I had a chance to spend some time on the showroom floor this afternoon and unlike the other conferences (at the beginning of the year), I spent ample amount of time trying to cut to the core of those exhibitors (and their specific offerings) that caught my eye.  I had to go back to Saddle Ranch Productions – the CONTENT providers – after hearing their president, Kim, talk in one of the sessions yesterday.

They’re very clear about their differentiator – they “take a careful approach to creating content for digital signage networks.”  They have this proprietary process behind creating content called, “Targeted Content Mapping.”  It’s four steps that they go through in order to create the most effective content for a particular venue (set of venues).  They don’t just create content to create content.  They think about it.  And then they do it.

They’re a production company and if you’ve ever been introduced to any sort of filmmaking, you can appreciate the type of operation (and skillset) it takes to produce one piece of content, much less many pieces of content.  And the thing about these guys is that they are creating specifically for a digital signage network.  Not for TV, not for a website – specifically for a DS network, which is custom in and of itself.  They’re even about to launch “Saddle Stock,” which will be a stock video library for DS networks.  Even though you can use sites like iStockphoto and RevoStock to purchase stock video, they’re not necessarily geared to the specifics of DS networks.  Given the fact that Saddle Stock provides DS network-specific content, I suspect they’ll be providing a much-needed, quite convenient service.  Smart.