A new industry trade association has been formed – the Digital Signage Federation - and an interim Board of Directors was announced today. The interim board is formed of:
Phil Cohen, President & CEO, Care Media Holdings
Rich Cooley, CEO & Founder, Visser Digital Media
Alan Brawn, Principal, Brawn Consulting, LLC
Laura Davis-Taylor, Vice President Global Retail Strategy, Creative Realities, Inc.
Jack Sullivan, Senior Vice President, Out-of-Home Media Director, StarCom World Wide
Jennifer Bolt, Executive Director, Media Services & Innovation, Tracy Locke Advertising
Bob Stowe, Director, Marketing Services, Wendy’s International
Carre Dawson, Director of Business Development, DS, Harris Corporation Broadcast Communications
Bil Trainor, President, Capital Networks Limited
Brian Dusho, President, BroadSign International
Ken Goldberg, CEO, Real Digital Media
Pierre Richer, President & COO, NEC Display Solutions Americas
It’s a really diverse, talented mix of industry experts who want to provide a unified approach and voice to the industry. This is a good step in the right direction, politics aside, for the digital signage industry to advance consistently and credibly. I look at it as a big positive.
And then, reality set in. More like, the Blackberry started exploding. We are planning a HUGE program for one of our clients at South by Southwest, which is in 2 weeks, so needless to say, there is LOTS to be done.
So, I missed out on part of the next phase of the tour, which was in the new City Center. This place makes the Hard Rock look like small time. The scale is simply amazing. It’s an $8.5 billion “megaplex” full of shops, casinos, hotels, condos, restaurants, a standalone convention center, and even comes with its very own Fire Station. Ridonkulous.
Even more, and this is what I’m talking about ”scale,” – these guys operate over 300 digital screens in this complex, but in their network, beyond the City Center, there are over 1,000 screens that they operate – all via 1 control system. All different sizes. Some digital. Some interactive. Some for slots. It’s crazy.
I smiled with satisfaction, extending kudos to my previous co-workers, when the guys at Aria Resort & Casino (our primary stopping point) talked about the hardware they use for each one of the screens. Mac minis. Which is what we used for our interactive solutions. They’re great devices - powerful, flexible, with a small footprint.
I was really impressed with their team. They only have ~11 on staff that run this entire operation. They custom build applications. They implement and run one of the most recognizable digital signage networks in the world on the Las Vegas strip. They think about measurement (they track what people are interacting with and for how long) and they’re even thinking about future iterations.
I missed the part of the tour where they take everyone around to all of these different screens and let them play with them. You know, the fun part. Something that I could have done all afternoon. But actually, I don’t know if I could have, because honestly, it was all so overwhelming, coming off of the experience at Hard Rock, into Digital/Interactive Signage World. I had a hard time digesting everything.
I played with one of their interactive directories, which I found to be a bit confusing:
And they had these digital placards outside of their conference rooms, but they were not interactive:
Digital menu boards. Digital advertisement screens. Digital marquees. Digital slot machines. Interactive wayfinders. Interactive directories. If you want it, they’ve got it – at least digitally. And that begs the question to me, is it needed? Are digital menu boards needed? My friends, Phillip and Seth, both had strong opinions that they are not. I think I agree with them. But then I think, is it OK to do digital just to do digital? Once the infrastructure is set up, there are many benefits, regardless of placement, purpose, or interactivity. So, I can see value in it. Especially when everything else is digital. If their only digital solution was a digital menu board, I would think differently. But when you have your whole City wired, of course, you’re going to have digital menu boards.
This, I believe, is a great look into our future. A real future where technology is incorporated in everything all around us. I didn’t own one thing that I interacted with today. But the interesting thing was, while I didn’t need to own the device from which the experience originated, I wanted (and needed) to use my own device (mobile, Flip) to share the experience.
And I think that is a very important piece to this puzzle.
I’d like a number 10, 20, 28, 34 and a Super-Session to go, please. To those of you going to the DSE next week, these numbers probably mean something to you. To those who aren’t going, these are the sessions that I plan on attending. Here’s the rundown:
Session #10 – How They Did It: Three Real-World Models for Successful Communication-Based Digital Signage Networks - Representatives from Reuters, a college (John Marshall Law School), and a medical facility (Mayo Clinic), discuss their DOOH networks and installations. All of these seem like they’re fully integrated into their respective businesses and have clearly provided value back to their audiences. I hope they’re able to cover their different expansive installations, the thought and buy-in that had to go into each of them and then ultimately, how they each look at success. It will also be interesting to know what they think the future of DOOH looks like.
Session #20 – Creative Tactics for Integrating Digital Signage in Different Environments – This looks to be all about innovation, particularly in various approaches to a wide range of OOH environments and how to best incorporate digital/interactive signage into them. A Dallas-comrade, Steve Gurley, from Symon Communications here in Plano, is on the panel. We’re going to get together for coffee afterwards. I’m looking forward to meeting him and learning more about his company. They provide all sorts of DOOH solutions, including multiple interactive solutions.
Session #28 – Integrating Multi-Channel Strategies: A Roadmap for Digital Cross-Platform Success - This is the session that interests me the most. Primarily because it is one of the sessions that I think is closest to my specific interests – making the 5th Screen (digital signage) into the 11th Screen (through the use of all sorts of enabling technologies). I think they’ll probably discuss the incorporation of mobile into digital signage more than anything else. But I’m also interested in it because Stephen Randall of LocaModa - the man behind the company that brought us Jumbli and LBS-integration-into-digital signage - is on the panel. The other dudes on the panel are no slouches, either.
Session #34 – Trends in Interactive Gestural and Touch Screen Applications – Now, we’re talking. “You will learn how organizations such as the Official NYC Information Center and MIT SENSEable City Lab are using advanced touch-sensing and gesture control technologies to bring a whole new dimension to interactive user experiences.” It’s going to be sweet. Enough said.
Super Session – Digital Out-of-Home’s Future - I can’t go to the premier Digital Out-of-Home conference without attending the session where industry leaders discuss its future. It’s the one that has the biggest potential of let down, though. These types of sessions can be so general, especially in an hour. But I’ll be there.
Then, throw in a couple of coffee meetings, a few on-floor workshops (including one by Keith Kelsen, visionary in digital signage), and a “mixer” here and there, and my calendar is pretty much full.
Oh, and there’s work, too. That doesn’t stop.
It will all be busy, but really good.
Is there anything you’re particulary interested in learning about digital signage or the industry? Let me know and I’ll do my best to get it answered.
A week from right now, I’ll be in Las Vegas for the Digital Signage Expo! I’m really excited to go and see all of the advancements that have been made in the industry in the past year. I was there last year and saw some great products and met some great people. I expect this year’s event to be a positive evolution on all fronts.
I have been reading the DSE’s Q4 Quarterly Business Barometer, and it only enhances my excitement about next week, and in broader terms, the future of the industry. If I were to give you my condensed recap, it would go something like this:
Digital Signage/DOOH is here to stay. Despite the economic climate of the last year. Despite the oversaturation of providers and networks (which have been consolidated, but more is needed). Despite the lack of clarity in measurement. Despite the lack of integration with media companies and agencies. And despite the fact that most marketers misunderstand the capabilities of “digital signage.” 38 pages in 59 words + 1 acronym. Not bad, eh?
My projection for 2010 is even shorter & simpler:
We will continue to see digital signage in our environments around us. This form of communicating (and connecting) will not go away. Only the strong will survive, though. And “digital” just means display technology. “Interactive” will be the new “DOOH”. (39 words + 1 acronym)
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.
I’m a little bit late to the game because this particular solution has been out for quite some time. It’s worth more attention, though, albeit not-so-timely. These boys know how to do it. True 11th screen material. They built the world’s biggest multi-touch, multi-user wall at a race track complex in Germany.
I’ve developed a guide that helps me look at solutions like this – 11th Screen solutions, if you will – in a consistent manner. It’s not a measurement tool, by any means. It’s not designed as a magic formula to produce quantitative results. It’s simply designed to help me look for the same components across all kinds of IOOH (11th Screen) solutions. It’s my attempt at leveling the playing field in an area where the field is far from level. For each “criteria,” I simply give a PASS or FAIL.
So here, we’ll use the Ring Wall to inaugurate the official 11th Screen perspective. Understand that I have not interacted with the wall in person. I’ve only watched demonstrations. My comments about the wall are made entirely from observation.
Purpose – What is the purpose of the solution? Is it to drive awareness? Acquisition? Loyalty? What is the brand trying to accomplish in this medium?
In my mind, this is the most important question to ask. It should define the exact solution. Brands can do one thing through a billboard and something entirely different through a kiosk. More often than not, I believe that brands utilize the OOH medium as an awareness-only medium. I think there is always an opportunity to drive consumers deeper into the brand, even from the biggest “awareness-driven” installation – a standard billboard.
Here, the Ring Wall looks like one big awareness machine. It enables many users to experience information, but it’s the same information for every user. There is no “deep dive” for data capture, personalization, or even an extended experience.
11th Screen Score: If the objective was awareness, I don’t know how they could have done any better. Taking that assumption into account, they PASS.
Drama – Does the solution make a big impact on the user? Does it make them stop and interact?
Since everything we’re talking about is interacted with in the physical spaces around us, it must have some drama to it to entice people to interact. This can be accomplished a number of ways – the physical installation, its movement, its content and its call-to-action.
The Ring Wall has an immense amount of drama. First of all, it’s huge, the largest of its kind. Second, gesture-based technology allows content to move with the user as they walk by, engaging them without even a touch. I think where it falls short, if any place, is providing the user a clear call-to-action. It might seem simple to have a big “Touch Me” call-to-action rolling throughout, but I think intimidation is still a big barrier with acceptance and use of most touch screen installations. The clearer you can be with the action you want the user to take, the more success you should have at breaking down that barrier.
11th Screen Score: I don’t know how much more dramatic one can get. PASS.
Usability – Can the user navigate through the experience with ease? Are the paths to information intuitive? There’s also an element of functions, too, but I think that is much more subjective. Do the functions enhance the user experience?
The biggest killer to any touch screen installation, once the user starts interacting with it, is not knowing what to do and/or how to get to the desired information. It’s critically important that foundational elements like content grouping(s) and navigation hierarchy are intuitive. Herein lies the challenge though. Old website standards are most often not applicable because interaction in this medium is so open, non-linear, and tactile. Navigating a website with a mouse on a computer is different from navigating a website with your finger on a touch screen. It’s vital to understand the audience when concepting and creating an experience like this. You and I might be able to walk up to this wall and use it effectively, but would our mom or dad?
Here, the Ring Wall’s user interface seems to be intuitive. The navigation looks to be consistent with a standard website homepage (primary navigation at the top, eye level with 3 callouts below the main content area) and as a result, clear. Also, the user has multiple ways to navigate in the experience. They can use the scroll wheel above the gallery to navigate as well as the FORWARD/BACK arrows on the main images. It doesn’t hurt that every ‘panel’ displays the same UI, too. And the functions look fluid and cool :)
11th Screen Score: It’s hard to give a definitive score in this category without touching it and using it myself. From the interactions I can observe, it looks to have a good user experience, thus PASS.
Interactivity – How does the user interact with it? Is it gesture-based? Is it touch-based? Can the user interact with it through any other enabling technology?
This consideration is really an extension of Usability. But whereas the Usability consideration focuses more on how the content experience is laid out, the Interactivity consideration focuses on how much effort is required to interact with the physical experience. If it’s gesture-based, how responsive is it based on the user’s interaction? If it’s touch-based, how responsive is it based on the user’s touch? If it requires an enabling technology, how easy, instant and accurate is it based on the user’s actions? This is the second biggest killer to any touch screen installation. If it doesn’t respond to the user’s touch, the user will either give up or get upset. Either way, they’re not going to interact with it anymore. (And they might tell their friends not to interact with it. And their friends might tell their friends and….anyway, this is food for another post.)
The Ring Wall is both gesture-based and touch-based. When the user walks by, the wall seems responsive. When the user touches the screen, it also seems responsive.
11th Screen Score: Again, it’s hard to give a definitive score in this category without touching it and using it myself. From everything I can see, PASS.
Information – How much and what kind of content is available for the user to interact with?
A system like this is set up to be an endless well of content. I think this is good as long as the user isn’t overwhelmed with that content, meaning they don’t have to see everything “behind the curtain.” Let them know what they’re going to expect and how to get there and leave the rest to them. Drive them deeper into the experience instead of away from the experience. A critical element of this is the type of content in the experience. The Ring Wall includes a good combination of copy and rich multimedia content (images & video). And the video looks like it plays fluidly.
11th Screen Score: There looks to be a deep well of information for the user to interact with in one experience. PASS.
Personalization – What level of personalization does the experience provide?
In my observations over the past few years, this is the one area that I am the most underwhelmed with. The opportunity that we have in this medium, and really the opportunity that I feel has been the least capitalized on, is the level of personalization to the experience. On the surface, any multi-user touch screen includes a level of personalization that allows each user to have their own, unique experience. But on a deeper level, the content is the same for every user. The opportunity that I see is for all of that content to be customized for each user. Simply put – everyone sees what they want to see, even if they don’t know what it is they want to see. And they don’t see the stuff that doesn’t matter to them. This level of personalization requires some level of data gathering from the user, which is always touchy, but can enhance an experience greatly.
Perhaps another way to look at this is ‘does it account for various stages in the relationship process?’ Does it accommodate someone that is interacting for the 1st time? Or the 3rd time? Or the 30th time?
Here, the Ring Wall doesn’t seem to have any personalization built into the experience. It treats everyone the same, whether they are interacting with it for the 1st time or the 30th time. There is an opportunity to personalize each experience, though – be it through a couple of “preference” questions or a higher level of technology like RFID, each user could have an experience most suitable for them.
11th Screen Score: FAIL.
Overall, I just think this is awesome. Major kudos have to be handed out, not only to the development team, but to the clients themselves. They get it. To take the leap on technology like this (both hardware and software) is remarkable, not to mention that the decision was made a year and a half ago, well before the idea of DOOH and/or IOOH was halfway mature, certainly on this scale. It’s combinations like this, with both forward-thinking marketers and clients, that are going to create a new level of interacting with each other and our physical spaces around us that is the norm instead of a novelty.
What do you think of this thing? By “thing,” I really mean the wall, but I’d love to know your thoughts on the scorecard, too. Do you feel like anything needs to be shaped differently on it? Added to it? Just like the space we’re in, I expect it to evolve as we look at other solutions. Comments gladly accepted.
So, what is the 11th screen, you ask? Here’s my simple answer:
In technology terms, we consume and engage with media through different “screens.”
1st screen = big screen (cinema)
2nd screen = TV
3rd screen = computer
4th screen = mobile phone
5th screen = digital signage
And I would add a 6th screen = everything else.
This “everything else” bucket is so big and contains so many different types and ways of consuming and engaging with media, I don’t think it’s fair to just call it the 6th Screen. It could be the 6th, 7th or 8th Screen, really. In this bucket, everything seems to be changing every day, in large part due to technology and in larger part, due to great, progressive thinking. Mini turns a standard billboard into a real-life LA Story experience through the use of RFID. Spore turns a poster into a mobile coupon with QR Codes. And Microsoft turns tables into deep, social shopping experiences with their multi-touch surface tables. These are all examples of the types of engagement that have been and continue be created in this bucket. (We will explore many more.)
So, I bring you a different, much larger bucket and in the interest of staying ahead of the curve, I will call it the 11th Screen.
I woke up dreaming about the blog yesterday. Then, today, I woke up dreaming about Twitter. Very anxious to get this thing up and running, this new “brand.” Even when I’m not sleeping, my mind races. Who am I talking to? What am I trying to say? Who do I want to form a relationship with? What will my voice be? What kind of information will be within my “boundaries”? On and on and on. You name it, I’m thinking about it. In sleep and while awake. Talk about anxiety.
So, now, I’m breathing. And doing. Wait no more. The time has come. I’m getting it out. And this is it – the 11th Screen.
The set-up:
I’ve spent the last four years of my life helping develop and implement a piece of software that is used in specific locations (like conferences and events) on technology that users don’t own (like touch screens). When we initially started the process, we knew these two requirements, but didn’t fully understand their effects. Nor did we understand the breadth of the opportunity that was staring us in the face. Once we got into it, we based everything on these two insights:
These events occur outside of the home (OOH) in an environment where the audience is a) captive and b) doesn’t have any form of personal technology (like computer) to interact with, other than their mobile phones. (At the time, smart phones weren’t what they are today – both in technology and penetration.)
These events require attendee registration and result in each attendee receiving a name badge, all of their registered, personal information packed away in a 2D or 3D barcode.
As far as the software is concerned, the 2nd insight drove its differentiator. The system can scan badges, store the information immediately and track every action back to an individual user. On top of that, the system can handle an unlimited amount of brand content. The differentiator is tying the data together with the content real-time. So, everyone who interacted with this experience could receive a custom presentation based on the data that we knew about them or gathered from them real-time. It’s really cool, but that’s not the point of this blog….
As far as this blog is concerned, insight #1 opened up a door for me that I have fallen in love with. Again, at the time we were developing this, Digital Signage – or Digital “Out of Home” (DOOH) – was in its infancy (some would say that it still is, but it still gives you a point of reference. I think it’s more grown up now, but still has a long way to go.) so we felt like we were discovering something revolutionary, certainly discovering unchartered territory.
Well, we really weren’t.
But we were on the front lines of creating innovative, interactive out of home (OOH) experiences. Which brings me here now.
I have been to more conferences and events than I care to admit over the past four years, observing what others are (or in this case are not) doing with “digital signage.” And while digital signage is starting to take off and get a little bit of attention, interacting with that signage is and has been virtually non-existent. Of course, there are examples like this and that and the other thing, but talk about something in its infancy. These can be considered more experiments than anything else, certainly not something that brands and people are comfortable with enough to accept. Certainly not something that will take significant portions of budgets right now. But we are getting there. I truly believe it.
Everyone is hoping big things for mobile this year. I’m hoping big things for interactive out of home, which in large part, is tied directly to mobile. I think industries will make great strides in connecting people with brands and each other through enabling technologies – like mobile, like touch screens – this year. So, while I may be a little late (try YEARS) in starting a blog, I feel like this is an appropriate time to join in the discussion.
I can’t wait any longer…
NOTE – I no longer work for the company that I helped develop the software for. I have no affiliation with the software either, other than to wish it great success.
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