Ten Questions That Define Your Interactive Project Budget
By Ron Bowers
SVP, Business Development, Frank Mayer & Associates The following is reprinted with permission from the Digital Screenmedia Association (DSA). For more information, go to http://www.digitalscreenmedia.org.
As the old song goes, "To start at the very beginning is a very good place to start…" It seems reasonable for those of us in the industry to expect clients who approach us to have gone through some linear process to define objectives, requirements and a budget for their interactive and digital merchandising project, but it isn’t always the norm. Many clients know most of what they want but have a hard time defining what it is they need.
The in-store merchandising industry has changed over the last decade. The initiation of a kiosk, mobile or digital signage program is a more collaborative effort than it used to be. Projects may cut across merchandising, marketing, purchasing, information technology, operations and customer experience departments. Each of these functions brings a unique perspective on planning and execution.
At the same time, all parties need a budget framework that puts everyone on the same page. Former General Electric CEO, Jack Welch, in his book Winning, called budgeting "the most effective process in management."
Managers dream about harmonized expectations and streamlined procedure, but there is a whole road of decision-making that organizations must travel before reaching that plane. You’ve probably noticed that many clients who approach you are at different stages of planning.
Sometimes clients are reluctant to talk about a budget. They express the notion that to fully disclose a budget will place them at a disadvantage. I think this is a counterproductive mindset. In reality a good retail merchandising company approaches a project saying, "How can we best meet the objectives and needs of this client within the framework of their budget?" rather than "How can we maximize the revenue from this project?" The client’s selection of a creative, industry-recognized company, one with financial stability and collaborative experience that has created a number of successful industry solutions, should instill confidence.
Other times client team members may be in the position of launching their very first interactive project. They must overcome the hurdle not only of knowing the answers but knowing the right questions to ask. It is our first responsibility to aid the client in understanding that there are a number of factors influencing the success or failure of any creative endeavor and to communicate that, "You don’t know what you don’t know." It is the responsibility of the interactive and digital merchandising partner to help flush out all the caveats that the client will need to protect against.
We have developed a preliminary checklist of 10 questions that can lead clients who have not yet done so to the point of arriving at requirements and a budget. The questions below seem straightforward enough, but there are many considerations that inform the answers.
1) What are the primary objectives?
2) Who is the target user?
3) Where will units be placed?
4) How many units will be deployed?
5) What are the size requirements?
6) How long will the unit be in the field?
7) What key hardware features do your objectives dictate?
8) Has a software application been developed?
9) What look and feel do you want your solution to have?
10) What are the installation, support and maintenance requirements?
A successful interactive display or kiosk has its genesis in a fully transparent consultative partnership between the client, the partners involved and the in-store merchandising company. Answering these questions establishes a solid foundation for a project and a sure footing for the relationships.
The reality is all of us strive to give the best advice and the best service to our customers, whatever their orientation, but wouldn’t it be great if we were all singing from the same place in the songbook. Collaboration and trust between the interactive merchandising company and the client is the single greatest indicator of project success. It is our responsibility as an industry to engage frankly with our clients and offer them the success they deserve! Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Keep It Simple When Pitching Digital Signage
By Perry Goldstein When selling a possible end user on a digital signage system, explain the concept, technology and benefits in simple language your audience will understand.
While my 83-year-old mother thinks I am a computer genius because I can change the ink cartridge in her printer, the IT Director at my office thinks I’m a Neanderthal because I can’t write HTML or build a computer from scratch. Perspective is everything.
In terms of technical abilities, I am probably a four on a scale of one to 10. But, in my own defense, I am a process manager. I manage teams and projects. It’s the people around me who have the technical skills to actually build and run the systems. That is the way it is in most organizations.
At the trade shows I work, I find most decision makers are at my level of technical understanding. I talk to them on my level, with broad strokes, because that is all I know. The IT guys talk in intimate detail about the actual capabilities of the systems, and then translate for the rest of us.
If you make it sound difficult to operate, you will probably confuse your audience, which makes them more likely to back away from using it.
Explaining Digital Signage
As it turns out, this idea of “translating” a highly technical process or idea into layman’s terms is applicable when explaining what digital signage is. When presenting the concept of digital signage, it is important to talk about it in easy-to-understand terms. If you make it sound difficult to operate, you will probably confuse your audience, which makes them more likely to back away from using it. The project manager has to understand the basics of the system, with all of its capabilities, so it’s critical to explain digital signage in layman’s terms.
Don’t assume that your audience is as advanced as you are. I am guilty of nodding my head in agreement when I don’t understand a thing that is being discussed. I hate to admit that I don’t know what the speaker is talking about. There are many people who don’t want to admit that they don’t understand the technical details of a digital signage system. If you think you may be using language or explanations that are tough for your audience to follow, rethink how you can word your presentation, and be sure to pause a few times and ask if your audience is following you and if they have any questions.
The software that runs digital signs is quite complex. If the decision maker isn’t comfortable with how the system works, they will most likely decide that it is not worth the money to purchase. Remember that building a digital signage system is a major expense for most businesses. The person who signs off on the purchase has got to feel comfortable that they can lead the team that makes it work. If not, they are not going to put their career on the line for the purchase. Remember that nobody is looking for ways to spend more money these days unless they are completely convinced that they can make the system work, and eventually pay for itself in some way.
Don’t Lose Them With Technical Talk
Start out the presentation with a lot of qualifying questions. Have a thorough understanding of what their goals are for a digital signage system, and then speak to their needs. Keep the explanations simple. Don’t try and wow them with all the cool stuff the system can do unless you are sure they need all those features. They may end up thinking the system is too complex to run.
The capabilities of the current content management systems on the market are magical. I’ve seen most of them work. For a select number of applications, they are perfect. However, the future of digital signage will be in the critical mass we call the middle. There is a lot of potential with small and medium businesses. They may not have the funds to buy a complex system and build the necessary staff to run it. All they may need is something basic and simple. And, even if they do have the funds for a more sophisticated system, they may not understand enough of what you are presenting to get past the first meeting.
This sounds like a basic Sales 101 class. It is. In the new field of digital signage, you have to go back to basics. What you may think is an impressive sales presentation may just be scaring your potential customer.
I’ve given digital signage presentations to facilities managers, retail store and restaurant owners, university administrators and purchasing agents. Most of them were not technical at all. They just wanted to know if what I was demonstrating met their needs. After we established that it did, the presentation was turned over to the engineers. Then we stood back and enjoyed the show.
Perry Goldstein is a veteran of the electronics industry. After spending 30 years in consumer electronics, he has transitioned into the Pro AV industry. Currently, he is sales & marketing manager with El Segundo, Calif.-based Marshall Electronics, where he heads the company’s Digital Signage and MXL Pro Audio division. To contact for questions regarding the information in this article, email perry.goldstein@gmail.com. This article was reprinted with permission and originally appeared here. Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Digital Signage: Fragmented, but Still Valid
By Stephen Nesbitt
Principal, Shadow Oak Holdings LLC The following is reprinted with permission from the Digital Screenmedia Association (DSA). For more information, go to http://www.digitalscreenmedia.org. Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair once said that "A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many people want in and how many want out." Using this metric, digital signage continues to present a good business for both users and suppliers. In reality there are so many people (meaning suppliers) that want into the space that it has proven to be a stress on the industry. But it verifies that the space offers many success attributes and smart companies and users can’t stay away.
Although the in-store digital media industry continues to be a good business opportunity for both users and suppliers, it also continues to be a relatively immature and fragmented industry. The hyper-focused keys to success revolve around measurement and content. Unfortunately, much of the industry is not on the same page as it relates to both of these elements.
More money to fund the industry both from a supplier perspective (new and expanded networks) and from a user perspective (ROI) will come from the inclusion of digital signage in the overall consumer path to purchase. Including the digital in-store experience with the broader vantage point of how shoppers make their buying decisions (which includes online, social, mobile and traditional media) will propel digital signage to become an essential element of a brand’s media mix equation.
The case for digital signage is still valid. Advertisers will not stop advertising! Consumers are on the go and hard to reach as they spend more time out of the home (OOH). In the home is where much of traditional media has historically reached consumers. With this OOH dynamic, traditional media continues to erode in effectiveness. Brands, retailers and agencies all see these lifestyle induced effectiveness changes and are thus undertaking online, social, mobile and in many cases in-store digital initiatives. Since digital is the most targetable and the most measurable medium in the history of advertising, it will grow in importance as brands employ targeted campaigns.
But as John Maynard Keynes once noted, "The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones."
The industry, led by ad agencies, has resisted embracing many of these new digital mediums and has stayed in a comfort zone of traditional media for both economic and structural reasons. Fortunately, each day that goes by shows more and more agencies and brands showing sincere interest in moving away from the old model and welcoming the new.
Suppliers need to get on the same page in providing guidance to the other players in the chain. Unfortunately too many suppliers live in silos in a world where users and brands are looking for integrated solutions. Users alarmingly are not measuring the results with the new media measurement tools nor are they deploying enough dynamic content aimed at utilizing the power of the medium. Traditional media companies have been very slow to look at and accept digital signage and the new media companies in the industry (Apple, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft et. al.) have chosen to explore online, mobile and social as their near-term strategies. Clearly they will ultimately see the power of having a digital presence at the most important: point of purchase.
Lest this sound too negative, there is no question that in-store digital signage will succeed! Remember the old adage, "if you don’t like change, you will like irrelevance even less." The dynamics of the shopper behavior, the path to purchase, proven measurement superiority and the continual evolution of more power/less price for technology all credibly predict success for in-store digital signage.
Putting the following pieces together into a cogent, price-performing strategy will insure success for the industry: - Content – The most effective deployments use micro-targeted content strategies with dynamic broadcast quality content. But with the cost of a 15-second spot in the $1,500 to $2,500 range for content created in a traditional fashion, most budgets find it hard to fund the required volume of content. The solution can be found in the new cloud-based content development tools recently hitting the market. By using the cloud, professional templates, easy-to-use techniques (i.e. you don’t have to be a graphics designer), a layered construction approach to allow for constant previews before rendering, and a large library of micro-stock clips and graphic elements, users can effectively bring the cost of a 15 second spot down to the $250 to $300 range. The economies are obvious. At these prices, users and brands can aggregate the volume of broadcast quality content to enable the targeting needed for maximum results.
- Technology – Just looking at the flat panel display as one example over the past 10 years, you can see a favorable cost curve that will continue across all aspects of the technology for the application. These price / performance curves will continue if not increase at an increasing rate.
- Advertising – Ad dollars follow buyer behavior and measured results. With consumers spending more time out of the home, and with the measured better results of digital versus traditional media, the ad dollars will continue to grow for digital.
- Mobile – Over the past few years, mobile and in-store digital have been addressed as two independent segments. Over time, mobile, together with social and online, will merge with in-store to enable a brand to seamlessly reach consumers in their out of home lives.
- Measurement – Analytics tools are improving and DPAA has leveled the playing field via standards for digital as it relates to traditional media. Getting users to use the tools and incur the expense is the next hurdle. WalMart's Smart Network is setting the tone and it is inevitable that others will follow.
Hurdles still remain for the in-store digital media sector to become a major force in merchandising and advertising. But with the lifestyles of consumers dictating new marketing techniques to reach them and with mobile, social, online and in-store digital showing measureable advantages over the eroding traditional media options, digital media will continue to move down the path of success. Stephen Nesbit has been in the digital out-of-home industry since 1999. He is currently principal at Shadow Oak Holdings, LLC and can be reached at snesbit@sbcglobal.net Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Advertising as Immersive Apps for Digital OOH and Retail
By Dave Haynes
Editor, Sixteen:Nine Suppose when you wandered into the subway or were hanging out at a transit stop that a nearby poster, humping that day’s hottest new smartphone release, caught your eye.
There would be a beauty shot of the phone, and some brief but excited text hammering its biggest selling point.
You’d remember that, maybe, and when back home or at the office, perhaps go online and dig a little deeper into the spcs and how it really looks from different angles.
Suppose, instead, that poster was digital and you could easily look at the thing from the front,side, back, whatever and probably drill into other aspects. Maybe even get a product brief or promo offer pushed to the crappy phone you want to ditch.
That’s just one way I could see applying the technology from a Silicon Valley start-up, called Cooliris, to Digital Out Of Home and in-retail digital signage.
Palo Alto-based Cooliris is marketing a solution built for mobile – specifically for iPhones and by extension iPads – that makes advertising interactive, touch-controlled, 3D mobile advertising. The development kit is the company’s own spin on XML, and while right now the work is in the Apple mobile operating system, the company also supports HTML5. That means it can run on other, non-Apple devices (like Android-based processors) and does not need a CPU-gobbling pig like Flash to make things happen on a screen.
“The advertisement experience does not have to be sub-par compared to the application experience,” Cooliris CEO Soujanya Bhumkar tells ReadWriteWeb (which is where I spotted this). “Good experience matters, because that is what delivers high engagement.”
To deliver that experience, Cooliris has created a standalone business unit called Adjitsu to build 3D mobile ads that users can touch to move, pinch, zoom and explore products.
“What we wanted to do was create a new generation of ads that allowed people to decide which parts of the experience they wanted to indulge in,” says Aneesh Karve, product manager at AdJitsu. “Our mantra is pretty simple. It’s ‘Beyond HTML5.’ We think [AdJitsu ads are] the next generation, which goes beyond video and beyond HTML.”
“Video is telling the consumer what they should look at,” Karve says. “What we’ve tried to do with our ads is to allow the consumer to decide which part of the ad they’re most interested in.” Click here to see a video of the AdJitsu immersive ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ah8-GFzRfcg
Ads are essentially Apps, giving users the ability to use now natural swipe, flick, pinch and zoom gestures to look over a product. Because the ad is an app, it can be as deep as makes sense. In a Digital OOH environment, depth probably doesn’t make as much sense as calls to action to capture emails or mobile numbers to push more information. In retail, deep is good, particularly with products that have to be under lock and key to prevent theft – like phones and cameras.
Interactive is already, certainly out there in some posters (think the ClearChannel interactive bus stops in San Francisco) and in retail. But something like this that’s lean, and laser-focused on consumer engagement is pretty interesting. Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Place-based Digital Signage Advertising Has Arrived
By David Little
Director of Marketing, Keywest Technology The following is reprinted with permission from the Digital Screenmedia Association (DSA). For more information, go to http://www.digitalscreenmedia.org.
Results of a new survey from GfK MRI reveals six in 10 U.S. adults have seen place-based digital video advertising within the past 30 days.
How important is out-of-home advertising (OOH) becoming in the United States? Results of a new study from GfK MRI finds quite important actually.
Nearly 61 percent of U.S. adults report having seen a place-based digital ad on a video screen in a public place in the past 30 days, the research found. Of those, 64 percent expressed interest in this type of communications.
Pause for a moment to consider these findings. How often did you see a digital sign in public 10 years ago? How about five years ago? Not only do these findings reveal that some 138.5 million U.S. adults have seen a video ad on a digital sign within the past month, but they also demonstrate that out-of-home video displays and ad networks have slowly and quietly crept into a place of prominence in our culture that likely will soon evolve into ubiquity. How in the world did we get here?
It would be easy to enumerate a list of reasons. I've done so in the past in this space. Reasons like reaching consumers at the point of sale with targeted video messaging, the availability of new place-based media audience metrics and evolving attitudes of professional media buyers come to mind.
But there is a much more fundamental reason that digital signage and place-based advertising has grown to the point that six in 10 Americans report seeing a video ad on these screens within the past 30 days. That reason is place-based advertising and digital signs work — without a question — and that fact is being realized by everyone from merchants to vendors, ad agency executives to mall owners.
Don't overlook the significance of this recognition of the effectiveness of the powerful duo of digital signs and video advertising. Years of effort on multiple fronts ranging from actually deploying digital signage networks, to measuring audiences to educating those in control of ad budgets about this emerging medium, is coming to fruition. Findings like those of GfK MRI indicate that this form of advertising is on the downhill side of the transition from avant-garde to tried-and-true. With this acceptance comes success. "Place-based digital is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the advertising industry," a press release announcing the survey findings quotes Scott Turner, senior vice president of agency and advertiser sales at GfK MRI, as saying.
The survey also examined where respondents reported seeing place-based video advertising. The No. 1 location was grocery stores with nearly 32 percent saying they had seen a video ad in the previous 30 days. Quick service/casual dining restaurants, warehouse/club stores, shopping malls, pharmacies and coffee shops/cafes or delicatessens, followed in that order, as the most likely place consumers viewed place-based video ads.
As time goes on, I would not be surprised to see the list of locations where consumers recall seeing place-based video ads grow significantly. Already digital signage networks at gas pumps are a reality and convenience store signage is popping up around the country. Other place-based locations are sure to follow. Even as the number of locations grows, new ways to exploit the power of digital signage advertising will be developed, such as smartphone-driven interactivity, which will elevate this medium further.
Digital signage and place-based video advertising has come a long way to achieve this level of prominence. The future is bright, and there surely is more success to follow. Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top iQmetrix and Planar Systems Partner to Deliver Interactive Retail Solutions iQmetrix, a provider of retail management software for the North American wireless industry, and Planar Systems announced their partnership designed to provide interactive retail solutions for mobile (cell phone) resellers. By enabling customers to explore products and their benefits using an interactive touch screen interface, iQmetrix’s new platform, XQ Interactive Retail, claims to make the mobile retail in-store experience more dynamic and interactive. Using Planar System’s touchscreens, wireless retailers will basically have an interactive digital signage kiosk that will give you specs, features and even the ability to buy.
The Planar PT2285W touch screen will be the display integrated with iQmetrix software — and you WILL see this as iQmetrix is already in over 10 percent of mobile stores.
For more details, go here: http://www.planardigitalsignage.com/ Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Peerless-AV's Jeff Blankensop to Chair DSF Legislative Committee The Digital Signage Federation (DSF), the independent not-for-profit trade organization serving the digital signage industry, announced this month that Jeff Blankensop, director of business development for Peerless-AV, will chair its Legislative Committee.
Blankensop said, “Our committee’s mission is first and foremost to advise and advocate on pieces of legislation that could potentially affect the digital signage industry and impact our members’ businesses.” Citing privacy rights and signage laws as a topical example, Blankensop added, “Our legislative efforts will also focus on ensuring that our members are kept informed of any pending issues that could threaten their livelihood or increase their costs of doing business.”
Bob Stowe, DSF Chairman said, “Jeff has a passion for our industry and the necessary expertise to understand how potential threats could ripple through and affect the many segments that comprise our industry.” He added, “As a young industry, we are very lucky to have someone like Jeff embrace this challenge on our mutual behalf.” Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top GestureTek Ships the Cube V4 GestureTek has started shipping a new version of its plug and play interactive floor system, the Cube V4. It includes a higher resolution (1200×800) projector, which can run in either 16:9 or the original 4:3 aspect ratio. Because of the Cube V4's ultrashort throw lens, the powerful projected image creates an image that is bigger than 90" diagonal (7'x5') when the unit is on the ground.
Designed as an interactive digital signage display for the floors of public spaces like malls, transportation hubs, retail, corporate showrooms and more, the system now comes with more than 50 different interactive applications that the client can use to arrange their own play lists and create their own applications. Clients can also create their own applications from scratch, with the "Dazzler" engine using the GestureTek SDK (software development kit).
Check this out to see it in action: http://www.gesturetek.com/cube/introduction.php Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Tannoy Adds Pendant Loudspeaker Tannoy has released a brand new range of 'open ceiling' hanging-pendant loudspeakers in the form of the OCV Series — a self-contained, lightweight cylindrical enclosure.
Engineered specifically for applications where audio coverage is required in high or open-ceilinged spaces, such as airports, railway stations, malls or double height commercial floors, the cylindrical form-factor is aimed at the architectural sector of AV. It minimizes the impact on aesthetics and allows the systems designer to locate the loudspeakers discretely at a desired height without regard to the physical ceiling height, and in a manner that won’t conflict with other suspended systems such as lighting fixtures and ventilation.
Available in black or white, the OCV Series is called a full-bandwidth open-ceiling speaker system by Tannoy. Each model (the OCV 6 or OCV 8) is built around a mid-bass driver, 150 mm (6”) or 200 mm (8") respectively, with a coaxially-mounted 19 mm (0.75”) high frequency section –- all mounted in a steel powder-coated grille cylindrical steel enclosure. The mineral loaded polypropylene cone material and nitrile rubber surround of the driver assembly enhances durability and provides long-term reliability, while the enclosure is IP54 rated for dust and water ingress and is UV resistant, which Tannoy says that makes it suitable for operating within high temperature and high humidity environments.
Check out all the specs here: http://www.tannoy.com Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Videotel Markets DVD Player for Digital Signage Dubbed the HD2600, Videotel's latest DVD player outputs 720p (and up-scaled 1080p) via HDMI and includes DS features such as auto starts, auto plays and auto repeats even after a power loss. This is an interesting concept for a low-cost DS system, but presents a management issue as changing content requires someone to change the DVDs on a regular basis. According to Videotel, the HD2600 DVD player is estimated to play continuously for 4+ years but is only backed by an 18-month warranty. For companies that require a looping video to play 24 hours a day, seven days a week, this one will do the job — no networked content here. Videotel has kind of a weird marketing pitch for the player, saying, "a unique feature of the HD2600 is that you only need to purchase a single unit once and if it eventually loses its life, you simply replace the internal loader for the investment of $168 and you will have a new player that is capable to run for another 4+ years making it the ultimate 'green' DVD player on the market." Huh?
Priced at $286 for a single unit, the HD2600 DVD player's details are here: http://www.industrial-dvd.com/ Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Emerson Debuts Fanless Computer with Next-Gen Intel Emerson launched its first "fanless" embedded computer, now featuring the second generation Intel Core processor. To our knowledge, its the first one to use the second generation Intel Core i5-2510E dual-core processor running at 2.5 GHz. The Emerson KR8-820 is aimed at DS installs and is housed in a grooved metal enclosure that supposedly transfers heat from inside, acting as a heat sink, thus removing the need for a fan.
Integrated with 4GB DDR3 memory and an 80GB solid state drive (SSD), the KR8-820 has no moving parts and measures just 7.87×9.84×2.76". It's designed to be wall-mounted or mounted within a larger cabinet or kiosk for operation in an environment of zero to 35 degrees Celsius.
Complete product specs are here: http://www.emersonnetworkpower.com/en-US/Products/EmbeddedComputing/EmbeddedComputers/Pages/EmbCompKR8820.aspx Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top AMX Ships DS Management Software Dubbed Inspired Composer 5, AMX's new enterprise-wide digital signage software application is designed to ensure a consistent look and feel across all signs in an organization, as well as schedule creative content. Developed for use with the Inspired XPert digital signage players (both 1080p native IS-XPT-2000 and IS-200) from AMX, Inspired Composer 5 allows for editing, publishing and delivery of content, including real-time Internet content like weather, stock and news widgets. There's no question that this version of Composer is the best so far and has a very simple user-interface design. New features of the software include workflow tools that assist users through common tasks such as message and playlist design. To facilitate review and publishing, a system summary screen shows the status of the system and any pending message approvals. Other key features of the new software include publishing feedback and Active Directory authentication.
Inspired Composer 5 is available in a desktop version (IS-COMP5-DESK) for installation on local PCs in deployments requiring only one or two content contributors. It is also available in a server version (IS-COMP5-SERV) for installation on an enterprise server, giving any PC on the network the ability to manage the digital signage system.
For all the details, go here: http://www.amx.com/products/IS-COMP5-SERV.asp | Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Comqi Announces Partnership with Path Intelligence ComQi has announced its partnership with Path Intelligence, a company that detects and predicts how shoppers and visitors will behave within enclosed environments such as malls, retail stores, transportation hubs and stadiums.
Superior to camera-based tracking, Path Intelligence captures data on shoppers by passively and anonymously observing the movement of their mobile phones. The firm provides customized information on how many shoppers there are by department, how long they dwell, how frequently they come back, which stores they visit during their mall trip, and how the full path-to-purchase (and beyond) is mapped. Path Intelligence is currently working with U.S. retailers J.C. Penney and Home Depot as well as a number of UK retailers and mall management companies.
ComQi and Path Intelligence will work to provide retailers with detailed analytics on general shopper behavior in the store as well as specific analytics linked to digital signage. The Path Intelligence system can be used to optimize digital signage installations and measure engagement at the screen level.
Advising the Path Intelligence/ComQi partnership are The Jeffrey Group (Jeff McElnea formerly of Einson-Freeman / WPP Group) and Edgewood Industries (George Wishart, formerly of The Nielsen Company). Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top X2O Media Adds Social Media Packs X2O Media today introduced a new set of templates and objects specifically designed to display content from popular social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook on digital signage screens. The templates and objects can be personalized using X2O's PowerPoint-based authoring tool and displayed using their Xpresenter DS Player. The new templates and objects can be customized for existing social media platforms and can be adapted as new platforms emerge
The Digital Signage Social Media Pack gives network operators the option to select from a number of different formats to display content from popular social media sites such as Twitter — providing the flexibility to select the format that best fits with their digital display content strategy. Options include full-screen templates and smart objects such as sidebar graphics and lower-third graphics, which can be edited in Xpresenter Template Maker and incorporated into playlists.
More details are here: http://www.x2omedia.com Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Luxury Retailer Fresh Builds Big Digital Into Flagship Store's Design
By Dave Haynes
Editor, Sixteen:Nine A couple of years ago I was dealing with a cosmetics retailer that wanted to do a big display wall in the store, but didn’t want to use display panels because of the seams.
Well, I said, you could do projection but that’s not going to work well from the front, but it would be fine from the back… as long as there was a room behind the glass and it could be used to house a projector, and not much else.
That pretty much killed that.
Now there’s stuff like Christie’s MicroTiles, which when clustered are about as close as you can get to seamless. That makes a big display wall possible, and that’s what’s going on here at a store called Fresh, in New York.
The store is a brand within the LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton luxury group. The retail design for its flagship store involves a couple of MicroTiles display walls.
“Two innovative Christie MicroTiles displays,” says a release, “complement the store’s four interactive ‘destinations’ to excite the senses of sound, sight, smell, taste, and touch. Ultimately, the MicroTiles’ brilliant colors, sharp images and tactile-friendly surfaces encourage customers to linger and interact.”
“We wanted to animate the Fresh brand visually and texturally, and revitalize its core values that reflect an appreciation for tradition, storytelling, and innovation,” say Fresh founders Lev Glazman and Alina Roytberg. “We really love how Christie MicroTiles blend in perfectly with the architecture of the store and our products – they are not shiny or glossy like typical LCD and plasma screens, but bring an understated elegance that adds to the immersive, sensory-rich experience of the environment. After installing them in the flagship Union Square store, we are now in a multi-store rollout from the U.S. to Asia.”
The store set-up has a three wide by eight high array of tiles at the back and a nine-tile front of store display, both of which can be seen from the street. The nine-tile bit is done in a cool-sounding tile-space-tile-space pattern. ”The media wall is a ‘Moving Canvas’ where the Fresh stories come to life through newly created film and video footage. Customers can also learn more about the origins and benefits of Fresh products by surfing fresh.com on provided iPads.
Caleb Mulvena, the Principal and Co-founder of Mapos LLC., which did the store design, says they went with the Christie tiles “because they offer elegance, architectural quality, Pantone color matching – high impact visual element with an unassuming quality.”
“Christie MicroTiles have a ‘magic invisibility’ that integrates them into the fixture, so that customers no longer see the technology but the content,” adds Mulvena. “They have a painterly quality to them that seamlessly communicate the Fresh message to customers, focusing them on the content without distracting from the fixtures or the products. They can exist in a very intimate space – their essentially limitless resolution allows people to walk up to them and read as though they were reading from a piece of paper.”
Integrator Jeff Grantz, of Materials & Methods, says Fresh wasn’t even going to do digital signage because the owners and designers didn’t like how flat panels were going to look.
“However, they were drawn to MicroTiles because they maintained the very natural looking qualities of their ingredients and product imagery,” says Grantz. “The designed environment was intended to be very clean, like a modern apothecary store. MicroTiles were the only technology that could support digital video and be seamlessly integrated into the surroundings. We ultimately wanted to present beautiful images and video, but have the technology disappear.”
Photo: Jean-Marc Plisson Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top So, that's rAVe DS [Digital Signage] for this month! Remember, we are here to HELP the AV market penetrate the DS market. Only 12 percent of the DS market is integrated by AV companies. The other 88 percent is IT-based. Now, there are AV publications and even an association that would like to draw those IT people in to AV (it would increase readers, right? – and more readers means they can charge more for ads). That is NOT what we are doing. rAVe DS is specifically designed to pull AV into the DS market and teach AV companies how to take business away from the currently dominated by IT market.
For those of you NEW to rAVe, you just read a 100% opinionated ePublication that's designed to help AV integrators. We not only report the news and new product stories of the digital signage industry, but we stuff the articles full of our opinions. That may include (but is not limited to) whether or not the product is even worth looking at, challenging the manufacturers on their specifications, calling a marketing-spec bluff and suggesting ways integrators market their products better. But, one thing is for sure, we are NOT a trade publication that gets paid for running editorial or product stories. Traditional trade publications get paid to run product stories — that's why you see what you see in most of the pubs out there. We are different: we run what we want to run and NO ONE is going to pay us to write anything good (or bad).
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rAVe [Publications] has been around since 2003, when we launched our original newsletter rAVe ProAV Edition. rAVe HomeAV Edition, co-published with CEDIA, launched in February, 2004. rAVe Rental [and Staging] launched in November 2007. rAVe ED [Education] launched in May 2008. rAVe DS [Digital Signage] was launched in January 2009.
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Back to Top Copyright 2011 – rAVe [Publications] – All rights reserved – All rights reserved. For reprint policies, contact rAVe [Publications], 210 Old Barn Ln. – Chapel Hill, NC 27517 – (919) 969-7501. Email: sara@ravepubs.com
rAVe DS [Digital Signage] contains the opinions of the author only and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of other persons or companies or its sponsors. |