A recent article from technology and advertising blog PSFK asks whether or not retail-focused smartphone applications make self-service solutions redundant. Even though the piece makes positive mention of Microsoft Surface and Intel’s intelligent digital signage proof of concept, it lists six reasons why retailers should exclusively focus on mobile development:

1. The phone is personal. It already knows who you are and can access what you like and even your purchase preferences like clothing sizes. With an interactive display you often have to start from the beginning.

2. The phone is social. The phone knows who your friends are and allows information before and after purchase to be shared between you and your peers. Sure, interactive displays can be connected to social media but are you really going to put your password to Facebook into an interactive display in a store that you visit once a month?

3. The phone is touchable. Would you rather tap away at the screen on the phone only you use or would you want to touch the smudged screen of the chain-store retailer where thousands of people pass through each day?

4. The phone is consumer-powerful. The phone keeps the power in the hands of the consumer while the interactive display offers the controlled world of the retailer. The interactive display doesn’t provide access to the world of group buying sites, deal services or comparative pricing apps.

5. Because a retailer can doesn’t mean they should. Just because WalMart stores have TVs throughout with advertisements running, it doesn’t mean that this service must be replicated across all retailers. Stores want to program specific environments that create subtle experiences that drive sales. A TV blasting ads – even if it’s interactive – might actually be a turn off for shpppers in many instances.

6. The phone is becoming sensitive. Technology is evolving to allow the phone to notice RFID tags and other ‘internet of things’ technology.

The above points are valid, but they look at the retail sector from a singular perspective. Smartphones are becoming an increasingly integral component in how we shop. They are not, however, the end all and be all of the consumer shopping experience. Just as the functionality of cellphones are growing more advanced so too are interactive digital displays. Retailers are right to focus significant energy on developing applications for mobile phones, but they must also devote resources to alternative in-store communications channels. Mobile is great, so too is digital signage.

What were once little more than computer stations in retail stores are evolving into immersive multi-touch gateways. Interactive video walls and intelligent self-service solutions are beginning to be integrated seamlessly into store environments. Their flexibility begets their utility. They function as integral parts of a store’s atmosphere. They can exist as omniscient sales associates, multi-user entertainment systems, or large-scale online catalogs.

Mobile phones and interactive digital signage should not be looked at as being mutually exclusive at retail. One doesn’t diminish the other. In reality, when they are positioned to enhance each other, consumers reap the greatest benefit. As I detailed in an earlier post, mobile applications and digital signage are allies, NOT adversaries. Whereas the mobile channel is geared around one-to-one interactions, digital displays at retail can be used to extend the engagement to a broad segment of consumers.

Mobile Applications and Digital Signage are Allies, NOT Adversaries

An in-store digital signage network is a one-to-many communication platform, yet still has the potential to foster a deeper connection than a one-to-one mobile interaction. Such is the nature of advertising when the medium is part of the message. It doesn’t mean that one platform, mobile or digital signage, is better than the other. It just illustrates that they offer alternate means of achieving the same goal: Lead Customer X to Purchase Brand A.

Rather than looking at the two platforms as adversaries, one harnesses each technology’s full value when pairing them as allies. Two arrows are always better than one. And, when one medium can increase the impact of another – use them together.

There are times when a brand may be better suited to use mobile instead of digital signage, and vice versa. But, in reality, given the fragmented nature of today’s media environment, its best to develop content for multiple platforms and target your message to reach consumers across various outlets.

Integrating Mobile and Digital Signage: Opportunities Abound

When given the choice of viewing content solely on a smartphone or interacting with the same content on a massive multi-touch display, which would you choose? I would go for the interactive digital signage, selecting the option that extends the boundaries of the user experience. What can be considered more exciting than selecting one option or the other is alternating between the two. Using a mobile phone to interact with a digital screen can create a unique experience that draws in multiple users and builds significant brand awareness (SEE: Locamoda, MegaPhone, Snaptell, Akoo)

Thanks to the portability of content, and innovations in the realm of cross-platform communication, shoppers can move between mobile applications and digital signage without skipping a beat. Each platform can function as a unique retail touchpoint, whereby each shopper has the ability to choose his own digital path though a store.
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By the count of Bill Gerba and his company Wirespring, there are some 330 firms out there peddling some form of Digital Signage software platform.

Let’s be conservative and say each of those platforms has at least 20 clients. That’s more than 6,500 networks that are running anywhere from one to 1,000s of players.

Let’s say each of those networks needs three new pieces of creative content a month (it may and should be much higher). That means almost 20,000 piece of creative a month to produce.

So who is doing it?

We have a whole industry endlessly recycling or repackaging the phrase Content is King, and I’d suggest there is not a single dominant content shop in the entire digital signage marketplace that could with a straight face declare itself the Content King.

Yes, there are good companies out there. Some are friends. Some are clients. But they are relatively small players on a broad landscape. There is no company that really stands out as THE guys. The company that’s doing the most business. The one that is usually top of mind when clients ask.

I asked Keith Kelsen, who has written a book about content, when I saw him in Las Vegas at The Trade Show Formerly Known as Kioskcom. He threrw a company name at me. I said, “No way.” Good company. but no way are they dominant.

I’m not entirely sure why no one company has stepped up and grabbed significant market share, but I think there are a few reasons:

1 – Existing production houses that have gone into this line of work are accustomed to charging serious studio rates for broadcast and interactive customers. With studio rates usually well above $125/hour and even simple spots quoted at $1,000-plus, these are numbers that make start-ups and existing businesses weak at the knees. Business overhead and company cultures that foster excellence drives those kinds of figures, as does the knowledge that those numbers are well below the $1K per second rule of thumb of major creative agencies. I know a retailer that has a nice – not great – but nice network in hundreds of stores, but it only changed out a piece of content once a month, because its agency – and only a small regional one at that – costs were too crippling to allow more than that.

2 – The big agencies aren’t interested in this space, at least yet, because the risks outstrip the rewards. The medium and audience are moving targets. There are no real standards. Budgets are a fraction of what they are for easier (as in there are standards to apply) TV work. Depending on who you listen to, it;’s also argued many agencies haven’t really crossed the digital divide to interactive, web-based work, never still emerging stuff like DOOH.

Curiously, there is far more supply than demand in the mainstream and digital agency sector and calls for consolidation.

3 – There are plenty of very good freelancers who don’t have any of that overhead or baggage, and can charge way less, but they are generally lone wolves. They are the “I know a guy who does that stuff” guys who get their work from their contact networks. They don’t market themselves. so they never really develop an industry profile.

4 – Some “solutions providers” are baking entry-level creative work into their offers, using in-house hires or their “guys” they’ve developed in a virtual go-to network. That services the entry-level, not-much-more-than-a-juiced-up-poster market, but that stuff has more to do with manufacturing messages than generating creative work. A lot of the software guys have templates that can be used to crank that stuff out – but the pieces, while polished enough, are templates. They do part of the job, but not all of it.

5 – Nobody, as far as I can tell, has meaningfully claimed the middle ground in price and capability between the cheap entry-level stuff and the high-end work that is often great, but in practical terms, unworkable in operating budgets.

As consultants, we try to get our clients heads around the idea that creative work needs to be engaging, and there needs to be enough of it to sync up with the amount of time viewers are in the presence of the screens. It also has to be refreshed regularly so it doesn’t go stale in the minds of viewers. Makes perfect sense. But then somebody runs the numbers on the anticipated creative invoices and comes up with a monthly production cost total that causes a severe case of Restless Leg Syndrome for the company CFO.

We also have end-users in this industry who either don’t have the experience to know good creative when they see it, or do know what it looks like, but expect Veuve Clicquot quality at Milwaukee’s Best prices.

Maybe it’s out there, and I just don’t know (and I assume there will be comments from companies who say they are the answer), but whoever decides to go hard at it has to pretty much forget about the norms.

An industry friend sent me a note recentlyt with a link to a piece about the collapse of complex business models, and he related that to production challenges in this industry. This is the post: http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2010/04/the-collapse-of-complex-business-models/

This is a very different industry from mainstream media and a lot of the old rules and ways don’t apply. It’s likely true that gaining serious market share in creative production means forgetting how things have always worked with hours and pricing, and then stripping out costs, creating new efficiencies, and delivering polished work and professional processes at rates that network operators can really afford.

I know there have been business model stabs at creating a “content factory” and there are people and companies promoting work being done offshore, as in China. The samples I have seen have so far have suggested that ain’t the answer (though in the right hands, it could be part of it).

There’s a big market waiting for the company that puts the message, infrastructure and processes together to seize the market.

There is really only one goal for digital signage: enabling initiative, getting the customer doing something with what he or she has just seen. Regardless of the engagement, a positive outcome is the only desired effect.

Here are three very general areas where digital signage can play a positive role in a customer’s experience within an environment, and the potential pitfall each encounters with poor planning and execution.

Environmental Navigation

Navigation is usually the first impression a customer gets of a store. “Where can I find…?” Good navigation will make the shopper’s experience positive and can reduce time and stress. Digital signage can play a key role in making sure that two goals are met: Showing the customer exactly where to go and showing the easiest way to get there. But you don’t get a second chance at a first impression. Poor navigation techniques, or making the customer work too hard to locate the destination, will disengage a customer before he is even at the destination.

Do we now need GPS in a store?

Education

Learning about a product or service through digital interactivity allows the customer to learn at her pace, not the pace of the employee or the store. The ability for digital engagement (most likely in a kiosk) to be flexible for the customer’s depth of knowledge and desire for education will generate interest, respect and loyalty from the customer.

In contrast, poor education or programming that makes too many assumptions about the customer’s knowledge and has ignored important messaging will sour the experience.

Perception of Time

The ability to cut down on a customer’s perception of time is taken very seriously by environments where waiting (hospitals) or poor attitudes (returning an item that gave you a bad experience) are part of the customer’s experience in the space. Engaging content can change behavior and ultimately reduce a customer’s perception of time.

However, poor execution on basic guidelines, such as the running time on a looping program being shorter than the average time a customer waits, can be a big disappointment. Customers don’t want to see the same thing twice. In addition, creating programming that does not effectively draw attention away from the customer’s purpose in the environment can backfire by making the customer even more aware of the time.

The detail that goes into each category is dependent upon the venue’s strategy with digital signage. Great care should be taken each time. Poor execution with one screen can wreck a customer’s experience in the entire environment. A bad digital signage experience can drive customers away just as fast as bad customer service.

To avoid that end, constant research and understanding will keep your digital experiences fresh and appealing for the customer and the venue.

The thing that I enjoy most about shows like DSE is connecting with industry contemporaries and those who I have established connections with via online communication platforms. Having the opportunity to meet face-to-face with industry friends I have made through this blog, Twitter, Linkedin, and other social media channels is something that I cherish. At DSE, it’s the people you meet and the conversations that you have which make the event unforgettable. I always welcome the opportunity to meet new folks and share interesting conversations with people who exude passion for digital signage, retail customer experience, emerging communication platforms, etc.

I shared conversations with a wealth of uber-smart individuals on topics such as location-based mobile services, real-time news, the future of digital out-of-home media, social media pollination across the enterprise, using digital technologies to enhance internal communications, digital signage as a brand/customer experience gateway, emerging mobile platforms, etc. It’s in these conversations that industry participants and I waxed analytical on digital signage’s role in our communications ecosystem and the technology’s advertising future. To those who I shared conversations with, thank you. To those who I didn’t get a chance to connect with, please feel free to reach out if you would like to talk (best way to reach me is via email: david.weinfeld@presetgroup.com). I am always happy to talk and help out in any way that I can.

Thoughts from the Show Floor

I don’t think that a single person who attended the show would argue that the technology on the event floor wasn’t impressive. As you entered the expo hall floor, it was like a treat for your eyes. Digital signs stretched as far as the eye could see. From thin screens to video walls and outdoor displays, the technical side of the industry was more than well represented. If you love digital signage (I assume that you have at least a passing interest in the technology if you’re reading this blog), your feelings about the environment would run parallel to my own.

The technology that powers the digital signage and digital out-of-home media industries was front and center on the show floor. While screens, media players, and interactive elements stretched across every square foot of the Las Vegas Convention Center, such a setup ran counter to the goal of educating newcomers and longtime attendees about digital signage and future industry developments. For anyone that was new to the digital signage industry, they likely left the show floor with more questions than answers.

An enormous focus was placed on digital signage technology at the detriment of featuring solutions that solve real business problems. The show floor lacked balance between the hardware/software side of the industry and the experiences that the technology powers. Too much emphasis was placed on the physical boundaries of the technology. Many missed the chance to feature digital signage as a gateway to expansive customer and brand experiences. The technology, and all of the bells and whistles, are great to look at it, but the sheen of these objects fade if they aren’t framed within the greater context of digital signage’s far reaching impact.

Many people I spoke with described the show floor as “cluttered” or “difficult to navigate.” For some, it felt like a summer camp reunion, drawing the conclusion based on a limited number of attendees outside of the digital signage and technology industries. If you got a nickel for every agency or brand rep. that was at the show, you would barely be able to afford a fast food combo meal.

One industry friend who is extremely knowledgeable on digital signage technology even admitted that he dreaded walking the show floor. This sentiment came from someone who loves digital out-of-home media. I can understand why he felt this way. For anyone who was new to digital signage, these end users were met with software companies all appearing to do the same thing (some claiming they could do more, others claiming best-in-class solutions, and none willing to admit that a potential customer would be better suited speaking to one of their competitors).

One of the few advertising agency reps. in attendance equated the expo to a “picks and shovels show.” He found the show lacking in relevance to his specific discipline. He commented that his agency colleagues don’t have anywhere near the same interest in technology as he does. They just want to know that it works.

A screen is a screen, but a true digital signage solution is an experience. This is an ethos that needs to be shared across the industry and, most importantly, carried throughout the Digital Signage Expo.

With an Internet-ready device in our reach at all times, are we ever really captive? Think about the last time you stood in what seemed to be an endless line (for me it was standing in the line to see Avatar…). How many people around you were using their phones? Were the majority of folks talking on their phones, or were they engaged in any number of non-voice based activities: texting, playing games, surfing the mobile web, writing a business email, etc.? Did you see anyone pull an e-reader from his or her bag?

What were you doing while you were in line? Did you seek sanctuary in technology to stave off the boredom of staring at your watch?

My reason for asking these questions is to get you to think about how common it is for people (of all ages) to pull out a phone, laptop, netbook, e-reader, or iPod when they’re forced to wait for something. Such evidence supports my hypothesis that the truly captive audience is disappearing.

Just because people are in a lobby, elevator, amusement park line, or waiting room for seconds, minutes, or hours, that doesn’t mean that they are captive. Thanks to the evolution of technology, while seemingly “captive,” these individuals could be performing any number of digital tasks that occupy their attention.

So tell me…

How Captive is Your Audience?

The new American Eagle store has an absolutely towering 25-storey wall of tight pixel LEDs rising from a corner off the landmark square, and wrapping around it. Other stores and media companies have also spent Lord knows how much making themselves noticed.

It’s all quite amazing, and has very little to do with digital signage as it plays out day to day, Yes, they are signs, and they are digital. But the comparison end pretty much there.

What these big boards tell us, though, is just how important it is to be big with visuals. Most of what’s deployed in the digital signage industry right now is, quite arguably, too small for its surroundings. A screen that eats a wall in someone’s main living area at home looks relatively tiny hanging from a high ceiling in a 100,000 square foot food barn. Unless a screen is down at eye level or nested with product, a big LCD or plasma in many settings struggles to get noticed.

The novelty factor of big flat panel monitors is long gone, so people aren’t looking at them because they are there.

So what do you do? Try other stuff.

In retail, and the other indoor spaces that are the mainstream of what we called digital signage, big LEDs don’t really work. Too costly, too bright, and while the image reproduction on the indoor versions can look pretty good from a distance, up close, the visuals look terrible. The LED bulbs are too far apart. They have a role, but a limited one.

Big projection screens present too many maintenance issues and physical challenges, and the visuals never look great in a bright room. Sunlight and ambient light are the enemies and may always be.

LCD and plasma walls that have screens stitched together look much better, but even the newest ones still have very noticeable seams between the screens, and are a lot of work to keep all looking the same. They have presence, but what gets put up tends to look compromised from the moment these walls turn on.

That’s why I was very intrigued about a new product being rolled out by Christie Digital, a company that has been in the projection business for many decades, but has now developed a product that takes the display business in a new direction.

I did some writing for the company in the lead-up to the launch of MicroTiles, so there is my conflict declared. But that’s where my interests end. I am writing about the technology now, because it deals effectively with the BIG thing.

The tiles have very bright LED light engines inside self-contained units that can stack and join in any number of shapes. So instead of a video wall always being a uniform wall, it can be as jagged as a bar chart tracking the stock market. It can wrap around door frames. It can run up support columns, or look like an LED ribbon board in a sports arena.

The difference is that the clarity and color reproduction are superior to LED and better even than the monster LCD and plasma stuff in rich guys’ home cinemas. The units will last for more than seven years at 24/7 usage. And they service fast and easily from the front, and are self-aware, meaning the Tiles talk to each other and calibrate on the fly. Where regular video walls get patchy from screen to screen, these tiles steadily compare notes and sync up.

And the seams are 1 mm. That’s it. Hairline.

Gorgeous stuff. A little pricey and meant for now for flagship stores and big-ticket venues. But over time, these units could be very commonplace.

The reason: They deal with all the issues and needs of BIG.

That is very good news for all of us. A lot of retailers are not yet doing digital signage because what they have seen in store has large been uninspiring and lacking true impact. Ad sales on many networks struggle because the screens they install doesn’t get the notice numbers they need.

But when display technology can get fitted into these sorts of environments and both dominate and fit the space, that really is BIG.

The retail world now sees more money spent on a single point-of-purchase display than many stores spent on an entire campaign two decades ago. The effort on getting the customer to choose you rather than the other guy rockets freely into the millions of dollars without so much as a free ornament (the plastic kind) for your tree.

Today, the brand reach created by a campaign extends beyond anyone’s wildest dreams of engagement. The internet and social media have allowed end-users to absorb campaign material and keep it forever, literally. We enjoy reminiscing about great retail campaigns from bygone days thanks to the likes of YouTube.

Campaigns are no longer the five or six major calendar holidays they used to be, either. Campaigns revolve around calendar events for dozens of cultures. The holiday campaign includes Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa, and opens the can of slogan worms on what to call it. Happy Holidays? Merry Christmas? Happy Hanukkah? All of them? Brands and retailers find themselves walking a fine line between spreading good cheer and kicking political correctness in the shin.

And, campaigns are no longer cultural events; they are social events. Best Buy devoted the entire month of January to its Home Theater campaign so that you could have the perfect home theater for the “big game,” the Super Bowl. Some retailers build promotions around the Academy Awards. They have a countdown leading to it. The day after the show, the movies that won awards are proudly displayed in the front window DVD shelves, and you can find the latest celebrity fashions online to purchase for yourself.

But there is a point where the efforts of branding via campaigns become suspect. If “brand purpose” is to create an ecosystem in which people can engage, then the idea of campaigns is contentious. Brands are not built through episodic events; they evolve through long-term relationships.

When brands spend too much time and money on a campaign, they spend too little time on the brand itself. While working at Best Buy, I spent almost 10 months of every year in projects that concerned a campaign. The other two months were spent cleaning up from the other 10 months of work. I rarely spent ample time simply focused on the brand — the foundational engagement with customers that we strived to achieve.

It was kind of like putting a new coat of paint on an Edsel.

I believe that in this culture of short attention spans and fast knowledge, it is much more important for a brand to embrace the engagement with the customer and utilize campaigns as talking points, not as brand builders. Campaigns are conversation starters, not conversations. They are a great way to get customers in the door, but not very good at keeping them there. When a campaign ends, you should never hear your customer ask, “That was fun. What now?”

How do you keep them after the campaign? Some do it by hammering another campaign down your throat. The back-to-school campaigns seem to start earlier each year; they cannot get here fast enough on the heels of the 4th of July campaigns (in the U.S.). That doesn’t work. At some point, the campaigns stop.

You build your brand by focusing less on how you look during a particular time of year and more on how you look at all times.

When building a campaign, three questions come to mind:

a. How does this campaign support our brand as a whole?
b. How will this campaign be perceived AFTER it expires?
c. How does this campaign work with the next campaign?

These are only three questions, and they may appear elementary, but when you have several internal teams working on a campaign, you will get several different answers, and not all of them will be right. This is crucial in knowing the role your brand plays in the culture, and the value you have in your customer’s lifestyle the next day.

Effective brands build relationships; they do not have affairs. Affairs always end bad.

Like the first two in the series, it is full of good insights into what’s happening in stores. It is also suggests digital signage is woefully ineffective, and anyone reading this report without thinking it through and getting some perspective would quickly toss out the concept of in-store digital as something even worth pursuing. It’s that bad.

As you might imagine, that’s a bit of a problem for companies trying to sell the dream into that sector.

Miller Zell and a research firm did a survey of 999 shoppers in March of this year “to determine which in-store marketing communications elements influence and inspire purchase behavior.”

The research revealed and confirmed 60 per cent of brand decisions are still made in the store, and that in-store advertising is more influential than out of store. It suggested mass merchandise stores are where people prefer to shop and convenience stores are the least favourite. And it suggests the in-store experience is incredibly important, with more than 2/3s of respondents saying the experience was a make or break factor for them in choosing where they shop.

Notice-ability sorted out what was actively noticed in stores by shoppers, and what was not. At the top, end-caps and merchandising displays, with percentage rankings in the 60s and 70s.

At the bottom, digital signage, at a woeful 10 per cent or so.

Floor graphics did better!

Digital signage did a little better when it came to purchase and brand choice influence, but not a whole bunch. It ranks 9^th of 11 choices, and just ahead of ceiling banners and overhead mobiles.

Now at this point you may have closed your laptop, had a last sip of your coffee and headed for the roof of your building. It really could seem awful and hopeless.

But let’s stop and think about this. I can pretty effectively argue that the reason the numbers are so bad is that the execution, to date, has been so bad in retail.

One of the reasons digital screens are rated right down there with ceiling banners and overhead mobiles is that they have been hanging from the ceiling or high up on a wall, just like ceiling banners and mobiles. Except they are a fraction of the size. No amount of zippy motion graphics in ads will get people looking if the screens are well above the normal field of vision and are, in relative terms, tiny in the context of the retail environment.

An HDTV that looks massive in your living room is just a speck on the horizon of a big box store, and even in smaller retailers. And it’s just a flat-panel TV, and they’re everywhere. That novelty factor is long, long gone.

Sprinkling a few screens around a big store, hoping they will get noticed and have an impact, really isn’t much more than wishful thinking, and this sort of data really drives that point home. To service the general environment of a large retail space, you need equally large displays that actually command attention and set the tone and experience that shoppers clearly want.

That technology is coming, but the other, easier route is to use what the research tells us, and get the screens in positions where they are noticed. Those are the ends of aisles, merchandise displays, department locators and at the shelf-edge in the aisles.

I have a client that has been working with a major brand on a merchandising fixture that includes a large LCD screen integrated into the fixture, with strategy and programming specifically tuned to working that fixture hard with rotating promotions and regularly changed SKUs. The fixtures where wheeled into place in stores and the results were immediate and phenomenal, with sales jumps against control stores well, well into the double figures across scores of sites. The program has been doubled in size.

Other retailers that have put screens in positions where they can’t help but be noticed, and where the content is well-executed and steadily refreshed, are seeing sustained sales increases that easily justify the effort and cost. The recently opened Microsoft store is a fabulous example of a retail design that really exploits the possibility, with full walls of tiled screens. Expensive, sure, but not all THAT expensive. Hugely impactful, though.

Miller Zell also told me (I asked) that another reason the numbers were low was critical mass. There aren’t all that many retailers yet with real screen networks.

This stuff DOES work, but getting it right takes a lot of careful consideration and use of the information available, LIKE these kinds of reports. The days of retailers and network operators “hanging and hoping” with their screens have to end, and people in the industry have to take a role by flat telling their clients, “That’s not going to work.”

Thanks to emerging mobile and digital technologies, a static advertisement doesn’t have to cede to being a one-dimensional branding tool. It can be a call-to-action that takes you on a scavenger hunt around an arena. Using image recognition technology from LinkMe Mobile, you can capture visual answers to sports-related trivia questions as you move throughout a venue. An advertising display can become the starting point for an augmented reality adventure. Stadium attendees can unlock clues, prizes, and special discounts by connecting their phones to mobile-enabled billboards. Whether it be via Bluetooth, augmented reality, QR code, or NFC (near field communication), a billboard doesn’t need to exist within the silo of a singular creative approach.

As CMOs and brand managers search for new, creative ways to engage consumers in sports stadiums, they must make ample use of the resources that lay before them. Instead of focusing solely on building brand awareness, advertising professionals realize widespread benefits by crafting campaigns that focus on activation and ROI. With out-of-home media and digital technology working in concert, brands can create all encompassing fan engagements.

With digital signage and interactive displays playing a larger role in stadium environments, brands have more platforms from which to create unique campaigns. Arena Media Networks offers advertisers a number of creative opportunities that extend beyond generating brand awareness. Thanks to the timeliness and flexibility of digital signage, brands can exhibit greater fluidity in these environments. Messages can be aligned with team performance and specific events that occur during a game. In building creative ads that leverage real-time information, brands can forge more lasting impressions with stadium visitors.

It’s about taking an active role in the stadium environment, building off of the emotion and excitement that flow through sports arenas. While it forces brands to think outside of the silo of brand awareness, it allows them to become part of the complete fan experience. One must not be afraid to seize upon the many interactive opportunities that fans come in contact with. Through the use of guerrilla marketing tactics and digital applications, static advertisements can become much more than single points of contact.

When you think about all of the different advertising initiatives that networks like Arena Media make possible, you can get lost in the creative possibilities. Fans can engage in multi-player fantasy sports games, interact with screens via mobile applications, and communicate with fans across the arena through digital displays. What’s exciting about sports arenas acting as the backdrop for marketing campaigns is how technologically-advanced they are.

With a myriad of technology platforms at their finger tips, it’s hard to imagine why brands wouldn’t leverage every possible opportunity to connect with fans who are already at the peak of excitement. It’s great for brands to get involved in these environments because stadiums encapsulate the shared sense of belonging amongst fans, the passion they hold for their teams, and the all-encompassing entertainment that characterizes the in-arena experience.

Media planners and marketing managers were once able to fulfill their duties by buying boards throughout stadiums and quantifying the number of people that would “see” them. But as digital technology has forced brands to better scrutinize their use of different media properties, so too must sports marketing professionals be liable for the decisions they make. The days of just buying a stadium banner or a couple static displays along an arena concourse are numbered. Brand managers must activate the engagement opportunities that grow out of these environments. Brands can now move seamlessly across stadiums, shifting messages according to team performance.

Thanks to continued innovation in the areas of experiential marketing and fan participation, sponsors can challenge their sports marketing partners to create campaigns that speak to the unique aspects of their brand. I imagine that as Arena Media grows across professional sports stadiums (the company is in over 50 professional sports venues), we’ll see an increasing amount of cross country multi-player rivalries. Thanks to smartphone application development, we’re beginning to see more venue specific mobile offerings. Whether it be direct mobile ordering, customized venue maps, or augmented reality layers, fans can unlock the core elements of the stadium experience from the palm of their hands.

The jobs of brand executives and marketing managers require greater research and creative development beyond the tried and true tactics of old. For those who are reticent to cede their brands to the control of their customers, they will continue to drift into the abyss of zero relevance. To exist in today’s stadiums and thrive therein, brands need to be willing to step from the static billboards of old and participate in the environments themselves. That could be via touchscreen interactivity, mobile activation, or any number of experiential marketing tactics. Instead of being another logo on the wall, companies must seize upon the chance to “interact” with fans.

I think I have a starting point, but want to frame it with first understanding some of the factors.

Five years ago, you could put an ad on the big four networks, have your footprint and hit most of your target demographic simply because you were on at the right time. Psychographic targeting has completely changed the landscape of advertising. It’s no longer about what, when and where, it’s now about who, why, and how.

Today, we have multi-channel campaigns, sometimes several channels within a single retail environment. For example, if I have three separate channels in my store (home theater program, computer screens, and a checkout program), I need a variation on a single spot that is bi-lingual, appropriate for the channel, and geographically segmented to each of the top 10 DMAs in the United States due to regional promotion. That’s 60 versions of a spot.

Ugh. No one has time to do that.

Many end-users (venues, network owners and operators) are not broadcast professionals or creative types. They are corporate marketers that view digital signage as a brand engagement point that will excite the customers and generate revenue. If you ask them how long it takes to make a 30-second commercial, some will answer, “30 seconds.”

Because of the agency’s historic position in the creative management of brand and product campaigns, much of the industry assumes the agency is the master of the domain: full knowledge of psychographics, content creation designed for individual targeting, media planning and channel deployment logistics, and metric measurement analysis. And there tends to be an implied assumption that all this is on the agency’s dime.

The reality is that the agency doesn’t know any more about your customer than the man or woman who walks past your storefront on the other side of the street. And none of them have the time or the budget to go and learn everything about your customer.

But you do.

Here’s Where We Start

The end user must own the testing and measurement of the audience. The responsibility of developing a concrete metric on the network’s value to the environment should reside with the end user who made the decision to install the network. The network should be part of the marketing plan.

You need the right content to develop measurement. Where do you get that? You don’t get it from any external agency; you get it from within your own four walls.

You should produce your own content because you know how to impact your audience better than anyone. Historically, I, not any agency, have produced the advertising with the greatest impact on my audience.

The cost to produce content and measure your audience will be lower because you can engage other departments and to spread the costs. For example, if you know your private label that wants to advertise, introduce them to the idea of producing multiple versions of a spot for testing purposes. It costs much less to version creative in production than go back and re-edit mastered content. If you’re large enough, engage your marketing research department to build a test and measurement study to collect sales data on the products or services promoted in the advertising and understand where the greatest impact occurred.

If you are a small venue, think about contracting a third party to do this. If you’re really small, Apple’s iMovie HD works just as well as Avid or Final Cut Pro. (I have personally created my own content with Final Cut Pro.) A $5 gift certificate to answer a couple intercept questions goes a long way for loyalty. You know that customer will come back to spend the five bucks and probably a few dollars more.

And use OVAB’s metric measurement guidelines to build your case.

Then share that information. Most agencies and other end users don’t care to know quantity sold or the cost; they want to know if your content had impact, that your content drove sales. With multiple versions of the same spot, you can help me understand the impact. As Nikki Baird put it, “…the why behind the buy.”

Some companies are already trying this. What I find interesting is these efforts are coming from brands, not agencies. I have worked with brands to create content for specific channels with successful results. I have educated them on why they need to change it for our environment and I have showed them how to do it. The result is stronger consumer engagement, and better sales.

The challenge is to stop one-off efforts and start integrating this process into long-term marketing initiatives.

Agencies do get it, and they do care. What they need is open-source collaboration with retailers and brands to build the expertise to develop multi-channel content so that end users can get back to engaging the customer and making money.

So there’s a starting point. On your marks…