4%
Some companies already are
tinkering with this notion — inviting a viewer to send a message to a number displayed on
the screen, for instance, and
letting that viewer manipulate
content through his phone.
This is a very new application,
one that is still having its kinks
hammered out, but expect to
see much more of it.
Biometrics
26.7%
4.8%
Social networking
25.1%
15.9%
User-generated content
15.2%
22.4%
Aggregate for media buyers
12.3%
Our respondents also are interested
in aggregate digital signage networks,
which allow media buyers to place
messages on far-flung screens from a
single interface. The more screens an
aggregator can pull under its umbrella, the greater its value to the buyer.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
50
Part III: State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey
Which digital signage application has been
the most successful so far, in terms of value
to the deploying business and customer
acceptance/appreciation?
To most of our respondents, digital signage is primarily useful as
a tool for conveying brand and
marketing information. Truly, this is
an instance where digital signage
becomes just another part of an
establishment’s physical presence
— right alongside printed materials,
store design and fixtures.
Which digital signage application has been the most successful
so far, in terms of value to the deploying business?
Which digital signage application has been the most successful
so far, in terms of customer acceptance/appreciation?
31.1%
Assisted selling/product information
24.9%
33.9%
Brand messaging/marketing
Entertainment ranks low, even
though it’s a very common means
of populating screens. Looks like
those businesses hanging LCDs on
the wall to show CNN or Bloomberg
content might not be getting their
money’s worth.
36.9%
14.3%
Third-party advertising
11.0%
5.3%
Entertainment channel
10.8%
4.5%
Wayfinding
8.4%
10.8%
Digital menu boards
8.4%
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
51
Part III: State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey
Which digital signage application holds
the most potential for growth in the next
five years?
Product selections get larger all the
time, and the products themselves
are increasingly nuanced and complex. Retailers know they will need
to continue educating customers in a
fashion that doesn’t feel like education — it will need to feel more like
empowerment — and digital signage
is a great way to deliver that education in an almost subliminal fashion.
A large number of our respondents
see potential in digital menu boards,
which have only begun to make an
impression on the public radar. But
once companies begin to see the
incredible value and operational
efficiency that such menu boards
provide, we can expect to see them
in many more places. Watch for a
drastic increase in digital menu board
deployment in the next five years.
Assisted selling/product information
30.7%
Brand messaging/marketing
24.8%
Third-party advertising
22.4%
Digital menu boards
Entertainment channel
Wayfinding
11.8%
6.2%
4.1%
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
52
Part IV
What the Future Holds
We sat down with nine industry leaders and asked them what the future holds for dynamic
signage. Here are nine insights into the industry, a virtual roundtable with some of the brightest
minds in digital signage.
Page 54:
Mike Abbott, ADFLOW Networks
Page 57:
Brian Ardinger, Nanonation
Page 59:
Bill Gerba, WireSpring Technologies
Page 61:
Rob Gorrie, ADCENTRICITY
Page 65:
Rocky Gunderson, SeeSaw Networks
Page 67:
Jeff Porter, Scala
Page 69
Nurlan Urazbaev, BroadSign International
Page 73:
Jeff Weidauer, CBS Outernet
Page 75:
Mike White, Multi-Media Solutions Inc.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
53
Part IV: What the future holds
Mike Abbott, ADFLOW Networks
Which industry (retail, financial,
restaurant, etc.) is currently making the best use of digital signage,
on the whole?
The retail sector is probably leading
in overall adoption of digital signage.
Because they have the most widespread adoption to date, retailers
have had more of a chance to experiment with the various elements
of digital signage, including content
strategies, screen size and placement and, more recently, integration
into the overall retail store design.
Many of these digital signage networks have already delivered solid
business results for retailers. With
adoption increasing, costs decreasing and broader acceptance of digital
media by customers, advertisers and
brands, I believe that retail is currently making the best use of digital
signage, on the whole.
Which industry has the most
potential for growing its use of
digital signage?
Because the adoption levels are still
quite low overall, all industry segments, including retail, financial,
restaurant, hospitality, public places
and corporate, to name just a few,
stand to benefit from deploying digital
signage in their businesses. These
businesses will also benefit from integrating digital signage with their other
critical customer-facing and business
communications applications, such as
self-service, POS, loyalty programs,
in-store music, corporate messaging
and many more.
What are the biggest mistakes
you’ve seen companies make with
this technology?
By far, the biggest mistakes we have
seen thus far are when companies
deploy digital signage without clearly
defined business objectives, along
with a digital signage strategy that is
linked to those objectives.
I like to use this analogy: It is hard
to play a game when you don’t know
the object of the game — or the rules
of the game. Worst of all, you don’t
know whether you are winning or losing.
The same thing applies when investing in digital signage technology without clear objectives, measurements
and defined success criteria. Without
knowing these, it is hard to play the
game — and maintain continued
support for the investment. And that’s
what digital signage is — an investment. Companies that don’t see it this
way will usually get it wrong.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
54
Part IV: What the future holds
How open are executives and
decision-makers to the benefits
and costs of digital signage, relative to a year or two ago? How
have their attitudes changed?
We are observing a significant shift in
the thinking of executives and decision-makers that we speak to, a shift
toward much more open acceptance
of digital signage and other media
technology. Increased adoption, often
by competitors, is helping to drive this
shift, together with a growing body
of research that supports the positive impact of successfully deployed
networks. When these benefits are
combined with ongoing declines in
hardware costs, the business case for
adoption of digital signage has never
been more compelling.
If there was a single misconception
about digital signage that you’d
like to correct in the mind of the
business public, what would it be?
There is still a misconception among
many executives and decisionmakers that successfully deploying a
digital signage network is a difficult,
complicated task. The reality is that,
with clearly defined objectives, a solid
strategy and the right partners, it is
simple. And it’s happening out there.
Digital signage and interactive kiosk
technology at the point of purchase,
or at-retail, has the potential — when
data is correlated and analyzed together with other data such as traffic
counting, audience measurement,
dwell times, customer interaction and,
most importantly, sales data — to provide what has forever been the Holy
Grail of marketing: a cause/effect link
between marketing messaging and
actual results.
All traditional marketing media suffer
from the same failing — an inability
to accurately measure their effectiveness. Digital media has begun to offer
closed-loop marketing — on the Internet and, increasingly, at retail. We all
have seen the first fundamental shift
in marketing spend toward Internet
and away from traditional media. Get
ready for the next shift, from traditional media to at-retail.
Do you foresee any fundamental
changes to this business in the
next five years?
I expect to see mass adoption of
digital signage and related technology
and significant consolidation across
the solution-provider community.
What emerging technologies are
you most excited about?
How long before digital signage is
an established “must-have,” considered to be just as essential as
POP displays and POS systems?
I get the most excited about what I
like to call “closed-loop marketing.”
I think we are already seeing evidence of this, in our informal discus-
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
55
Part IV: What the future holds
sions with retailers and others involved in the retail store development
supply chain. We are also seeing
several studies that have identified
in-store media technology as the top
priority for a growing number of retailers.
Mike Abbott is vice president and co-owner of
ADFLOW Networks Inc., a provider of digital
signage and interactive kiosk solutions. Abbott
has more than 20 years of experience building
leading-edge technology companies that
deliver solid business value to customers
across North America.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
56
Part IV: What the future holds
Brian Ardinger, Nanonation
Which industry (retail, financial,
restaurant, etc.) is currently making the best use of digital signage,
on the whole?
Retailers are making great strides
in implementing and innovating with
the use of digital signage. From instore branded media networks like
Harley-Davidson and Nike that inform
customers and enhance the brand, to
interactive touchscreen networks that
provide measurable interactions with
products, retailers are utilizing digital
signage to drive efficiencies and impact the customer experience at the
point of purchase.
Which industry has the most
potential for growing its use of
digital signage?
We’re seeing growth in a number
of segments with retail and financial services leading the way. These
industries offer growth because of the
sheer number of customer endpoints
and the different types of solutions
that can be deployed, depending on
the type of business and target markets served.
and environment factors that can
affect the success of a deployment.
Businesses need to understand why
they want to utilize digital signage
networks and match that with the
customer’s needs and expectations.
Other key pitfalls are to base a decision solely on low price or to purchase a system that doesn’t allow for
future flexibility — whether it’s new
media formats, interactivity or integration into other data sources and
networks.
How open are executives and
decision-makers to the benefits
and costs of digital signage, relative to a year or two ago? How
have their attitudes changed?
Attitudes continue to change as new
rollouts continue to happen and price
points continue to lead to faster ROI.
While there still needs to be continued analysis and measurement within
the market, it’s getting harder and
harder to find people who don’t think
digital signage can be effective at
driving sales and increasing efficiencies with the real-time messaging and
measurement capabilities available
with today’s technologies.
What are the biggest mistakes
you’ve seen companies make with
this technology?
If there was a single misconception
about digital signage that you’d
like to correct in the mind of the
business public, what would it be?
One of the biggest mistakes is to start
with the technology first without an
analysis of the business, customer
I think one of the key misconceptions is that digital signage is just
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
57
Part IV: What the future holds
an ad-driven business. Customers
rarely walk around thinking, “Boy, I’d
like to see more advertising.” While
there are a few ad-based networks
that make sense, digital signage is
about customer communication and
creating environments that enhance
the customer experience. It’s about
integrating a variety of content and
information in ways that make it easy
and effective to interact with customers in a public venue environment.
What emerging technologies are
you most excited about?
Technology triggers from RFID tags
to cell phone-driven signage applications will help create new ways
to enhance and leverage existing
signage systems. Other key technology advancements will come from
the software used to deploy, monitor
and manage these systems with enhancements in everything from data
integration, content management and
measurement tools.
Do you foresee any fundamental
changes to this business in the
next five years?
With the pricing on hardware and
screens continuing to decline, the
technology components of a digital
signage network will continue to drop
while the power and capabilities at
the same price point will increase.
We’ll also see a move to embedded
screens that fit into the environment
rather than simply a plasma on a wall.
How long before digital signage is
an established “must-have,” considered to be just as essential as
POP displays and POS systems?
I think we’re already seeing this.
Virtually every new store deployment or redesign is including multiple
digital media technologies into their
build-out plans. With companies realizing both the increased efficiencies
in media deployment, messaging
and execution of campaigns, combined with the impact on the overall
customer experience, it’s becoming
easier and easier to make a case for
including these systems into a variety
of environments.
Brian Ardinger is senior vice president and
chief marketing officer at Nanonation, a software company creating customer experience
technologies from kiosks to digital signage.
Prior to joining Nanonation, he was head of
research at Ion Global, a Hong Kong-headquartered technology firm where he developed
Asia’s first dedicated customer experience
lab to analyze and measure how customers
utilized technology in their shopping and online
experiences.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
58
Part IV: What the future holds
Bill Gerba, WireSpring Technologies
Which industry (retail, financial,
restaurant, etc.) is currently making the best use of digital signage,
on the whole?
While retail has received the most
attention, I’d have to say that travel/
transit centers have by far made the
best use of digital signs. Airports and
train stations are the only places I can
think of where I actively seek out the
screens to get vital information, and
that, to me, is a sure sign of their effectiveness and their success.
Which industry has the most
potential for growing its use of
digital signage?
Retail, health care, outdoor and
corporate all look like strong contenders, but if I had to choose one, I’d
say that corporate communications
signage (for wayfinding, announcements, safety, etc.) will be the biggest
revenue-generator over the next two
to three years. After that, the balance
could tip in favor of retail and retailoriented venues simply because of
the amount of money being put into
nontraditional out-of-home advertising
right now.
What are the biggest mistakes
you’ve seen companies make with
this technology?
The biggest mistake, bar none, has
been companies with no ad sales experience trying to deploy and monetize ad-funded networks. We’ve seen
this happen in virtually every vertical
from automotive to travel, and it is by
far the biggest predictor of failure.
Similarly, many groups have a “build
it and they will come” mentality where
merely deploying the digital signs is
sufficient for achieving some desired
result (like so many dollars of ad
sales or some percentage of improvement in employee compliance). Of
course, the ongoing management of
the screens is absolutely critical in
these cases, as is the management
team’s ability to execute all of the
other necessary components of the
overall business plan.
How open are executives and
decision-makers to the benefits
and costs of digital signage, relative to a year or two ago? How
have their attitudes changed?
I don’t think benefit expectations have
changed that much, but the costs
certainly have. Lower initial and ongoing costs mean quicker and easier
return on investment for our clients,
and that makes it both more palatable
for them to do pilot projects and more
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
59
Part IV: What the future holds
likely that those pilots will turn into full
deployments.
If there was a single misconception
about digital signage that you’d
like to correct in the mind of the
business public, what would it be?
There are two that I frequently encounter. First, it’s not TV. Really, it’s
not. I don’t want to see your 30-second TV spot running in my grocery
store because it was cheap and easy
for you to get that content onto the
screen. It does nothing for you (the
advertiser) or me (the shopper). If
you don’t have resources to spare on
content production and management,
(or you can’t rely on third parties to
supply purpose-driven content for
you), you probably shouldn’t be thinking about a digital signage network.
Second, digital signs are a medium,
not the end-product. By themselves,
they don’t do anything. They need
content, and they need to be kept
fresh and relevant. Believing that the
screens are the important part of the
network is like believing that putting
a bunch of blank posters on the wall
is valuable. Without the content, the
medium is pretty useless.
What emerging technologies are
you most excited about?
I’m pretty excited about interactive
technologies. On one side, I see a lot
of large-screen kiosk projects in the
works, and, of course, these can be
used as traditional digital signs when
not engaging a user. On the other,
direct interaction with mobile devices
continues to grow rapidly, and as
more people find themselves with
smartphones capable of downloading data and making transactions, I
expect the level of interaction with
out-of-home digital media to increase
greatly.
Do you foresee any fundamental
changes to this business in the
next five years?
As costs continue to fall, more companies will be able to experiment with
different kinds of networks, and that’s
likely to produce business models
and applications that we haven’t even
thought of yet. I think that’s the most
exciting thing about working in an industry that’s so young, is growing so
quickly and has so many possibilities
for synergistic applications (like with
mobile and Web media).
Bill Gerba is co-founder and CEO of WireSpring Technologies, a retail media software
and services company whose products have
been used to remotely manage more than
8,000 interactive kiosks and digital signs
around the world. An industry advocate since
2000, Gerba is chairman of POPAI’s Digital
Signage Awards and a member of the group’s
advocacy and education committees. He also
maintains a number of industry news and
analysis Web sites.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
60
Part IV: What the future holds
Rob Gorrie, ADCENTRICITY
Which industry has the most
potential for growing its use of
digital signage?
In the short term (the next year), the
health and wellness industry is where
I’m seeing large-scale growth and
demand because the audience mix
is mature and in demand by a broad
cross section of brands. It also provides an environment and dwell time
where existing creative assets (TV
and Internet “commercials”) can work
in a limited capacity without a large
amount of repurposing. Regardless,
the content will need to change going forward for it to attain maximum
effectiveness, but, short-term, people
are willing to spend money in this
channel.
Starting in the fall, the quick-service
restaurant vertical may start to finally
see pronounced growth and execution, moving away from franchisebased trials to a more defined strategy and corporate belief that the
medium can actually provide their
patrons with value and entertainment.
Some will follow the Canadian “Tim
Hortons” model, wherein the content
is purely Tim Hortons related. Others, however, are strongly evaluating
third-party revenue models that support the rollout. It will be quite interesting to see which QSRs support
which philosophies.
What are the biggest mistakes
you’ve seen companies make with
this technology?
There are a few mistakes I continue
to see. Many new entrants, from retailers to advertisers, still don’t properly set success benchmarks for their
initiatives. It sounds simple and obtuse, but defining what success is will
give you something to work toward
and a true idea of if you’re going in
the right direction. Ask yourself what
you truly are trying to accomplish.
For third-party, ad-supported networks, reliance on a 100-percent
advertising model is destined for
failure. You wouldn’t buy a magazine that was 100-percent ads. Why
would you assume that consumers
are interested in that? Spend some
time understanding your audience
and their needs and cater to them.
This adds value to your network and
attracts advertisers.
For brands and agencies, thinking
this is TV and addressing it as such
is a sure-fire journey to failure. This
model was attempted back in the late
’80s and early ’90s and was a catastrophic failure — remember Checkout TV?
One of my advisors at Interpublic and
an ex-CEO of one of the larger ad
companies in New York said it best:
“This medium (digital signage) has
tremendous capabilities for clients,
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
61
Part IV: What the future holds
but agencies need to take a new look
at their approach. My suggestion
would be to try holding focus groups
with deaf people to understand how
they are engaged in the real world by
our work (creative/advertising).”
simply wasn’t feasible. No executive will risk his company’s future or
shareholder dollars without the “Alevel” support of the a major partner;
it’s the old saying of “No one ever got
fired for hiring IBM.”
How open are executives and
decision-makers to the benefits
and costs of digital signage, relative to a year or two ago? How
have their attitudes changed?
Lastly, the advertising budgets and
attitudes are slowly realigning, led
by brand demand. P&G, Coke and
J&J have all realigned dollars into
shopper marketing and place-based
efforts. This gives executives a more
realistic idea that dollars from major
spenders will be accessible to support major rollouts. This didn’t exist
even a year ago. No executive is going to blue-sky revenue or be unrealistic about a network’s income. Now
that this has shifted, it makes the
decisions a little easier to support and
more worth the risk.
Capital expenditure cost and a lack
of true, large-scale, ongoing North
American success have ultimately
kept digital signage from flourishing. Much of the commodity staples
are now coming in line, which makes
the actual financial decisions easier.
Most attitudes in our industry have
changed from the blue-sky mentality of old to a more down-to-earth “I
understand your problems/concerns
and am here to try and address and
fix them.” This goes a long way to
supporting a realistic conversation
at the c-level and so attitudes have
moved to really addressing how this
will benefit each stakeholder.
In addition, some of the larger players, from Ingram Micro to Deloitte
to Accenture have now entered the
space. This gives buyers a sense of
comfort and security that their decisions will be supported and reinforced. Our industry hadn’t reached
this credibility level until now, which
meant that a large-scale decision
If there was a single misconception
about digital signage that you’d
like to correct in the mind of the
business public, what would it be?
To speak solely from the advertising/revenue end of the business, the
message that needs to be sent out
and corrected is that this medium is
easy to buy, has supporting, ongoing success we can point to (even
if taken with a grain of salt) and has
reached a point of maturity and critical mass, with enough influencers in
the industry that are here to 100-percent support their varying needs to
ensure they are successful.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
62
Part IV: What the future holds
What emerging technologies are
you most excited about?
Measurement technologies. The new
breed of software and technology
service companies that can perform
empirical and undisputable analysis
in a cost-effective manner on not only
traffic/audience but age/gender/race
and “eyes on screen” have an opportunity to transform not only the digital
signage business but also the retailing, creative and media businesses.
Coupled with smart consultancy and
human analysis of what the data
actually means and how to execute
on it, we can start to remove some of
the “black box” effect and complicity
that some buyers see in our industry,
allowing decisions and dollars to flow
faster.
This level of maturity in quantitative
analysis will help shed an enormous
amount of light on how to really use
the medium. It will likely be fairly
disruptive to many; those who are
responsible for spending the money
will enjoy the transparency and newfound knowledge. This knowledge
will yield different approaches to
creative, retailing, promotions, screen
integration and positioning, etc., that
will only serve to benefit the brand,
retailer/environment and consumer
stakeholders and let them maximize
their success from the medium. The
same technologies, however, may
challenge some age-old beliefs and
thought processes, which may have
significant impact on how the industry
sells and executes for itself, and may
disprove some long-standing fundamental approaches that have been
used by some companies to date.
Do you foresee any fundamental
changes to this business in the
next five years?
Retailing/environmental integration
will become much more prevalent.
There’s been so much learning that
has been accomplished over the last
five years but very little action on a
mass basis to effect change, especially in many of the newcomers to
the digital signage world, who have
not had the benefit of the past learning that the industry stalwarts have
grown through. Where screens are
positioned, how they’re used to support the shopper and environmental
needs, etc., will become much more
transparent and understood.
As that happens, people will stop
simply slapping screens anywhere
they please and start to truly integrate
them into environments right from the
“design” stage of retail and environment planning. I have many friends
in the location/retail “design” business and they are all acutely aware
of digital signage and already using it
in their “next-generation” and concept
stores as a fundamental support pillar for their designs. It will take five
years to roll these environments out
at scale, but they will make for very
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
63
Part IV: What the future holds
enhanced place-based environments
without looking like the digital signage
was added as an afterthought in certain situations.
Also, advertising formats and lengths
will change. What is approached as a
15- or 30-second spot on a creative
wheel will slowly move to five to 10
seconds. It’s how the medium is currently consumed by the audience,
and if brands and creatives want
maximum impact, the executions
will have to go in this direction. Right
now, I’m seeing 15-second spots as
the norm across 14 different categories of environment. Two years from
now, I would hazard that that there
will be two formats — six-second “adlets” and 15-second “ads.”
How long before digital signage is
an established “must-have,” considered to be just as essential as
POP displays and POS systems?
or a POS systems doesn’t fully do us
justice in the same way that calling
it TV or a static billboard doesn’t do
it justice. In addition, networks have
to understand that not all venues are
equal — even inside a single retail
chain. Retailing happens in classifications of stature — A, B and C environments. Buyers don’t necessarily want
all of your venues and you would be
best to focus on the retail environments that the retailers themselves
consider their “A list” stores and
markets.
Rob Gorrie is president and founder of ADCENTRICITY, a digital signage media service
that helps brands and media buyers make
strategic media buying decisions and effective
media spends on the digital signage medium.
Previously, he was head of interactive and interactive point-of-purchase at Gorrie Marketing,
and prior to that he was president of an online
advertising and marketing firm for 10 years.
I think “must-have” is over five years
away if you’re talking holistically.
Digital signage doesn’t work in every
single circumstance. It may be appropriate for a retailer’s “A” stores
but not their “B’s” and “C’s,” the same
way POP displays are sometimes
only bought for “A” stores. We have to
be very careful about how we position
this between the retailing/advertising
and sales/marketing circles — digital
signage is appropriate for both (above
the line ads and below the line sales)
so to classify it as the same as POP
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
64
Part IV: What the future holds
Rocky Gunderson, SeeSaw
Networks
Which industry (retail, financial,
restaurant, etc.) is currently making the best use of digital signage,
on the whole?
Retail (grocery) has the most experience with digital signage and from an
endemic product perspective, linked
into POS systems, can provide direct
measurement to advertisers. Grocery
has also done a good job of deploying
different networks in different zones
of the store and, therefore, providing
a more relevant experience for their
customers.
Evolving in the QSR space there
appear to be some best practices
where companies have combined
digital menus with queuing theory
and relevant ads and content to help
manage the busy consumer through
the line, while supporting the servers
in describing specials and new items
on the menu.
We have good progress in hotels with
digital management of conference
rooms and events that support those
conferences; there has been good
use of kiosks in hotels, that support
functions such as check-in/checkout,
boarding pass printing and general information distribution. Health
clubs, with the addition of interactive
screens on cardio equipment, can
now provide users with targeted work-
outs, relevant business and entertainment content, access to e-mail and
relevant ads, adding even more value
to the busy executive’s workout.
Which industry has the most
potential for growing its use of
digital signage?
Transportation, QSR and general
retail hold the most potential, as they
are key parts of what we call “life patterns.”
What are the biggest mistakes
you’ve seen companies make with
this technology?
The biggest single mistake people
make is thinking that this is a technology business. Consequently, content
oftentimes is the most under-invested
area of digital signage networks.
How open are executives and
decision-makers to the benefits
and costs of digital signage, relative to a year or two ago? How
have their attitudes changed?
Newer entrants are extremely receptive while many legacy operators are
less receptive. The new entrants are
studying the market and looking for
best practices before they deploy.
They are choosing to build from a
best-of-breed model rather than attempting to be good at everything. Attitudes are largely driven by hope and
fear. Currently, hope is winning.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
65
Part IV: What the future holds
If there was a single misconception
about digital signage that you’d like
to correct in the mind of the business
public, what would it be?
That it is largely an entertainment
medium. It is, in fact, an informational
medium — which gives it substantially more credibility as an advertising/
marketing medium than an entertainment medium.
What emerging technologies are
you most excited about?
flexibility and adaptability relative to
the real-time conditions of each location. Therefore, no medium should
have greater value to a company trying to sell their wares. This media will
begin its “hockey stick” growth curve
by the summer of 2008.
Rocky Gunderson is founder and vice president of marketing and network development for
SeeSaw Networks. Prior to starting SeeSaw,
he was a CEO and senior marketing executive
in hardware and software businesses in the
retail, supply chain and manufacturing sectors.
Mobile interfaces to increase functionality of both signage and the
devices themselves — a highly
symbiotic proposition. The sum will
be greater than the parts. Additionally,
measurement technologies will add
credibility to the industry and drive up
CPMs that will support more investment in measurement technologies.
Do you foresee any fundamental
changes to this business in the
next five years?
Far more interactivity, real-time messaging and more robust analytics. We
may see significant market consolidation.
How long before digital signage is
an established “must-have,” considered to be just as essential as
POP displays and POS systems?
No medium is closer to the point of
consideration or point of purchase.
Additionally, digital signage offers
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
66
Part IV: What the future holds
Jeff Porter, Scala
Which industry (retail, financial,
restaurant, etc.) is currently making the best use of digital signage,
on the whole?
In the United States, retail petroleum
(gas pumps), menu boards, banking
and health care are growing at the
highest rate. Corporate communications and educational networks have
long been very strong, and continue
to be so.
Which industry has the most
potential for growing its use of
digital signage?
Based on sheer numbers, retail petroleum has the greatest potential. Its
only rival will be vending machines,
but this market has yet to significantly
take off.
What are the biggest mistakes
you’ve seen companies make with
this technology?
Content is where the majority of
mistakes are made. Some classic
mistakes are advertising Charmin
toilet paper while waiting for your food
at McDonald’s and having Donald
Trump advertise All brand laundry
detergent at the deli counter with a
Bloomberg-style crawl. Clearly, the
wrong message at the wrong time
does not work.
How open are executives and
decision-makers to the benefits
and costs of digital signage, relative to a year or two ago? How
have their attitudes changed?
I have never seen the level of activity in the industry as it is today. The
CAGR is about 60 percent, which is
quite high, but I have a feeling we’re
just at the knee of the curve. Certain
sectors in certain geographies are
growing more rapidly. For instance,
we have a network of over 350 pharmacies in Poland, but no major chain
drug store in the U.S. has deployed
anything significant to date. I claim
that Europe is easier to deploy since
each country is in smaller “bite-sized
chunks,” whereas in the U.S., critical
mass requires an order of magnitude
or more in terms of size (and capital
expenditures).
If there was a single misconception
about digital signage that you’d
like to correct in the mind of the
business public, what would it be?
Traditional media folks in the U.S. are
slow to catch on to this new medium.
Digital signage is not TV. It’s not
print. It’s not a billboard. It’s not the
Web. It’s this new thing. You need
to change your mindset when developing effective content for this new
medium. The old television paradigm
doesn’t work here. The dwell times
are different, and often sound is not
an option. In addition, you must have
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
67
Part IV: What the future holds
a dynamic platform to be able to support differences in pricing per region
or store, as well as product mix.
Playing the same video in all stores
just doesn’t work. Snow blowers are
never offered in New Orleans, for
instance.
What emerging technologies are
you most excited about?
Interactive digital signage has some
great potential to further give viewers
a more customized experience. I also
think that “mini-digital signage” will
make a big difference as soon as the
pricing is within reach. I also believe
that more and more screens will become IP addressable with computers
built in, and not just a dumb display.
Do you foresee any fundamental
changes to this business in the
next five years?
I do expect some consolidation in the
industry in the next five years. We’re
already starting to see that now. Also,
as the next generation of media buyers “come to power,” I think that they
will be more accepting of this new
media, and not fear the risk of trying this. The prevailing attitude will
change from “we’re looking into it” to
“of course we’re doing it.”
Probably five to 10 years, depending
on the vertical. Some markets are
maturing faster than others. Some
countries are embracing this sooner
than others. For instance, many eastern European countries have completely skipped the 20th century in
terms of technology. They went from
Cold War to 21st century in one step.
What is going to be your company’s primary focus in the coming
years?
I expect that the Far East will show
dramatic increases in the next five
years, perhaps even over taking the
U.S. or Europe.
Jeff Porter is executive vice president of Scala
Inc and has been employed by Scala in various
capacities since 1994. Porter also serves on
the board of directors for POPAI, the global
association for marketing at-retail, where he
serves as chairman of the digital signage
group. Prior to Scala, he was employed by
Commodore International, where he was
responsible for worldwide product development of the Amiga computer, the world’s first
multimedia computer.
How long before digital signage is
an established “must-have,” considered to be just as essential as
POP displays and POS systems?
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
68
Part IV: What the future holds
Nurlan Urazbaev, BroadSign
International
Which industry (retail, financial,
restaurant, etc.) is currently making the best use of digital signage,
on the whole?
Retail, digital outdoor billboards and
cinema advertising are definitely at
the forefront of digital signage applications. The growth in all three
segments is organic, driven by revenue from selling network airtime. In
the past few months, there have been
several major developments in the
above fields:
• A new study by Deloitte Consulting revealed that in-store media
is growing at a faster rate than
Internet, mainly due to the rapid
expansion of digital signage. What’s
impressive is that the ad money
started flowing into in-store advertising “despite the fact that marketers have yet to figure out how to
define, measure or administer their
shopper-marketing efforts.”
• Procter and Gamble, the world’s
largest advertiser, has restated 11
years of ad spending data to include in-store media, among some
other nontraditional media, as part
of legitimate expenditures in its
nearly $8 billion budget.
• Digital billboards are leading the
expansion of out-of-home advertising. A new study by Pricewater-
houseCoopers projects continuing
double-digit gains for billboards into
2008, spearheaded by the growth
in digital boards. Although the ad
space inventory levels are increasing rapidly, the demand remains
high and so are the rates. Soon
after these projections came out,
the Federal Highway Administration
ruled in late September that digital
billboards were “permissible,” which
further boosted the installation of
new digital faces.
• According to the Cinema Ad Council, ad spending in movie theaters
grew 15 percent in 2006 to $455.6
million, driven by strong ticket sales
and the digitization of ad content
distribution.
What are the biggest mistakes
you’ve seen companies make with
this technology?
The mistakes I have seen boil down
to one big mistake: the lack of content strategy (or the wrong content
strategy). It seems obvious, but many
entrepreneurs seem to overlook the
unbending logic: define what return
on investment you want from delivering your message to a given demographic at a given type of locations;
research the dynamics and the state
of mind of the consumers at those
locations; all that will let you define
the type of content to be used, the
content loop length for each area, the
slot duration, lines of sight, screen
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
69
Part IV: What the future holds
sizes and types for each area at the
location and all the supporting technology and infrastructure. You get
one of those elements wrong and the
whole enterprise can go awry. We
are seeing many examples of digital
signage businesses that fail because
they ignored these basics.
A few weeks ago, I saw that my bank
branch had replaced the old TV sets
that used to broadcast financial news
(mostly talking heads, without sound)
in the waiting areas with slick LCDs.
I have been back there several times
since then, but I still have no idea
what is advertised or promoted on
those screens. By the time I reach the
ATM or a teller, I see only a small part
of a slowly unfolding ad, or a weather
update (I’ve just come in from the
street, so I already know what the
weather is like). Plus, the background
music is so annoying that I am considering changing the branch, or even
the bank. The whole installation is not
only a huge waste, but a detriment to
the bank’s core business. It also projects a bad image of the industry.
How open are executives and
decision-makers to the benefits
and costs of digital signage, relative to a year or two ago? How
have their attitudes changed?
I think the attitude on the part of
investors and advertisers has shifted
dramatically. As I mentioned before,
marketers started to divert advertis-
ing and promotional budgets into
digital signage without even waiting
for the standards and metrics to be
introduced; and the lack of those was
previously cited as a key obstacle to
the imminent “ad dollar tsunami.” So
the challenge for the networks now
will be how to keep those marketers
satisfied, and for that, they will need
the standards and metrics anyway.
If there was a single misconception
about digital signage that you’d
like to correct in the mind of the
business public, what would it be?
I like this question. I would name the
misconception, still lingering among
traditional agencies and media buyers, that “digital signage is like TV.”
This leads to the next misconception
that this medium should be measured
like TV (e.g., in CPM and GRPs) and
priced based on those parameters.
However, digital signage is probably
anything but TV, except that it uses
similar-looking screens, and it offers
unique capabilities that are unavailable to TV advertisers.
Unlike broadcasters, digital signage
operators can remotely distribute
different content to each screen in a
network and make sure each screen
is on and playing what’s scheduled,
while viewers have no control over
the screens. These differentiators
open up an unprecedented capacity
to report the proof of placement and
measure the real effect of program-
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
70
Part IV: What the future holds
ming. Proof-of-placement data, combined with audience measurements,
gives you accurate “impressions,” but
these are only the first levels of accountability. Long-sought parameters
such as “cost per transaction” and
“cost per action” are going to be the
next standard metrics made possible
by the digital signage technology.
In other words, digital signage offers
a way to take a branding message
that originates in TV campaigns and
do the “dirty” job of transforming it
into an actual sales pitch and bringing
it to a close, so it’s a totally different
medium that should be planned and
measured in a different way than TV.
What emerging technologies are
you most excited about?
Digital cameras that capture every
instance of a customer looking at the
screen, the duration of eye contact,
the age, gender and ethnicity of the
viewer. The most exciting thing for me
is that all this data can be reported
in real time, then stored and used
for content effectiveness analysis. I
am also excited about different ways
people will be able to interact with
screens.
Do you foresee any fundamental
changes to this business in the
next five years?
Yes, I do. Media space of numerous
digital signage networks will be aggregated, standardized and packaged
by consumer profiles and geographic
markets. Buying a national campaign
on digital signage will be as easy
and fast as buying a national TV
campaign. Standard and easy-to-use
reports will be instantly available for
post-buy analyses.
All TV will be digital and most households will have DVRs, so “total marketing” will become possible. I mean
an integrated campaign following the
consumers from their couch to their
commuting route (via mobile devices
and digital billboards), to their laptops
or desktops and to the “final 10 feet”
to the product at a retail location, via
digital signage. It will be as close to
the advertisers’ paradise as it can be.
Many people are concerned about the
proliferating “ad creep,” but, paradoxically, the digital and targeted nature
of advertising will help eliminate a lot
of clutter and marketing waste. And
because of the high measurability
and accountability of future digital
signage, its CPM rates will surpass
those of TV and radio and will keep
rising, especially in the narrowly targeted upscale niches.
How long before digital signage is
an established “must-have,” considered to be just as essential as
POP displays and POS systems?
Two to three years.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
71
Part IV: What the future holds
Nurlan Urazbaev is director of marketing for
BroadSign International. With BroadSign
since the company’s beginning, Urazbaev
also worked as a reporter, radio executive,
entrepreneur and owner of a media consulting
company.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
72
Part IV: What the future holds
Jeff Weidauer, CBS Outernet
Which industry (retail, financial,
restaurant, etc.) is currently making the best use of digital signage,
on the whole?
That depends on your interpretation
of “best.” Retail doesn’t currently
have the screen count of some other
areas (e.g., restaurant, financial),
but that’s changing rapidly. With the
tremendous customer count that retail
outlets have, primarily supermarkets,
this medium is poised to change the
advertising world in much the same
way that the Internet has.
Which industry has the most
potential for growing its use of
digital signage?
Retail is where the action is going to
be, particularly supermarkets. Customer counts help drive viewership
numbers that rival major media providers, and the engagement level is
above that of in-home media. Shoppers are interested in the content on
the screens in-store, and unaided recall is greater than that of television.
What are the biggest mistakes
you’ve seen companies make with
this technology?
Assuming the viewer is a “captive
audience.” The shopper always has
choices and alternatives, and she will
vote with her feet if she feels forced
to watch content that isn’t relevant.
Tied to that is the danger of not focusing on content. No matter how many
screens are installed, if the content
doesn’t engage the viewer, then the
number of screens doesn’t matter,
because no one is going to watch.
Also, not enough thought given to
screen location. There are many
factors in this decision beyond just
getting power there. Areas of natural
dwell time, where the shopper can
linger as long or as little as she likes,
are critical.
How open are executives and
decision-makers to the benefits
and costs of digital signage, relative to a year or two ago? How
have their attitudes changed?
Many executives remain skeptical,
but the tide is turning. The benefits of
OOH digital are being proven again
and again by numerous providers,
and this medium is now too big to
ignore. More and more companies
are dedicating a percentage of their
media budgets to investing in digital
at retail.
If there was a single misconception
about digital signage that you’d
like to correct in the mind of the
business public, what would it be?
That this is just another TV.
What emerging technologies are
you most excited about?
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
73
Part IV: What the future holds
Bluetooth and other interactivity enhancements; mobile marketing and
the ties possible to digital at retail are
very exciting in terms of tying different
media together in a consistent presentation that benefits the advertiser
and viewer alike.
vision for the current Supervalu in-store media
network, overseeing all aspects of strategic
development and expansion, along with content creation and management throughout the
chain.
Do you foresee any fundamental
changes to this business in the
next five years?
Consolidation of providers. This
will be ongoing until a small (five to
seven) group of effective network
providers remain.
More interactivity with viewers, rather
than just one-way communication.
Developing a dialogue with shoppers
is going to be a significant change,
but we haven’t begun to understand
the possible benefits that will be available as a result.
Greater use of digital OOH as a mainstream medium. Digital at retail won’t
replace other media, but it is quickly
becoming a standard component of
well-rounded media plans.
How long before digital signage is
an established “must-have,” considered to be just as essential as
POP displays and POS systems?
Two to five years. But closer to two.
Jeff Weidauer is vice president of marketing
for CBS Outernet. He has been involved in
retail for nearly three decades. As director of
brand advertising for Supervalu, he created the
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
74
Part IV: What the future holds
Mike White, Multi-Media Solutions Inc.
Which industry (retail, financial,
restaurant, etc.) is currently making the best use of digital signage,
on the whole?
Before that question can be answered
from my perspective, one must define
digital signage or at least establish a
minimum use of the digital signage
technology and a measurable strategy to invoke influence as a basis
for saying this organization is using
digital signage. To some, tuning a
TV in their retail store to MTV or in
a restaurant to ESPN is defined as
digital signage; to others, it is the use
of large LED displays on the streets
of Vegas to showcase entertainment
venues.
To most, I believe, it is somewhere
between those two extremes. With
those thoughts in mind, I am confident that the retail industry has
invested more in digital signage than
any other industry, followed closely
by the restaurant industry. I would
also follow that statement by saying
that the retail industry has seen more
failures than any other group, as well,
and that serves as one of our biggest
challenges.
Which industry has the most
potential for growing its use of
digital signage?
The retail industry has the most
potential for pure growth by volume,
but other industries, I believe, will see
faster growth by percentage of adoption. I believe that corporate America
and its investment in digital signage
for employee communications, wayfinding, announcements and branding
will see very significant growth, as
well as gaming and the museum vertical. Restaurants will continue to grow,
with most of the large players sitting
on the sidelines waiting for one of the
other large players to implement a
network and see if it succeeds.
What are the biggest mistakes
you’ve seen companies make with
this technology?
The biggest mistake I see consistently is they see this as a hardware
IT-based solution with a little content.
Digital signage is so much more than
just hardware or software or content.
It is a living organism that must be fed
and must be maintained. To me, the
biggest mistake is made up front, by
end user and integrator alike, in that
they do not look at the whole picture
and base their decision on what they
hope to achieve or accomplish with
their network, rather than looking at
the hardware or software as the solution. And I am not trying to delegate
those items as unimportant, but to
just say, without putting everything
together, the network will just join
the long list of failures and hurt the
industry.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
75
Part IV: What the future holds
How open are executives and
decision-makers to the benefits
and costs of digital signage, relative to a year or two ago? How
have their attitudes changed?
Organizations and their leadership
are indeed more open and better
educated; regretfully, their education
often comes from the IT perspective
(a box solution that can be bought
cheap). Please understand that I am
not negating the very important role
that IT plays, and their wisdom and
support is required to make a successful digital signage system, but IT
leadership must support the other elements of the digital signage network,
or it will most certainly fail. This open
attitude is based on positive results
that are being published, which was
not available even last year. In a similar fashion, they can also read about
the failures and they are asking better
questions.
If there was a single misconception
about digital signage that you’d
like to correct in the mind of the
business public, what would it be?
Successful digital signage is not
a box; it is not a software; it is not
content; it is not the network delivery system; it is not someone in the
organization having ownership and
responsibility for the success of the
digital signage system. It is all of
these working in harmony.
What emerging technologies are
you most excited about?
There are so many great technologies that are emerging in support of
digital signage that to point to one
would be short-sighted. I will mention
just a few: small form-factor players
(PC/MAC/appliance RISC-based), flat
panels that support connectivity with
Cat 5 and include integrated players, directional audio and contentmanagement software that continues
to become more flexible, user friendly
and cost-effective.
Do you foresee any fundamental
changes to this business in the
next five years?
With the larger corporations and
larger networks, I see more of this being brought in-house instead of working with an integrator or even a direct
reseller of digital signage systems. I
see more traditional A/V integrators,
finally recognizing the opportunity and
making the investments necessary to
successfully support the growth that
is most certainly going to happen. I
see advertising and marketing organizations that have shown resistance to
the technology openly embracing and
some even hiring resources to implement their own digital signage network solutions. I don’t think they have
a choice. I also see more and more
digital printing companies, recognizing the opportunity and engaging as
an integrator.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
76
Part IV: What the future holds
How long before digital signage is
an established “must-have,” considered to be just as essential as
POP displays and POS systems?
I know everyone keeps saying, “It is
going to happen this year or at the
latest next year.” My personal opinion is that it will continue to see rapid
growth, and successful digital signage networks will be become more
common, but I don’t see this any different than the adoption of video teleconferencing. For years, it has been
speculated that it is the year of the
massive upswing in VTC. And yes,
there has been significant growth and
it will continue, but because of the
investment and basic change in the
way people do business, I believe it
will, like digital signage, just continue
to grow and grow and grow. But I do
not see a specific day, month or year
that we can point to and say, “That
was the year it exploded.”
Mike White is president and CEO of MultiMedia Solutions Inc., an 18-year-old audio
visual systems integration company based in
Knoxville, Tenn., with a major focus on digital
signage. White sits on the board of governors
for Infocomm International and on the dealer
advisory committee (acting as its board) for
USAV. He is a nationally recognized speaker at
many industry events.
A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART |
Sponsored by Scala, Inc.
77