11th Screen

I usually don’t get excited about any sort of digital signage hardware, but that changed when I stopped by the NanoLumens booth at DSE. Upon first glance, it was just another huge screen, displaying high-definition video & images. Cool, but nothing too special (at least for me – I mean, I kind of expect big displays out of digital signage, especially at a tradeshow).

How I was wrong.

The size isn’t really what makes this solution special, although it is one of its selling points (more on that in a bit). What really makes it special is its weight and flexibility. That’s right – flexibility. That big screen bends.

I immediately thought of Esquire’s e-ink cover in 2008 on steroids. But although the Esquire cover was novel, it was completely underwhelming. This NanoLumens display is anything but. It’s quite awesome, actually. It really puts into perspective what’s possible, on this scale, in terms of flexibility.

The sign is a mosaic of LED-powered squares and it’s those squares (7”x3.5”) that give it the pliability it needs to fit on convex and concave surfaces. The fact that it conforms to these surfaces and actually looks like it’s part of the environment is a huge benefit, in my opinion. The more something looks like it was meant to be there, the more attention it will get. And the screen is such that if you want to put it on a boring flat surface, it can easily fit there, too.

Easily is the operative word. Another key benefit to this screen is its light weight. They had this 100+” screen in their booth on a swivel mount and the ease in which they turned the screen – a true reflection of its weight – was remarkable. It was effortless. The real-world benefit of this can’t be overlooked. Imagine hanging one of these huge screens on any surface, high above the ground vs. a standard 100+” screen – not having done this, I can only image that the strain and equipment to actually do that would easily be cut in half by this NanoLumens display.

See how thin it is, too? (that’s taken from the side)

And Its design – those small squares – also allow it to be customized to any size and shape. Circle, square, triangle – doesn’t matter. They can do it.

If all that weren’t enough, here’s some more (taken off their website). The displays are:

• Robust and durable – they’re sealed and fanless, waterproof and dustproof;
• And energy-conscious – drawing about the same power as a coffee-maker.

And they couldn’t have nicer guys on the front lines, telling people about this product. Great product + good people = success.

This is truly NOT a one-size-fits-all sign, in every possible aspect.

I had the pleasure of playing golf with some great guys early this week, my kick-off to DSE. I played with Dave Haynes, Bill Trainor and Andy Bruce (first time meeting Bill and Andy – great guys). All told, there were about 40 people (all in the industry) at the outing, and it ended up being an overall great time. Golf, almost anytime is enjoyable for me, regardless of how I play, and Monday was no exception. It’s such a great game and although I find it extremely frustrating most of the times, it can be equally rewarding. Just like work. There are many parallels. So, today’s Friday 4-1-1 is dedicated to those parallels.

1. Focus - golf is a game of focus. And the times where you’re actually doing what you’re out there to do – hit the ball – it requires an incredibly intense focus. Unfortunately, focus alone does not a great golfer make. There are many other facets of the game that you have to succeed at to be successful on the course, which is a lot like work. Focus is key to actually narrowing your mind & thoughts to the task at hand. Its intention is to cut out distractions. If and when you focus, you can then turn your attention to the finer points of the craft. Like…

2. Tempo - golf is a game of tempo. I generally don’t have good tempo on the course because I want to hit the snot out of the ball. The beautiful thing about golf, though, is that you don’t have to swing hard to hit a great shot. If you’re swinging with good tempo, the club will do the work for you and you’ll typically end up with a pretty good shot. And then if you can replicate that tempo enough to become consistent, you’ll turn into a pretty good golfer (at least good enough to hold your own at an event like this.) Same thing at work – you don’t have to try to crush every single problem/situation with the biggest, baddest idea or solution. Often times, the easiest, least strenuous solutions are the best. And when you start to understand good solutions over bad, it’s easier to get into a groove. And then, you can work to establish some consistency with your approach and how you actually address problems/situations…and then, well, you’ll get to be pretty good with whatever it is you do. But you’ll also need…

3. Patience - golf is a game of patience. It’s a long game. Whether you’ve hit a good shot or a bad shot, you know that there’s another one right around the corner. You can’t get too high or too low, regardless of what happens during your round. You’ve got to be patient. This is a hard one. Because patience is only part of the formula – the other part is…

4. Persistence - golf if a game of persistence. Unless you want to give up and walk off the course. But for those who want to get better, you have to just keep plugging along. And it’s as simple as that. I’m big on persistence.

“Uh-huh” – Golf is one of those things, like many of those at work, where you can see marked improvement with deliberate practice. If you work on specific aspects of your swing, or of your stance, or of your mentality, and you’re deliberate about it, you will see improvement. It’s the same with work – if there are specific aspects of your work, be it the way you communicate with people, the way you react to situations, the way you deliver a presentation – whatever it is, if you are deliberate in your practice, you will see improvement.

“Duh” – Although two of my best shots were the first and the last shot I hit, there were many more that were not good. Doing something good once or twice or even for short periods of time is not the goal. The goal is to sustain a high level of performance over a long period of time. All of those in-between moments are much more important than 2 singular ones, even if they are important singular ones.

All it takes in golf is one good shot to keep you coming back. The sense of pride and accomplishment you feel is self-motivating. I think you could apply that to anything you do in life or work that you want to do a good job at – when you do it, it keeps you coming back for more.

Happy weekend, everyone. Thanks, again, for reading!

I had a chance to meet Phil Cohen at DSE and sat down with him for one of his Cohen on Content interviews. Here is mine.

I don’t think I did a great job of explaining the convergence of “out-of-home” and content with my current agency. Since I work for a PR firm – although I think it’s the most progressive, digitally-saavy PR firm in the world – we don’t deal with traditional “digital” out-of-home and certainly not with networks. But where I’ve found incredible opportunity, particularly with the proliferation of mobile devices, is being able to turn on the things around us (cars, posters, etc.), that we use in events that we concept and support. We take a very grassroots approach to interactive out-of-home.

And the story that I was going to tell was how we basically turned a car (a thing in the real-world) into a virtual scrapbook that allowed everyone who came into contact with it to not only consume content, but create and add their own content to it. In today’s social world, brands don’t need to create all of the content themselves. Consumers are creating content themselves and sharing with their networks. This is a treasure trove of content that brands can tap into.

For anyone putting together a content and/or engagement strategy, regardless of channel/screen, consider social content. It is powerful, effective, and for the most part, free.

Aside from that, I just wish someone would have told me to look at the camera more.

Robert Ventresca (NCR), Jordan Scott Baltimore (Oyster Digital Media Corp.)

Robert’s up 1^st – What is interactive technology?  Interactive covers wide range of techs used in the world today.

For today’s discussion, they’re going to focus on in-store.

Blurring of terminology is increasing rapidly.

What’s driving adoption of interactive?

• Multi-channel synchronization. Wow, what a word.
• Automating routine activities (this is very much a utility use/benefit – hmmm).
• Empower customers and employees – this is the only thing they’ve talked about that even resembles/eludes to experience.
• Enhance the consumer experience – there you go (just wasn’t on the slide)

17-month Wharton study of 500 retail stores – 4 key drives of customer satisfaction:

1. Availability of product information
2. Source of information helpful
3. Customer perception of product availability
4. Checkout line waits

Interactivity = self-service. He’s caveating that statement. Understand. Interesting that he’s coming at it from a utility-first POV. Can just tell in his approach.

Key components of interactive projects:

• Infrastructure (hardware, installation)
• Software
• Content

“Content is king” – everyone has said this today. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard it. He’s making the point that all 3 – infrastructure, software & content – are king. Can we just say the king is dead now?

This is a very systematic approach to “interactive.”

Jordan now – challenge the 3 king/content king thing. “The customer is the king.” – Amen, brother, amen.

These are the guys behind the Samsung Experience. They approached it as – If I was a customer in this experience, what would I really be blown away by? They also wanted to support the brand ambassadors (sales reps), too. Not replace them.

He’s saying all the things that align with my thinking – not talking to the consumers, it’s talking with the consumers. It’s not a 1-way communication, it’s a 2-way communication. It can and should be measured.

Just talking, talking, talking – show us the pictures, or a video, show me this baby, Jordan!

Interactive technology should complement and enhance traditional engagement.

How can we use interactive technology to get consumers involved? How can you make a consumer make a better decision at the point of sale? Good questions.

Start with the consumers. That simple.

Oyter’s Retail Experience Platform: Relevant, Interactive, Intelligent, Integrated.

This is a good session for this audience to hear. I just wish it were more compelling. Photos. Videos. Something that has a wow factor. Just wasn’t there.

Nut – Interactivity is good. It’s effective. Think about implementing it. Start with the consumer, not the technology.

Word of the session – Multi-channel synchronization.

The panel is the reason I came to this session – Rob Gorrie (Adcentricity), Dan Levi (Zoom Media), Jill Nickerson (Horizon Media), Andrew Miller (Kinetic Group Americas)

(Jeremy Lockhorn (Razorfish) – was not here – kinda a bummer – would have been great to hear from him.)

This session is a mock-RFP session where agencies put out an RFP to networks and then the networks pitch to the agencies. So, this will be interesting to see how they all approach and talk about “Digital” OOH, particularly as it relates to actually bidding/winning some business.

There’s no set-up to what we’re going to here in this session. They just jumped right in. Think a little bit of set-up would help properly frame for the group. At least give us some information from the fictitious RFP.

So, the networks are supposed to pitch to the agencies. Here we go.

Rob’s up first – They start w/ defining objectives (against the funnel), who they’re trying to reach.

They then go into research & data – understand who and how. Try to get insights out of them. Then, look at potential venues based on the target/insights. Then, look at the target markets. Merge those together and you can see the opportunities you have in each market.

OK, this is getting real detailed. Good stuff, but way detailed and Rob is still talking. 25 minutes in and no one else on the panel has said anything. How are they going to get to anyone else?

One thing he notes in his preso and what they think about – mobile and social. So, this is good – they hear the original request for “DOOH” and they’re thinking about other channels, too.

Logical flow, they’re smart about the way they think about things – goal/objective definition & research first.

Now, Mandi Dyner is up from Outcast Network. She gets right into talking about gas station networks (this is what they do but, ugh). Captive audience. Content customization. (Who in the world watches those gas station TV’s? I mean, really? What a thing to lead with.)

Didn’t hear much research here.

Now, Dan from Zoom. Introduces us to the company first. Then, he mentions Neilsen (just like all the others), how their network is measured. Recap of the RFP’s objectives, audience.

Then, their concepts – he makes sure to talk about mobile and social, pretty good emphasis on social.

They use MRI as their primary planning tool.

They focus a lot on creating custom relevant content for each venue/location “network.” They proposed a text-in donation aspect to the content. Then, they proposed showing social content, highly localized – trash-talking Tweets from sports fans and a SM aggregator.

15 minutes to go and the pitches are still going on. When/what/how are we going to hear from the agencies? Will be interesting….

Taking into account the actual pitch, the presentation, and the thinking – Zoom wins on the creative ideas/experiences and Adcentricity wins on research-approached effective solutions.

But here goes the agencies – they’re asking questions to each of the pitchers. It’s a little awkward for the audience – at least it seems that way to me – because the agencies are asking questions of specific people on the panel, they’re all sitting up at a table with each other, and they’re just talking to each other. It’s all directed to the front. Kinda shutting out the audience.

Here’s the thing – there’s a lot of talk about “mass awareness.” This is exactly what I talked about in this post – digital signage is a great mass awareness channel. But what about mass engagement?

Adcentricity got kudos from the agency panel by starting out with so much research.

Nut – interesting approach to a session. Like the idea. Think it could have been structured more effectively – like framing it up front for the audience. At the end, the agencies moved away from asking pointed questions from the networks, they just told the audience what they liked/wished they would have gotten from each of the networks. That was good.

Another nut – measurement is key. The media planners always get involved and they want measurement numbers. Be prepared.

Quote of the session – “If you don’t have compelling content, people aren’t going to look at the screens.” – Andrew Miller (Kinetic Group Americas) Will they anyway? Is there screen blindness?

Keynote speaker – Shelly Palmer (Live Digital w/ Shelly Palmer and Shelly Palmer Digital Living Sirius/XM Radio Show)

Excellent talk. Read through for some real gems!!

It’s interesting because we’re here to talk about DOOH at a time when everything is digital.

Digital is not new.

Show of hands from the audience – how many people are NOT carrying a smartphone? Literally 2 people. Wow.

Everyone of us is walking around with a computer in their pocket. The world has changed. Digital is a part of our lives. It’s not new.

The ability for people to connect with each other and amplify their voice, at scale – that is new. Speed and scale. It’s worldwide.

Stop it with the behaviors have changed and media consumption has changed – we know this?! (Does this industry really?)

Watson (yes, the computer) – natural language processing.

Pure research + applied science + showmanship (practical ways to use digital tools to make people’s lives better?) = the business we’re in.

What is a sign in 2011? Could be a TV, could be sign, could be anything we want it to be. (This is what I’ve been talking about – places & things around us have the ability to be turned on.) But what we have right now is analysis paralysis – everyone’s got their own interpretation and it’s different from everyone else’s and it’s is causing schizophrenia.

How do we fix it?

All technology is meaningless unless it changes the way we behave.

18 mos. ago, there was a proportional screen rule that was absolute – small screen – short content, bigger screen – longer content. Now, anyone will watch anything on the best available screen.

Now, people are taking their TVs with them. That’s new.

iPad is the 1^st of a zillion tablets to come out. Motorola Xoom is an iPad killer. 2 computer chips instead of 1. Full screen HD. 2 cameras. All Googled up with Honeycomb. Will it actually kill the iPad? No, but for a certain group of people, it will become THE tablet of choice.

Difference between 3G & 4G – we’re at a tipping point that is unprecedented since 1847. We’re about to go from 3G to 4G. It is literally the difference between the pony express and the telegraph. Huge sociologic change. It took 5 weeks for someone to get a message. Now it takes less than 5 seconds. Huge. 3G takes minutes, 4G takes seconds. Are you guys ready for that?

We’re still trying to figure out where to put the signs. How to network the signs. Blah, blah, blah.

People are picking up their signs and walking around with them.

Traditional DOOH is a lot like old school TV.

Something he’s working on right now – LogoVision – has every logo in the history of the world in their database. Consumers take a picture of the logo, it delivers content. Can take a picture of any logo on any sign – TV, digital sign, poster, etc., get content instantly. Think about how “instant” 4G will be.

This time next year, you won’t be able to buy a 3G device. All will have 4G, means getting content/data will be 6-8X faster than they are now.

People now like texting. Consider email a formal letter. What’s better than texting? Taking a photo/pressing 1 button. The computer does the work for you. What’s that? Oh, Watson. You see where this is going?

Speed, scale, convenience – technology is meaningless unless it changes the way we behave. How do we behave? In the way that is most convenient.

“The #1 show at 10PM on Friday night is TiVo.” – Jeff Zucker.

People make choices, we’re empowered now with technology.

We’re living in a connected world and very quickly we’ll be able to argue – there are 2 types of people and 2 types of tech – connected or not connected.

Trust circles – small groups around things from people you emphatically trust. The new DMA’s. (Very interesting.)

How does a sign help you? How does a network of signs tied together that disseminate valuable information help you? That’s our challenge. We’re an old medium today. People are taking their signs with them.

Another show of hands – how many of you guys have Google Alerts set up for the information you want on a daily basis? Only 10% of people, if that, raised their hands. This does not surprise me. Now, he’s going off on the audience – you’re in “digital” signage/Out-of-Home and you’re not even using the tools for yourself. How do you not do this? It’s unacceptable that you’re at the Digital Signage Expo and you’re not digital.

Who do you sell to? Helping the industry move forward requires 2 components – 1) how to present this industry to buyers?

Retail has forever changed. Borders couldn’t compete digitally. They didn’t keep up. They, like so many people, believed things will work themselves out.

Do not fall prey to the idea that anything is going to go backwards. What’s the penalty for being late? The penalty for being late is business death.

How do you filter the paradigm shifts from the parlor tricks? You personally apply the filter based on your experiences to the question – is this going to change people’s behaviors.

Digital signage industry – hire armies of developers to work on platforms because that is where you’re going to win.

Nut – and I quote, “He who is closet to the point of sale wins. That’s always going to be true.” Now people are bringing their computers to the point of sale. And they’re connected – to each other & brands & information through technology. And the best, “Not about hyperlocal, it’s about hyperpersonal.” This takes some sort of engagement and interaction. This is what it’s all about.

Quote of the session – Now, the only people who like change are babies in wet diapers.

I had a great dinner last night with 2 of the Preset Guys – 2 EXTREMELY smart and experience digital signage veterans who have done loads of work for high-profile companies/clients – Pat Hellberg and Dave Haynes. We talked a lot about the “DOOH” industry (and how to pronounce it?!) and “digital” signage and engagement and content and storytelling. And I’m putting as many things as I can in “quotes” just for Pat – know he likes that stuff. Anyway, it was a great discussion and it produced some interesting questions. I’m going to cover a few of them in the next couple of days.

First one up – this concept of “utility” and “experience.” Technology is beautiful because, along with many other things, it can effectively serve as a utility or create an experience. Most of the time, the same technology can accomplish both, there just might be different ways it manifests itself in doing so. Let’s take mobile for instance – if you want to simply opt someone into a communication stream/database, you can accomplish that through SMS (something very utilitarian) or through a QR Code (something more experiential).

As far as digital signage goes, there’s a large part of me that believes its primary benefit is one of utility. The platforms are dynamic and deep – they can hold a lot of content and ads. The signs are dynamic, potentially constantly in motion and just as potentially attention-getting. Place them at point of purchase, advertise whatever merchandise/deals you want, and you can change them on a daily basis. In that scenario, digital signage makes a lot of sense to serve a specific utility. Same can be said in quick-serve restaurants (QSR’s). Need to change the menu, or price, or nutritional value? Bang on the keyboard for a second and viola, the display is updated and you don’t have to reprint whatever it was you were using 5 years ago. Another great use for digital signage.

But what I want to know is where is the experience? Over the last year, I’ve heard software makers and hardware makers and IT guys and AV guys and “content” makers talk about networks. Networks, schmetworks. It drives me crazy that no one seems to be thinking about experiences. One-way, push messaging – regardless of how deep, dynamic and/or flashy it is – does not an experience make.

More and more, consumers want to have an experience with a brand. Typically, they like to dictate what that experience is, but they want an experience nonetheless. Not only do they WANT experiences, they’re starting to expect them. And when consumers expectations change, companies/brands and even entire industries, have to adapt to that change. Otherwise, they’re going to become irrelevant. And at the end of the day, how many brands want to become irrelevant? 0.

So, I really think the industry and all of the players within it are faced with a simple question – do you want to serve a utility? Or create an experience? If the answer is the latter, consumers don’t care about hardware and software and AV and IT and networks. They just want a great experience.

Can we make it so?

The Digital Signage Expo (DSE) holds a special place in my heart. It’s the first conference I covered as “press,” it’s the first time I was really in the know, behind the scenes, the first time I met all of my industry friends face-to-face – in a lot of ways, it was THE thing that really put my blog on the radar for many in the industry. I will be eternally grateful to Geri Wolff (responsible for organizing the entire thing) for taking a chance on someone she’d never heard of and letting me in (as press).

So, Monday, I’m off again for this year’s DSE. I’ve got a different schedule this year because I’m taking part in a few pre-conference activities and by the time it’s over, I will end up missing the last day of sessions. But this is a busy time of year back at work (preparing for SXSW) so I’ve got to make a couple of sacrifices. Today’s Friday 4-1-1 is dedicated to some of the things I’m looking forward to this year.

1. There’s nothing more important than relationships and I’ve been fortunate enough to meet some really great people in this industry. Most of them will be here this week and I’m looking forward to seeing them again. I talk to many of them on a daily basis so I’m sure we’ll pick up as if no time has passed since we actually saw each other. There’s no substitute for face-to-face time and I’m going to take advantage of it.

2. The Preset Group Mixer – I wasn’t able to attend last year, although the guys at Preset were kind enough to invite me last minute. I was buried in SXSW to-dos. Not this year. I’ll be there and I’m really looking forward to it. I suspect I’ll see alot of people that I already know, but many more who I don’t. The guys at Preset are top notch, so I suspect this mixer will be the same.

3. Christie MicroTiles’/Arsenal Media’s BuzzWall – 7′ tall, made up of 41 tiles, multi-touch, multi-user, recently installed for the Miami Dolphins. Sounds a lot like the Hard Rock Cafe’s Rock Wall, just different hardware (which I suspect is what makes this pretty cool). Here in Dallas, Jerry doesn’t even have one of these in his place. I’ve got to see it in action.

4. Wednesday morning’s morning sessions – DSE/DSF has really done a good job this year of focusing the educational sessions. There are various tracks, and they’re actually good and seem to be geared to more than 101-type sessions. There’s a content track (fantastic move!), an interactive technology track, a business track, and 6 others. Wednesday morning, I’ve got to decide between the Content session, the Marketing/Advertising session, and the Interactive session. All look to be awesome. At this point, the Advertising/Marketing session is the favorite.

“Uh-huh” – Like I said, Geri Wolff, has been extremely kind to me and I can’t thank her enough. She’s kept in touch with me over the year and has really treated me well. I’m looking forward to thanking her face-to-face.

“Duh” – I’m teeing it up for a little golf outing with Dave Haynes, Bill Trainor, and Andy Bruce. I haven’t played in a couple of years. I have no idea how it’s going to be. If nothing else, it will no doubt, be fun. Hope I represent, though.

If you’re going to DSE and you’d like to get together, drop me a line and let me know. As always, thanks for reading!

Location-based services (LBS) – like Foursquare, Gowalla, and Yelp – made a big splash last year as a fairly successful, yet niche, mobile tactic for brands aiming to reach consumers in the real-world. They are great platforms for rewarding loyalty, real-time consumer reviews & tips, and for those who like such a thing, keeping track of your friends/family. I’ve “played” Foursquare consistently for a year now and dabbled in the others – Gowalla, Yelp, Loopt, SCVNGR. There’s interesting potential with this sort of technology, particularly when integrated with placed-based signage. But as I’ve wandered over the last year, I’m left wondering if these technologies will stick and ultimately reach the average consumer. And more than that, what it will take for them to reach that point? Here are my chronicles.

I checked into my train station the other night. It was my 100th check-in and as a result, I received a “Century Club” badge. I also received a customized message – something to the effect, “they should put your name up on the wall for frequenting so often.” Or something.

First thought: cool, I got another badge.

Second thought: ugh, I don’t get anything other than this message.

Then, I got sour.

The badge wasn’t enough. I wanted a free 30-day pass. A free ride. Some sort of discount, at least. I’d even take my name scrolling across the digital ticker at the station.

But then, that would get old, and I’d want something else, something of value.

The fact that these technologies fit into our regular, everyday life is one barrier that they don’t have to overcome. The check-in couldn’t be easier. But the big barrier lies in the value. As with any emerging technology, there’s a novelty period where it can get by on the technology alone. But there quickly comes a point to where it loses the novel factor, and in order for it to become sustainable and gain scale, it has to create some sort of value.

And this is what I’m feeling right now. Little to no value.

It’s interesting because my expectations have changed in a very short amount of time. And if mine – an early adopter/user, not the “average” consumer – have changed, what will it take to reach the average consumer? And become part of their daily lives?

The digital signage industry, and the places and things around us, can certainly help to create a sense of value. Stephen Randall and LocaModa have made a living targeting this very combination. Stephen’s specific take on this is that the value lies in the 3 Fs:  Fun, fame, and fortune. These are the keys that motivate consumers to interact with LBS, and digital signage is a perfect platform to maximize their effect. Everyone likes to see their name “in lights” (fame) and by nature, most of these technologies are game-like and fun.

The key is “fortune.” Value. Is virtual currency enough, even when you see yourself in the middle of a Times Square billboard? I was willing to accept my name scrolling on the train station ticker. But I’m still left empty.

I want more.

(Photo credit: NY Times)

Over the past year, I’ve kept up with a few brands that I feel have done a good job of utilizing the OOH channel, particularly the “new” OOH channel – where offline is purposefully merged with the online and enabling technologies are at play. One of these brands is JC Penney.

I’ve featured them twice here, and I’ve been impressed with the initiatives they’ve executed in this space. To me, the fact that they use mobile and interactive Out-of-Home (IOOH) shows they understand all of the channels at their disposal and more importantly, that they know this is becoming more and more a preferred and effective way to reach consumers.

So, when then news about their SEO practices surfaced yesterday, I have to say I was surprised. My initial reaction – without asking any experts on SEO – was from the POV of a general digital marketer. How can a company make a decision to utilize emerging channels – mobile and IOOH – but not have a complete grasp on one of the basic (yet complex) fundamentals in their media mix? Or in simpler terms, how can they focus their efforts in building large, in-store touchscreen units rather than getting their SEO right?

It makes me feel – again, upon first blush, and not having any insight into their operation – that someone there doesn’t have their priorities straight. How could this be?

So, I dug a little bit deeper. And in what I read (here and here), the blame seemed to be put more on Penney than not. But did they really know? Or is everyone doing it, just in subtler ways? How can they not have an SEO expert? I started to get more and more interested the deeper I got into it. So, I asked our SEO guy – Ryan Smith – who is also actually one of the cinematographers in our office.  And here’s what he had to say, just by me asking, “what do you think:”

• Don’t mess with Google, it isn’t worth it 98% of the time.
• We MUST be able to counsel our clients not to work with shady SEO companies, they will tell you they can provide results and then go out and buy links to do it.  A brand could get burned like this very easily with very little knowledge of what was actually going on. I believe that this was the case for Penney, they can’t even get the URLs of their core pages right.
• Many SEO’s have often pointed out major hypocrisy of how Google hands out penalties. Major brands have been given passes because they are “vital” to results.  BMW could do anything because if they weren’t in the SERP for “luxury car” Google users would think less of Google.  So I think this says that Penney’s must have been pretty blatantly buying links on a large scale and that Google doesn’t view Penney’s as important to their results.  Also maybe they found a brand to make an example of to get everybody on the straight and narrow without damaging their results.
• Penalty was confined to several non-branded keywords, if a lesser brand had been buying links on that scale they would have gotten blown out completely.  They still rank fine for anything with JC Penney in the query.
• This is clearly a manually applied penalty and Matt Cutts said as much.  I can’t remember another time Google pointed to a specific penalty and admitted it was manually applied.  Mostly in the past they have stood on everything being algorithmic to the point that it insulted the intelligence of anything that could fog a mirror.  Interesting they chose to point to manual on this one all of a sudden, might be a bit of branding change from we have the best results because of our algorithm to we have the best results because we work hard at it.
• JC Penney spends between $12 and $40k a day on Adwords, according to Spyfu.com.  Don’t ever let anyone tell you Adwords has a direct link to your organic rankings.

Good stuff. I could probably expand on each one of the points above, but I don’t want to get into SEO-specifics here.

My personal takeaway is this – it’s less about JC Penney knowing whether or not this was going on (but seriously, how can a company of this size not know what’s going on on this scale, especially with their monitoring and even warnings???). It’s more about the seeming oversight of not having an SEO expert in-house/on-staff in some form or fashion – someone who would have directed, caught, and presumably fixed the tactics. And more importantly, someone who is accountable.

This is one of the hurdles this (D/I)OOH channel/industry faces – a consistent champion, from the agency and brand side, who will be accountable. Right now, I feel like the (D/I)OOH industry is fed by brands/agencies who are risk-takers. This is still an emerging/experimental channel, not a tried-and-true one like online paid/organic media. But the problem is, when there aren’t specialists who can take responsibility of those tried-and-true channels like SEO, when will there ever be specialist who can champion channels like (D/I)OOH?

I know I’m being a little dramatic, but it does give me pause, especially when looking at a brand holistically, not just in the interest of one channel over the other. I think it’s our responsibility, as marketers/communicators, to understand how each of the channels work together – especially when emerging channels like (D/I)OOH & mobile are at play – and then provide counsel accordingly. As much as we can. We must do this. Our executions, particularly in the emerging channels, will be made stronger and more credible. And that’s what it’s going to take to become sticky, when reaching consumers while they’re out and about – strong stories from strong brands. Who consumers can trust.