For Digital Signage, Context is King.

Digital Signage has ushered in a new King, and that crown goes to Context.

This is because successful Digital Signage creates a contextually aware interactive digital experience for the audience. In this post, let's focus on what it means to be contextually aware.

What is Contextually Aware?

Print media is hit or miss and a 1 way push of information. You decide the message and push it out there hoping that it's the right message and still relevant by the time it's put in all of the places it's supposed to be. We've all seen out of date billboards and displays as we travel around and shop. It's one of the reasons why most print-based campaigns are typically overlooked. They have become noise and more often than not are not relevant or not relevant enough.

Additionally, recent studies have shown that one a piece of content is viewed for the 7th time, the human brain filters it out.  Therefore being able to change content frequently, even small subtle changes, is extremely important.

There are two levels of context.

• Situational Context: This is context that is based on what is happening at the moment.  It adapts to input or changes in behavior. An example of situational context is that I am looking at a particular type or style of clothing and the digital signage informs and directs me to the rest of the outfit, accessories that match, or other information that makes it easier to find or decide "what" to buy (not "if" to buy).  This is the mobile phone display that changes content based on what phone I pick up.  It also knows to show comparison information if I am holding more than one.

• Personal Context: This context is based on who I am. This is based on some level of familiarity about some aspect of my identity.  It could be as simple as recognizing my gender or differentiating an adult from a child.  It could get as deep my personal tastes and typical buying behaviors. This is digital signage that can differential me from you and the more it can derive about me, the more relevant the experience gets. It knows what I typically buy and let's me know of in-store specials or entices me to buy something that it knows I buy.  An example is a wayfinder digital sign with bar code reader.  If I scan my loyalty card, it can direct me to specials throughout the store that are tailored to me and my buying history.  iTunes does this all of the time on the web and it's time we experienced this in the real world.  Help me make the best use of my time in the store and it will result in more sales.

You certainly cannot do that with print media or even with what I like to call "Powerpoint on a stick".  That is where some generic marketing material is cycling on a monitor for the general audience and you can literally do that in Powerpoint.

Next we will look at the interactive nature of contextually aware digital signage and I'll elaborate more on "Powerpoint on a stick".

Thanks for reading.

Why I Hate The Term "Digital Signage"

It is what it is and when you live in France you speak French, I get it. I don't have to like it and that is the topic of this blog.

I have a heavy background in marketing, branding, and messaging. So words matter to me and so do names. They invoke feelings and feelings sell. They also make things more obvious or more obscure because of the image they convey.

A great example of the effect of a name in the movie "Ice Age 3 - Dawn of the Dinosaurs". A character, named Buck, was warning the main characters of a horrific creature to be aware of and avoid at all costs. He continues and mentions that the creature's name is "Rudy". Manny, the prehistoric mammoth responds with: "Oh good, I thought it was going to be something intimidating.....like Sheldon".

The point is that we respond to names.

Well, one name I hate is "Digital Signage". Why? Because it sounds like a digital poster. This is significant because too many people actually think of it that way! The world is littered with Powerpoints looping on monitors pretending to be digital signage. The name has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I wonder what "Mobile Digital Signage" would look like?

Digital Signage has so much more to offer than the name implies. It's about being interactive, contextually significant, engaging, and responsive. Signs can't do that. I raise that last point because too many people think that you design content for Digital Signage the same way as for traditional signs and the web....and they are wrong (but that is another post for another time).

What the world needs to be thinking about is creating digital experiences. Immersive, compelling experiences that invoke desired behaviors. Yes! Digital Signage is actionable.

Is a digital maniquin that helps you pick out outfits or suggest accessories, a sign? What about something that changes with the environment (time of day) and then changes the environment in response to that? Time to think bigger people.

However, what can we expect from people that thought that Digital Out Of Home (or worse, DOOH) was a good name? Yes, "dooh" is what Homer Simpson used to say....

Thanks for reading.

Will VUKUNET become the carat that gets the Advertisers to DOOH?

NEC display systems announced VUKUNET at the Digital Signage Show in NYC last week.

It is an interesting attempt at addressing a core issue with 3^rd party advertising on DOOH Networks. The fragmentation of the industry (both networks and vendors) makes it difficult, if not impossible, to push out advertising broadly across a large number of networks.

One of the things I’ve been hearing is that the major advertising agencies are conspicuously absent in the digital signage arena. Specifically, they are investing less than 2% of their customer’s advertising budgets on DOOH Networks. In short, the advertisers don’t have digital signage on their radar as a viable platform and therefore are not designing for or recommending it to their customers.

The fragmentation of the market is two-fold. The networks are fragmented (i.e. every company has their own network) and the solutions are fragmented (i.e. non-standard solutions, all of the vendors do it differently, and a lot of niche offerings).

The net result is that is that digital signage, as a platform, is missing out on the push and momentum created by the big dogs of the advertising industry.

If an agency decides that it want to include DOOH Networks in it's arsenal for a place-based advertising campaign, they could be faced with having to talk to 1,000s of DOOH Network owners and navigating across 200+ digital signage vendors just to make sure the content gets to where it needs to go and displays properly. That is a non-starter.

Why does this really matter? Simply stated, many of the DOOH Network owners are designing their own content and it shows. The resulting signage stinks and breaks all of the rules of successful signage. The campaigns fail or are marginally successful and are getting the reputation of banner ads. We need the agencies involved.

Hopefully, NEC can help address this with VUKUNET by providing a means to simplify bringing together the right advertising campaigns with the right displays quickly and easily. If you own or operate a DOOH Network, then NEC will help map the genome of your network by gathering relevant info that is important to advertisers and make it easier for advertisers to leverage your DOOH Network. As the DOOH Network operator, you can access a network of advertisers that are appropriate for your network.

Think of VUKUNET as a matchmaker or dating service for Advertisers and DOOH Network operators. Check it out.

Also see the interview with NEC's Mike Zmuda & Pierre Richer conducted by my good friends at aka.tv.

* Editorial note: Another disconnect is in the naming conventions. You say DOOH Network, I say Digital Signage network, and the Advertising Agencies talk about place-based advertising. Can you say "translator needed"?

Thanks for reading.