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.

It would seem obvious that replacing a static sign with a digital screen, or adding a screen to an environment, would automatically create more awareness for whatever was being communicated. It’s easy to see that putting really great video (herein generally referred to as “content”) on an HDTV that someone wants to buy is a foregone conclusion. But that is not the case. In situations where the shopper is buying a staple, like shampoo or toothpaste or milk, the shopper is so focused on the mission at hand that almost all signage, static and digital alike, is ignored. The potential to miss the audience can be frustrating to a network operator that has spent enormous amounts of money to put in a network and wants to see a return on the investment.

The ultimate goal of digital signage is to change behaviors. It could be to navigate through an environment, or learn more about a product, or catch up on the latest news. But digital signage alone does not allow the operator to be better at communicating.

You need terrific content.

The ability to engage a viewer with outstanding visual content is not easily accomplished. The awareness and respect for content is increasing because providers continue to learn about the medium. The common battle cry of “It’s Not TV!” runs through the industry. It isn’t TV in the traditional sense of what we sit down and watch in our homes each night. But it is a screen designed to communicate, and the understanding of how to communicate is evolving as fast as the industry itself. It is TV, just a different kind of TV.

In the past, the novelty of a screen in a store or elevator or subway was enough to allow the network operator the freedom to simply hang a screen and turn it on. Now we are seeing screens treated as vital elements of design, being built into the physical structures. This completes the experience for the end-user and the audience. The screens and content look like it was made for the store, rather than just added on at a later stage in the environment’s evolution. Venues are constantly looking for advantages over their competitors, but brand logos, colors, and store layout can only go so far. Compelling, relevant content can give one environment over another by bringing the environment to life.

As much as good content has the ability to engage a viewer, bad content can detract a viewer just as fast.

High quality, relevant, and compelling content is the most important feature to digital signage in any application. It is the reason you’re adding the screens. It can connect you with viewers in ways never before achieved through the traditional methods of communication. Whether you are a brand, or a product, or a service, or just someone who has information to share, digital signage gives you the ability to engage the viewer with your message.

There are myriad variables to consider when creating good content. What works in one retailer, or waiting room, or on a billboard, will not work on screens of the same nature because the audience makeup is different each time. This creates havoc for providers who are trying to get the right content in the right place at the right time. But there are a few basic principles that can be understood and applied across any medium that will give the provider and/or end user great content, great impact, and a greater return on the investment.

Great content tells a story. The unique environments and audiences give creators the opportunity to tell more intimate stories with greater impact, focusing on key features of the subject that appeal to the viewer at that particular time and place, rather than trying to cover all the bases in a short message you may find on television at home (a good reason why “It’s not TV”). Because digital signage is a more dynamic way to communicate, providers can leverage the creative resources to tell a better story about their brand, or product, or service. For example, a cell-phone provider may be able to show live action of the cell-phones screen and interface (think of the iPhone commercials) as an advantage over other cell-phone manufacturers. This has tremendous impact at the point of sale, where the phones are on the shelf, where customers ready to buy. Great content creates competitive differentiation.

Great content can engage a viewer like no other type of communication. And with the growth of interactivity through touch screens and mobile devices, that engagement can become personal and inspirational. Brands, products, and services can now connect with customers and consumers at all points of interaction, from the internet at home to touch-screen kiosks in the store to mobile social media that allows users to define a brand or product in their eyes. The effort to change behaviors and create impact is tremendous when the customer becomes engaged with the message.

Great content makes money. In the case of retailing, relevant and compelling content will encourage a viewer to purchase a product. The revenue generated from more product sales in turn becomes a budget that retailers can spend on bigger and better digital signage applications. The technology of digital signage alone does not generate the revenue needed to purchase a network. The largest revenue generator for digital signage is the content and the amount of money someone will pay to put a message on your screen.

Here’s the catch: This is easier said than done. The research and strategy that goes into creating an engaging network can be extreme and often nebulous. The factors of audience demographics, environmental attributes, and advertising requirements all play very heavily on the composition and execution of great content. For example, creating content that runs longer than a person’s dwell time at the point of viewing will keep the viewer from getting the message because she has already moved on. Another example is sound. In a noisy environment, audio will not be effective in communicating a message, so the message should be entirely visual. Any aspect of the message in audio can and will be lost on the viewer because he cannot hear it.

However, the front-end work that goes into understanding the variables of compelling content can pay dividends in the end when the understanding of important features creates guidelines from which terrific content, and viewer engagement, can be achieved.

Content is that important.

A core factor of the retail customer experience is advertising. But, how we speak to a potential customer versus a point-of-sale customer is not the same.

Sacrifice for the Greater Good

In a consumer’s home, the advertiser competes with everything; there is nothing “endemic” about a TV program, a magazine, or the internet. During a break of a recent sporting event I saw the following ads: Nextel (Wireless), Taco Bell (Food), Zantac (Medicine) Progressive (Insurance), and Ford (Auto). Each advertiser thinks you need their product more than anything else.

Something about the proposition will be sacrificed for the greater good of brand awareness due to factors like broadcast running times and lack of actual products or services. You can only drive a car when you get to the dealership. You can only experience a wireless device by actually using the wireless device. Lifestyle benefits are a core proposition of broadcast advertising; it’s easier to show how your life will be with the product because you can’t actually use the product…yet.

Terrific creative and understanding the audience and the environment is crucial in winning a viewer’s attention.

But retail is different. Very different.

At retail, the competition narrows down to the category. When Nike competes with Budweiser at home, it’s only a matter of who likes shoes and who likes beer. But when Nike competes with Adidas and Reebok and K Swiss and Puma on a wall of footwear, the category focus by both the customer and the advertiser at the point of sale is paramount. This is where the brand “wins the last 10 feet.”

And, in many cases, you can use the product. You can try on the shoes or the clothes. You can test drive the car, or make a wireless connection.

So why do advertisers and venues accept external advertising for the network in a retail environment? Why do so many brands and manufacturers just re-purpose their 30-second awareness ads to run on the shelf?

The Push (or Pull) for Better Content

The simple answer is insufficient data to support the theory that custom content does any better at selling a product than regular broadcast advertising. Numbers get thrown around all too easily: 70% of shopper decisions are made in-store. Or is that 50%? I recently read that POPAI’s MARI project claims that only “… three percent of in-store marketing communications is currently passed and seen by shoppers…” So that means that 97% is ignored? Or is it missed completely? How does this affect the 50-70% of shoppers who make the purchase decisions? In a 2008 study from IMI Consumer Track, North Americans were asked what influenced them to purchase brands they don’t normally purchase. The respondents said they were influenced by an ad they saw on TV 24% of the time.

Statistics, always subjective and often misleading, should compel an argument, not decide it. They should not stand in the way of engaging the customer. Instead of believing in one side of the statistic, look at the other side: 50% may be influenced, but 50% are not. 50% is a really, really big number.

Why should retail marketing push brands and advertisers to create custom content?

You have to stand out. The amount of retail environmental stimuli waging a war for the customer’s attention is close to immeasurable.

Re-purposing advertising does two things: It tells the customer what she already knows, and it tells her you don’t have anything to add to your proposition. Result: She deselects you because there are other, newer things to look at.

Decisions. Decisions.

The customer’s mindset is different in the store. Marketers must stop believing that “purchase decisions” and “unplanned decisions” are the same thing. A purchase decision usually starts outside the store.

I need bar of soap.

Where do I get soap?

At the store.

I’m going to the store.

I’m at the store.

I’m here for soap.

There’s the soap.

External advertising starts the path to purchase by compelling the viewer to decide whether or not he needs what you’re selling. In-store advertising must pick up where broadcast left off – at the curbside or front door – and guide the customer along the path, not simply reiterate what he already knows.

Purchase decisions may lead to unplanned decisions. An unplanned decision is based on impulse. Oh…I need shampoo, too. While I’m here… Where the two types of decisions mix is in the shopper’s mindset at the point of sale. Therefore, the approach to the customer should be different.

Advertising is part of the equation, not the solution; it must work in tandem with everything else.

The Effort Starts Here

The marketing team must collaborate with merchandising team to create that holistic experience. Merchant teams will negotiate massive deals with brands for product placement with little regard for how the product is actually presented to the customer. A big victory for the brand is a prominent location, but the surrounding presentation materials may not complete the entire experience. Marketing must sit at the table and be a part of the deal so that proper attention can be given to the messaging that accompanies the product.

To this end, the need for extra money to create custom content will diminish. The content and production will be part of the negotiated deal for the product life-cycle in the store. It will not be an afterthought tapping into other budgets. Further, because of its separation from any other kind of advertising, it will give marketers the ability to better measure impact.

While statistics may support some of the arguments, they should never make a case. Knowing that the customers at home and customers at a store are different should warrant the argument for custom creative at the point of sale.

Terrific creative, coupled with understanding the audience, is crucial in winning a viewer’s attention.

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 show was great!

Not only did I enjoy countless engaging, vibrant conversations, I also came in contact with a wealth of exciting new technologies. The attendance was strong. Optimistic energy fueled the show’s atmosphere. You could tell that attendees recognized how important it is for them to integrate customer-facing technology into their environments.

I had to navigate large crowds throughout the day, especially as I walked through the Innovation Station, a collection of hand-picked retail solutions driving the future of the industry. Kudos need to be given to CRI for bringing together such a great, and diverse, array of solution providers.

The IBM booth (more like a control center) was picked with digital goodies and innovative retail solutions. Just like at the Innovation Station, I had to navigate crowds of engaged attendees to get from point A to point B. Within IBM’s “showcase,” I saw a range of technologies, including location aware mobile applications and in-store augmented reality displays. The company sees the writing on the wall, and knows that the world of bricks-and-mortar is undergoing an in-store digital revolution. IBM sees its deep involvement in various aspects of retailers’ operations as a clear foundation on which to build new media experiences.

NRF 2010 will be remembered for a number of different things, one of which is sure to be the number of tech giants showcasing new digital signage solutions. The show saw digital signage solutions from tech stalwarts like HP, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, and IBM (just to name a few). It is an exciting development for our industry to see the aforementioned “big boys” step into our pond. I’m not saying that they’re not going to stumble here and there along the way. As these companies acclimate themselves to the world of digital signage, they will learn from their mistakes and discover nuances of the market. Their depth of talent, experience, sizable R&D departments, and tech industry leverage is sure to drive DS forward. I see it as a ringing endorsement of the auspicious future that lies ahead for the digital signage marketplace.

With companies like Intel and Microsoft taking a major interest in digital signage, such activity is guaranteed to accelerate the growth of the industry. Not only do many of these DS newcomers want to grow their presence in the sector, they want to take leadership positions therein. We all know that such a thing is easier said than done, but I’m sure that some of the executives I met with are going to have a major impact on this industry. One such individual is Jose Avalos, the Director of Digital Signage at Intel.

Unless you were living under a rock, you heard about the multitouch, holographic intelligent digital signage concept that Intel featured at the show. Equipped with anonymous video analytics (facial recognition software from Cognovision) and an array of top-notch digital and technical features, the innovative solution captured the imagination of attendees. I must applaud Intel and Microsoft for recognizing that one must make a big splash when entering new markets to get people’s attention. Jose Avalos sees and understands the lasting place digital signage will have across the retail ecosystem. Speaking with Jose, even for just a few minutes, was illuminating. He spoke passionately about Intel’s approach to the industry and desire to deliver solutions that will enhance how we shop.

Looking around the show, you couldn’t help but feel the energy that circled the Javits Center floor. The time is upon us to grasp the ship carrying the future of retail. The vessel is filled with impassioned individuals who see the potential inherent in bringing real-time, efficient, and smart technology to the corner store and neighborhood shopping mall.

I welcomed connecting with professionals in the show’s Design Studio. Design houses and architects are definitely keen to the coming flood of technology at retail. I connected with RFID providers, audience analytics firms, customer loyalty companies, and automated retail companies (I love ZoomSystems). With everything I saw, and all of the people I spoke with, I can confidently say that the tide is rising. If you want to ride the wave of new retail engagements and experiences, you better jump on board.

The folks at VeriFone, who just acquired Clear Channel’s Taxi Media operations, are definitely thinking beyond the payment space. With VeriFone’s technical footprint across retail and a range of other industries, they are surely a company to watch as media begins to get further integrated into these solutions. It’s a natural progression to equip POS systems with small-form factor displays that enhance the retail environment.

While Intel’s partnership with Microsoft in developing a multi-touch retail solution has garnered the most press from the show, I was equally captivated by another solution from one of Intel’s partners at NRF. Mark my words that the company I mention next is one that will have a long, prosperous future in the digital signage industry (and beyond!).

YCD Multimedia displayed the robustness of the company’s software solution in driving a nine screen Samsung video wall (plus a tenth interactive screen) from a single player (powered by an Intel processor, of course). The video wall was capable of playing out 9 different channels of content, unique to each screen. I was blown away by the fact that the system was running from one media tower. The screen displayed 4K content, meaning 4X HD resolution, given that each display was running at its native 1080p resolution.

That by itself was impressive, but then Josh Kampel, YCD’s head of business development, took the covers of off the company’s most recent innovation – RAMP. An advertising management system that is as intuitive and beautiful as it is robust, RAMP bridges corporate and local network control, while supporting easy content creation, data management, playlist creation, and campaign scheduling. Their solution is a next step for the digital signage industry.

With everyone that I met (it was a pleasure), and all of the technology that I saw, going to NRF was like walking into FAO Schwartz for the first time as youngster. I feel this way every time I go to one of these shows. As geeky as this sounds, I love technology. I especially love how technology can enhance our lives, how we shop, how we interact, how we communicate, etc. What was great about my trip to NRF this year, is that the vast majority, if not everyone, whom I came in contact with shared that same passion for technology.

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?

Technically and financially, we’re there. But what about content?

The conventional wisdom is that digital menu boards don’t need to have any particular whiz-bang about the creative. They can be jpegs or motion vector graphics (like Flash or Silverlight), and maybe there’s embedded video. The few digital menu boards I have seen look like regular menu boards.

Is that the optimal way to do it? I haven’t a clue, as my fast food patronage doesn’t extend much beyond buying coffee at Tim Horton’s now and then. But there’s an interesting piece in Wednesday’s New York Times (you may need to register to read it, but that’s free) about the psychology of menus that is worth a read if planning or peddling menu boards is in the cards for 2010.

Restaurant operators are fiddling, the story says, with combinations of prices, adjectives, fonts, type sizes, ink colors and placement on the page to try to coax diners into spending a little more money.

The use of menu engineers and consultants is exploding in the casual dining arena and among national chains, a sector of the business that has been especially pinched by the economy. In response, they are tapping into a growing body of research into the science of menu pricing and writing, hoping the way to a diner’s heart is not only through the stomach, but through the unconscious.

This piece, I should stress, is all about the menus a waiter or waitress hands to you, not menus up on boards. But there is good stuff in here that is broadly applicable to anyone trying to get people ordering more.

In the “Ten Commandments for Menu Success,” an article published in Restaurant Hospitality magazine in 1994, Allen H. Kelson, a restaurant consultant, wrote, “If admen had souls, many would probably trade them for an opportunity every restaurateur already has: the ability to place an advertisement in every customer’s hand before they part with their money.”

And like advertisements, menus contain plenty of subliminal messages.

Some restaurants use what researchers call decoys. For example, they may place a really expensive item at the top of the menu, so that other dishes look more reasonably priced; research shows that diners tend to order neither the most nor least expensive items, drifting toward the middle. Or restaurants might play up a profitable dish by using more appetizing adjectives and placing it next to a less profitable dish with less description so the contrast entices the diner to order the profitable dish.

Research by Brian Wansink, director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University and the author of “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think,” suggests that the average person makes more than 200 decisions about food every day, many of them unconsciously, including the choices made from reading menus.

Menu design draws some of its inspiration from newspaper layout, which puts the most important articles at the top right of the front page, where the eyes tend to be drawn. Some restaurants will place their most profitable items, or their specials, in that spot. Or they place a dotted outline or a box around the item, put more white space around it to make the dish stand out or, in what menu researchers say is one of the most effective tools, add a photograph of the item or an icon like a chili pepper.

Interesting reading, and a good reminder that our emerging industry can learn a lot from the efforts made on the more traditional sides of businesses.

“Where is the…?”
“Do you have…?”

Yet, the retailer has not executed digital signage that can answer these questions. The ideal place for this digital concierge is in the store’s “landing zone,” or the first 20 feet or so inside the doors. Some retailers prefer to keep this area free from a lot of noise and promotion as a way to allow the customer to decompress and transition from traveling to the store to the experience inside it.

I believe this is the very place where customers expect to be directed. Customers enter and orient themselves with the new surroundings. Those that are short on time do not walk to the back of the store and then ask, “Where is the…?” They would prefer to ask up front and get their shopping finished.

In February, 2009, Herb Sorensen wrote “Deconstructing the Shopping Trip (so far!).” Mr, Sorensen states that these questions are actually an effort by customers to break down barriers erected by the brands and retailers. The two questions he sees (closely related to the two above) are:

Where is the . . ?
Which one of these . . ?

“The first of these plagues the shopper when store layout does not match the shopper’s natural navigational practices and the second when it is unclear which of many options is the right one for the shopper.”

So why is it that retailers have yet to fully embrace this as an opportunity to assist the customer’s path to purchase?

The holiday shopping season is rarely the enjoyable treat we see played out by so many retailers in their holiday campaigns. Instead of jingle-bell laden happy music, fluffy snow, rosy cheeks, and beautiful store employees, we have bad weather, empty shelves, muzak, and employees who would rather hit the local tavern than help the umteenth customer find the batteries. This is a terrific mixture for stress.

This year will be another “make or break” season for some retailers, and they are pulling out all the stops to make sure they don’t push daisies next spring. One plan is not adding employee head count in the store, the part-time seasonal workers that come in to help with the customer traffic rush. This is an easy way to avoid costs.

Providing a solution to the most basic questions a customer has would solve two challenges: It would alleviate stress on the shopper to search and discover the item of choice was out of stock; and it would reduce the stress on an employee to help every single customer that walks through the door, instead focusing on customers that need detailed help. The ideal state finds the navigational interactive device tied to the local POS system to indicate whether an item is still in stock.

Interactive navigation is ideal in situations where customers can shop on their terms, and the holiday shopping season provides no better time to execute this type of digital interactivity.

Maybe that’s why the internet is so attractive for holiday shopping. You can search for something and find it without leaving your comfy chair as the fireplace crackles, the fluffy snow mounts outside your window, and your iPod rattles the ornaments with “Winter Wonderland.”

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 overwhelming barrier to the wide acceptance of user-generated content across traditional and emerging media platforms is the sheer size of the market. What could be looked at as its greatest strength (a vast portfolio of user-created videos that cover a diverse range of topics) is undoubtedly its largest weakness. With thousands of new videos being uploaded to YouTube every hour, seperating great content and talent from everything else is a daunting task.

YouTube continues to update its platform to make finding worthwhile videos easier, but significant burden still rests on the viewer. When the site visitor is a media organization looking to identify best of class user-created content to include within its core programming, YouTube stands to greatly benefit in making that process as efficient and painless as possible.

Welcome YouTube Direct, “a new tool that allows media organizations to request, review and rebroadcast YouTube clips directly from YouTube users.” With YouTube Direct a news organization will be able to integrate a video upload tool directly into its site. YouTube Direct will allow these news groups to screen video uploads as they come in, and use the best clips for their broadcasts and on their websites. How valuable could this tool be to media companies looking to expand their coverage, and the breadth of their content?

Immensely Valuable.