With three little ones, we often frequent venues that allow us to consolidate our tasks into one physical space.  Super Targets and malls, especially malls with play-areas-for-kids, are high on our list.  Malls are a fascinating place to me, although I don’t like spending lots of time in them.  What fascinates me, aside from the people and the over-saturation of “things” is the lack of technology that exists inside them.  I still see the static, Dewey Decimal System-like mall directories (that’s what I always think about anyway) that were around when I was a kid.  I can’t believe those things still exist?!?  Those scream touch screens with wayfinding + behavioral targeting + mobile couponing + social engagement – they’re really an endless well of multi-channel technological usefulness.

But by an large, these don’t exist.  Digital signage is slowly becoming a standard in malls, but interactivity with that signage doesn’t even seem to be on the radar.  So, I was giddy when I saw a digital signage solution that encouraged me to interact with it.  (NOTE – I did not capture the best content to represent my experience.  Next time, I’ll know exactly what to get for the set-up and pay-off to tell the best story.) 

In any case, these digital signs were scattered throughout the mall, not as a digital directory, but as a vehicle to deliver moving, engaging content, be it movie trailers or dynamic store advertisements.  On one of the “pages” of the scroll, there was a contest that encouraged users to take a photo in front of the sign and post it on their Facebook page.   

So, I took my mobile phone, positioned myself in front of the screen, and smiled:

Then, when we got home, I uploaded the photo on their Facebook page:

And I was happy.  As it ends up, I didn’t win, but I had lots of fun doing it, and appreciated a brand driving me deeper in the experience through digital signage and enabling technology.  This is a good example of DOOH being made interactive through this sort of technology.

With a few tweaks, I think this could have been a better, more effective initiative, but they deserve kudos for utilizing the digital signs in this way.  I hope to see more of this sooner rather than later because I think it’s one of the easiest, most natural extensions of incorporating multi-channel technological usefulness into the spaces around us.

Now, I am not a world-wide mall-goer.  These are my observations based on the malls I have gone to primarily in Texas.  If you have seen any other examples like this, particularly in malls, please send them my way.