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A guide from Digital Signage Today

INSIDE: Digital signage has revolutionized business in the previous months

— and the best is yet to come. What impact will dynamic signage technology

have on your business in the next fi ve years? This in-depth guide will help

you explore the emerging issues and understand how this rapidly changing

technology is going to help your business grow. Plus, learn the results of our

exclusive State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey.

Sponsored by:

Digital Signage: The State of the Art and the Promise for the Next Five Years

Contents: Digital Signage: The State of the Art

Page 4 Introduction

Page 5 Part I | The basics

Chapter 1: An overview of digital signage

Chapter 2: Business models and business cases for digital signage

Page 15 Part II | Digital signage in action, by vertical

Chapter 3: Retail

Chapter 4: Banking/fi nancial

Chapter 5: Foodservice

Chapter 6: Transportation

Chapter 7: Hospitality

Chapter 8: Health care

Chapter 9: Government/public sector

Chapter 10: Corporate communication

Chapter 11: Education

Page 38 Part III | State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey

Page 53 Part IV | What the future holds

Mike Abbott, ADFLOW Networks

Brian Ardinger, Nanonation

Bill Gerba, WireSpring Technologies

Rob Gorrie, ADCENTRICITY

Rocky Gunderson, SeeSaw Networks

Jeff Porter, Scala

Nurlan Urazbaev, BroadSign International

Jeff Weidauer, CBS Outernet

Mike White, Multi-Media Solutions Inc.

Sponsors:

Published by NetWorld Alliance© 2008 www.networldalliance.comWritten and edited by James Bickers, senior editor Dick Good, CEOTom Harper, president and publisherBob Fincher, executive vice president and general manager, Technology DivisionJoseph Grove, senior vice president and associate publisher

Scala Inc. is the world’s leading provider of centrally managed digital signage software solutions that are reliable, easy to use, scalable and extensible, enabling customers to cost-effectively create and deliver targeted messages that inform, educate and motivate audiences. Scala’s innovative multimedia software platform powers thousands of digital signs around the world, including the digital signage networks of Rabobank, IKEA, Bloomberg, Burger King, T-Mobile, Virgin MegaStore, EuroDisney, Kiwi, McDonald’s, Warner Brothers, Shell, Santiago Airport and Ericsson. The company celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2007.

Digital Signage Today, operated by Louisville, Ky.-based NetWorld Alliance, is the leading online publisher of news and information on the emerging world of digital signage, dynamic messaging and cutting-edge business communication technologies. The content, which is updated every business day and read by professionals around the world, is provided free of charge to readers.

About the sponsor

A Guide by Digital Signage Today | DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE STATE OF THE ART | Sponsored by Scala, Inc. 4

IntroductionWhen you stop to think about it, digital signage is one of the most logical business tools a company can deploy. For the fi rst time, businesses are able to have complete control — mastery, even — over all of their media assets, marketing materials and public-facing content. In other words, it gives com-plete control of the company’s brand to the people who can make the most out of having that control.

It is no wonder, then, that digital sig-nage is roaring off, as Helen Reddy might say, in numbers too big to ignore.

Digital signage also represents a fun-damental shift in the ways businesses must think about their collaterals and their communications, and that makes it challenging. Companies have be-come very used to the systems and techniques they have honed when it comes to communicating with their employees and their customers. Ask-ing them to set aside those decades-old techniques and replace them with something entirely new is not some-thing to be asked lightly.

But properly integrating digital signage into a business environment gives managers the opportunity to create entirely new workfl ows, which often are far more effi cient than the ones they replace. Since digital signage re-quires an end-to-end network to reach its potential, it can work alongside other network applications and create

James Bickerssenior editor,

Digital Signage Today

possibilities for the sharing of data, reduction of “busy work” and more effortless communi-cation.

If you’re thinking about digital signage and how it can benefi t your business, know that you are not alone. We’ve compiled this guide to help you make sense of the many options available.

In Part I, we look at the basics: What is digital signage? What do you use it for, and how do you monetize it? Part II looks at some specifi c examples of world-class digital signage in action, broken down by vertical.

In Part III, you’ll see the results of our exclusive State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey. We’ve distilled the pertinent information from the 600 executives we polled about how they use digital signage now, and how they plan to in the future.

Part IV allows you to tap the collective wisdom of the industry. Nine leading digital signage experts have shared their thoughts on the ways digital signage is used today, where the un-tapped potential lies and what exciting things are on the horizon.

I hope this guide is valuable to you, and I hope you’ll drop me a line to let me know about it. I’d like to thank Scala, whose sponsorship allows us to provide this guide to you at no cost.

http://www.digitalsignagetoday.com/storefronts.php?sf_id=182


Part IThe Basics




I n a landmark Supreme Court case from 1964 (Jacobellis v. Ohio, for you trivia buffs), Justice Potter

Stewart remarked that although he couldn’t provide an iron-clad defi ni-tion of obscenity as it applies to the cinema, “I know it when I see it.”

Providing an iron-clad defi nition of digital signage proves to be less of a challenge, but, once again, seeing is believing. Semantics can be argued and hairs can be split about what, exactly, constitutes digital signage; but on the whole, it can be expressed in simple terms that are intuitively understandable:

Digital signage is any form of business communication where a dynamic messaging device is used to take the place of, or supplement, other forms of messaging.

Until very recently, this simply wasn’t viable or cost-effective. Screens were too expensive, too big and wore out too quickly. The return wasn’t strong enough.

But the LCD/plasma revolution changed, and is changing, all of that. Screens now are so affordable they can rival the printing costs of static posters over the course of time; they are thin and can hang on a wall (no more CRT units suspended from frightening-looking ceiling mounts); they can communicate with computer networks and fetch new content, eliminating the “sneakernet” days of

employees trotting from screen to screen with armloads of VCR tapes.

Some of the ways digital signage is used today include:

• In retail, communicating with cus-tomers about in-store specials, directing customers to other parts of the store, managing traffi c and hotspots, and conveying brand messages

• In banks, displaying interest rates and product information, as well as lifestyle messages and branding

• In airports and bus stations, keep-ing travelers up-to-date on arrival and departure times while providing an advertising vehicle for shops and restaurants

• In casinos and entertainment venues, creating a customer ex-perience that is consistent with the ambiance and atmosphere of excitement

• In doctors’ offi ces and waiting rooms, providing entertainment to bored patients while giving an ad vehicle to pharmaceutical compa-nies and other providers

• In schools and on corporate cam-puses, facilitating a level of commu-nication between parties that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago



And the list goes on. Virtually any place that has printed signage — bus shelters and payphone booths, shop-ping malls, the tops of gas pumps — has the potential to improve its worth with an upgrade to digital, dynamic messaging.

Despite all the progress that has been made, digital signage still is a very complex proposition for the company installing it. Mike White, president of systems integration fi rm Multi-Media Solutions, called digital signage “one of the toughest A/V installs in the world.”

Why is it so challenging?

On the surface, our defi nition might make digital signage seem like sim-plicity itself. After all, most everyone has a television set in his home and, in most cases, that set was installed by the person who bought it. Take it home, plug it in, turn it on — that’s all there is to it, right?

In the case of televisions and homes, yes, that usually is all there is to it, although even this is changing as the evolving nature of home theater becomes more and more complex. But dynamic signage in the business environment is exponentially more complicated, for a number of reasons:

• The content strategy usually needs to be tackled from scratch. Digital signage content has a completely new set of requirements; existing

media assets often provide a good starting point, but few of them can be reused outright.

• Content needs will vary across the enterprise. In all but the simplest digital signage deployments, mul-tiple screen sizes and orientations are used — and a 42-inch screen in landscape mode calls for very dif-ferent content than a 32-inch screen in portrait. The greater the num-ber of screens in the network, the greater the organizational challenge for content.

• Multiple networks might be in-volved. The most benefi cial digital signage products touch one or more networks. In retail, for instance, the signage network might be designed to communicate with the POS network, in order to gauge content effectiveness versus sales. But getting any two (or more) networks to communicate is an IT challenge, and it increases with the number of networks and nodes involved.

• Very different business disciplines are at work. Digital signage appears on the surface to be an IT project. And yet it also is a marketing initia-tive. The rub? It’s both, and calls for some real teamwork and sharing of duties.





Place is known. Because the location of any display will be known, this information can be used to make the content more appropriate to the place. If a display is near one particular product, the content on the dis-play can be crafted strategically with this in mind. For example, the content could promote that product or its benefi ts, create an appropriate mind set (ambiance, reminder) or promote a complementary product or service available elsewhere. Another aspect of “place” that is quite relevant is the fact that often a display is near the point of purchase. A great deal of research has shown that advertisements near the point of pur-chase are far more effective. Although the size of this effect and the explanation for why it happens are both controversial, it is clear that point-of-purchase informa-tion has a massive impact on behavior.

Time is known. Because a digital signage network is controlled by a networked content manager, content is “served” as a function of time of day. For example, content aimed at business travelers might be shown at an airport on Monday mornings and family-aimed content might be shown Friday afternoons.

Events are known. Information related to the fusion of time and place also can be known. For example, current weather conditions can be known. The traffi c

fl ow can be known. The specifi cs of an event can be known (concert, sale, fl ight delay). Such information — and its use — is limited only by the creativity of the digital signage network designers.

Audience is known. Because time and place are known, audience demographic and psychographic information can be well specifi ed. This allows for highly relevant “narrowcasting” that should speak directly to the audience at that moment.

Content is dynamic. Dynamic digital content has numerous advantages over other forms of advertising. Compared to print, the content creation/distribution process is more rapid and less costly. Also, the content can be customized and tailored “on the fl y” to each display device separately. Finally, the medium allows for animation and, in the case of kiosks, interactive opportunities.

(Excerpted from “Digital Signage Networks: Theory, Psychology and Strategy” by Pixel Inspiration Ltd., reprinted with kind permission.)

The unique features of digital signage networks




Whatever digital signage is and however you choose to think about it, it is important

to remember that it does not exist in a vacuum — it is a business process that will become a daily part of opera-tions the moment the screens are turned on.

Companies thinking about implement-ing digital signage need to carefully lay the groundwork, and this chiefl y consists of asking the big-picture questions: Why do we want to do this? What do we want the screens to accomplish? How will we judge whether they are working?

Most digital signage installations fall into one of four broad categories:

1. Sales augmentation: These screen networks take specifi c aim at increasing sales using digital mes-saging. Examples include “sale on aisle four”-type messages, countdown discounts (i.e., sales that will expire in a certain number of minutes), cross-sell messages located in strategic parts of the store and direct calls to action. While this type of display network is of primary interest to retailers, it is used in other verticals such as banking and foodservice.

2. Brand messaging: These net-works concern themselves with extending the business brand and enhancing the customer’s opin-

ion and experience of that brand. Examples include the in-store network at Target, for instance, which continually beams lifestyle messages (animations of happy people using and buying Target products). In the case of large retailers like Target, those mes-sages usually are planned to work in tandem with other advertising, chiefl y television.

3. Third-party advertising: This busi-ness model probably has received more attention than any other, because it speaks directly to ROI. Under this model, businesses that own or host the screens sell some or all of the screen real estate to third parties. Convenience stores may allow candy makers and beer companies to buy ad space on a rotator or a crawl; screens in public areas often are subsidized by ads for local restaurants and attractions.

4. Entertainment/customer engage-ment: Customers hate waiting in lines, and retailers long have known that if you give those cus-tomers something interesting to look at, they’ll feel as if the wait is shorter than it actually is (this is why tabloids are positioned near checkout lines in grocery stores). Digital signage can be used to ac-complish this “wait-warping,” pro-viding entertainment and lifestyle



content to catch the customer’s eye and improve his mood.

For No. 3, measurability is easy. The advertising model provides a built-in set of metrics that allow a deployer to determine how well the signage initia-tive is working: advertising sales.

For the other three, though, the busi-ness case is a bit tougher. Brand messaging and entertainment/cus-tomer engagement are long-term endeavors that are not as easily measured; both work on a psycho-logical level with the customer and the results might not be noticeable for some time, if ever. Deployers using digital screens for either or both of these purposes need to incorporate the signage budget and workfl ow into the overall business plan, and not expect it to “prove itself” as a silo.

Sales augmentation proves even trickier, because another layer of measurement is required. So you’re running promotional spots for a certain type of candy bar — how will you know whether those spots were effective?

The data exists in the POS sys-tem, but it will need to be stacked up against the playlist of the digital signage network to see what, if any, relationship exists.

Measurement and analysis: Ad-based messaging

Selling ad space on a digital sign is not for everyone. Many retailers will fi nd that they are better off sticking to retail, rather than trying to branch out into ad sales; others blanch at the thought of content from other sources appearing alongside their carefully developed brand. But in many cases, the model is a good fi t.

The growth of in-store media comes at a time when ad buyers are at a crossroads. Brands are experiment-ing with new media of every sort, looking for ways to staunch the bleed-ing caused by personal video record-ers (PVRs), ad blockers and a gener-al consumer “tuning out” of traditional advertising.

“Media buyers are between a rock and a hard place today,” said Brian Dusho of BroadSign International. “They are increasingly pressured by advertisers to research and buy new media, but doing so means spend-ing much more time and effort for less revenue than buying TV, radio or print, which is fast and easy for them.”

One common concern is the possi-bility of cannibalizing existing co-op funds — in other words, will convinc-ing brands to advertise on digital screens just cause them to reduce




the money they spend elsewhere in the store?

According to June Eva Peoples, vice president of business development for measurement software company DS-IQ, the answer is no.

“Most of the CPG advertisers we work with bring new dollars to the medium, often from a separate bucket dedi-cated to experimentation with new media offerings,” she said. “P&G, Uni-lever, Hershey and others have said publicly that they intend to expand the promotional money they spend in-store, reducing general broadcast dollars. We expect that manufacturers will bring a more rigorous cost-benefi t analysis to many areas of marketing, including media spend. This should benefi t in-store networks, which are measurable and have very attractive rate cards.”

Scott Templeton, senior vice presi-dent of business development for Intellimat, said retailers need to totally change their thinking when it comes to co-op money.

“Retailers need a frontal lobotomy to fi x how they look at this,” he said. “They are paranoid that a digital signage application may cannibal-ize their co-op money, yet they don’t know how much they are really getting and what percentage of their channel co-op dollars they are get-ting. If digital signage has proven to

be more effective than most other forms of advertising, why wouldn’t you want to shift some of your exist-ing co-op money over to it and sell more product? Selling more product with the co-op dollars you get is what gets you more co-op money next quarter or next year.”

Templeton, whose company sells ad space on fl oor-mounted displays, said digital signage is attractive to brands looking to spend their co-op money.

“The fact of the matter is, a digital signage network makes better use of existing co-op dollars, helps attract more dollars from existing pools and allows retailers to tap other pools of money that brands and product com-panies have. I have attracted brand and new product introduction money from Coke and Pepsi because I had a digital network and a proven track re-cord, and this was incremental money the retailer would not have received without the network.”

Dealing with media buyers

The ad-buying business is very differ-ent now than it was just a few years ago. While this obviously has much to do with new media, it is largely affected by one particular innovation by one particular company: Google’s search marketing.

“Media buyers have lately been under pressure from advertisers to buy me-dia that provides more accountabil-




ity and higher ROI than traditional media,” Dusho said. “When Google made their paid search marketing model transparent and accountable — you only pay for click-throughs to your ad, not for impressions — both media buyers and advertisers be-came excited and comfortable with it and started spending more money on it.”

“The No. 1 thing is audience,” said Bill Gerba, president of WireSpring Technologies. “The ability to hit a certain target demographic — and, more importantly, a large number of individuals in that demographic — is what media planning and buying is all about.”

To that end, screen deployers that want to court media buyers need to spend some time and money doing audience research, building a com-prehensive profi le of who exactly will be seeing the screens. That infor-mation needs to be distilled into a compelling media kit, that describes the entire value proposition of the screens at a glance. (See sidebar for more on being prepared for dealing with media buyers.)

For retailers, the potential client list is obvious: brands that are already sold in the store. However, this can create an interesting dynamic when the re-tailer sells competing products — for instance, a grocery store with its own private label foods.

For instance, if a given chain sells Nabisco cookies for a net margin of fi ve cents, but sells an equivalent house-brand cookie with net margins of 25 cents, it is in the chain’s best in-terest to emphasize the house brand. On the surface, this would seem to imply that courting Nabisco as an advertiser would be a bad idea.

Not so, says Gerba.

“When you look at the Nabisco brand as a whole and take into consider-ation all of the products under its um-brella, letting them advertise in store makes more sense, since it lends some brand authority to the store, and also primes customers to notice Nabisco’s other products, which might translate into incremental sales,” he said.

Gerba said his company is seeing retailers experiment with advertis-


What screen owners need to reach ad buyers – a checklist• A compelling media kit, fully describing the audience

• Third-party audience measurement studies

• Campaign success stories

• A list of repeat advertisers

• A competitive rate card

• Accurate proof-of-play and proof-of-performance reports

— Nurlan Urazbaev, BroadSign



ing packages — for instance, selling a distributor space on an entire end cap, which includes a screen, for a period of time. That package might include other types of in-store market-ing — fl iers, for instance, or a display at the store entrance — with one or more screens included in the mix.

“Think about how you communicate the total value delivered to advertis-ers when they place content on your network,” Peoples said. “The audi-ence, who are they? What is relevant to them? How does your audience refl ect demographics and behavior that might be valuable to specifi c ad-vertisers? Think about how to include measurement services that develop ongoing insight about how your cus-tomers respond to the network and specifi c kinds of campaigns, so that advertisers are buying more than eye-balls — they are getting intelligent, behavior-based targeting.”

Measurement and analysis: Brand, entertainment and promotional messaging

Companies often will use digital sig-nage to enhance their customer’s ex-perience, deliver branding messages and communicate with employees — with no advertisements to be found.

Even though there is no ad buyer to report to with such a network, good measurement numbers are just as necessary. And it is wise to begin

with some of the same strategies that apply to ad-driven networks — chief among them, the mandate to know your audience.

“People shopping stores are the same ones zapping out TiVo and blocking banners online,” said Laura Davis-Taylor of Retail Media Consult-ing. In other words, if you want to ef-fectively communicate with the people in your space, do so in a way that will not intuitively feel like an advertise-ment.

“The shopper is in a store,” she said. “Motivate them to buy, to engage, to explore a new product or simply make them happy. There’s a lot of powerful things that can be done to add value to the shopping experience.”

All of the actual methods of measur-ing customer activity that work for ad-supported networks also work for brand-driven ones, but the data is inferred differently. On an ad-driven network, a manager might look at the sales data for a specifi c product at various times of the day and compare that to the playlist to see when ads for that product ran.

For branding messages, that man-ager would look at specifi c business aspects emphasized in the digital content. For instance, suppose a sporting goods store loops a promo-tional spot for its free loyalty program. This playlist could be correlated with




POS data on how many new sign-ups were generated.

Some other examples of how data from an informational network can be read:

• A bank uses digital signage to loop through promotional spots for home equity lines, certifi cates of deposit or safety deposit boxes. After a month of running this particular playlist — long enough to establish benchmark data — one or more of the spots are switched out, and end-of-day sales results are com-pared.

• A quick-service restaurant shows combo meal specials on screens above the counter — and includes some sort of customer trigger (“Mention discount code XYZ to get a dollar off this meal!”). Not only is the “coupon” data captured, but the customer is trained to look at the screen from now on.

• An automobile dealer uses digital signage to convey branding mes-sages, emphasizing new vehicles and additional features. End-of-month sales fi gures can easily be correlated with the cars and fea-tures that were looped.

In addition to matters that are directly related to sales, measurement num-bers can help companies refi ne and improve their physical space and its

set-up. Traffi c data can be visually mapped to show “hot spots,” giving instant visual confi rmation of where people are most likely to linger within the store.

If the store’s signage content is com-pelling, red spots on the map (indicat-ing long dwell times) will align with locations of screens, enabling store planners to push the fl ow of traffi c to desired areas by repositioning the screens or adding new ones. On the other hand, if those red spots are not aligning with the screens, that could be a sign that the content is not reso-nating with customers.




Part IIDigital signage in action,

by vertical



Located in approximately 40 store locations in major cities throughout the Russian Fed-

eration, the Ramstore Retail Network deployment of state-of-the-art digital signage networks represents a new era for in-store advertising.

Ramstore Retail Network is a retail chain composed of shopping centers, hypermarkets and supermarkets. After two years of investigation and evalu-ation, Ramstore management settled on a contractor able to implement this new professional in-store TV platform.

Indoor Media TV (IMTV), a Scala-certifi ed partner in Russia, is the integrator and investor in the Ram-store project. To introduce this new media to the Russian market, IMTV produced the Interactive MediaTV for Ramstores across the Russian Fed-eration.

To initiate the deployment of the digi-tal signage network, Ramstore stores with high sales volumes and large customer volumes were identifi ed. Ramstores were deployed in Moscow and major regional centers including St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk, Kazan, N. Novgorod, Rostov, Podolsk and Zelenograd.

Interactive MediaTV Network was de-ployed in high-traffi c zones through-out hypermarkets, supermarkets and shopping centers. Content was designed to provide product informa-

Chapter 3: Retail

tion and video clips and incorporate promotional messages. In addition, local content, including news, sports and weather, is included at each POS location. To maintain relevancy, con-tent changes weekly and varies over the channel.

“The project represents a unique ad-vertising opportunity for the Russian marketplace, providing store manag-ers with a new vehicle to infl uence their target consumer audience,” said Tony Yammine, IMTV’s European chairman of the board. “We know that 75 percent of purchases are made at the point of sale, and we are expect-ing a sales uplift of 30 percent.”

The IMTV system, combined with Pa-nasonic LCD screens and the Scala InfoChannel platform, provides the complete solution. All media is trans-mitted simultaneously to all screens

New media is born for in-store

advertising at Russian Ramstore Retail Network —

IMTV-Russia.



using a satellite or an Internet con-nection.

“We are proud to announce that in the second quarter of 2006 the total number of displays for the fi rst phase of the project will reach 1,000,” Yam-mine said.

West 49 skateboard shops

West 49 is a retailer with an attitude. This skateboard, snowboard and surf shop provides customers with a laid-back atmosphere and a vast amount of gear and apparel. Recently, rollouts of several new stores have begun and many existing stores are having their looks updated. The look and feel of the stores are being tailored to the type of crowd that shops at West 49 – young, hip 12- to 20-year-olds.

Digital signage is a logical fi t in this environment, where most of the audi-ence is very technology-savvy. West 49 selected ADFLOW Networks to provide the company with an in-store digital media network that captures the attention of its demographic. ADFLOW Networks was selected be-cause of its ability to cost-effectively deliver in-store video to a network of point-of-purchase display screens and TV monitors, while simultaneous-ly delivering in-store audio through the existing sound system.

The Dynamic Messaging System gives West 49 the power to distribute messaging to all store locations, tailor it to the store display as needed and change it as often as desired.

Oftentimes, West 49 customers are buying skateboards or snowboards that involve some behind-the-counter work, thus requiring the customer to wait. ADFLOW was tapped to provide an interactive touchscreen entertainment system for West 49. The “Entertainment Centres” enable customers to watch and listen to skateboard video and audio content, learn more about what is happening at West 49 stores and receive promo information on products offered at each location, while they wait.

Chapter 3: Retail

Digital signage enables West 49

customers to watch and listen to skate-

board content.



Rabobank is composed of ap-proximately 1,363 indepen-dently operated local banks

throughout the Netherlands providing fi nancial services and products to the Dutch retail and business markets.

In its Dutch home market, Rabobank Group has 1.3 million members and 9 million business and private custom-ers and is the market leader in virtu-ally every area of fi nancial services. The company decided it needed a modern solution for attracting new customers to its local banks.

The Hulskamp Group BV, a Scala-certifi ed partner, proposed a digital signage network with plasma screens located in the bank and next to the bank’s ATMs. Each plasma screen would display short, focused ads about the bank’s varied products and services while customers waited to use the ATMs. The network would be managed from a central control loca-tion over an ASDL infrastructure.

In 2002, the project started with 25 local banks each outfi tted with plasma screens in the bank and at each ATM. As of 2005, more than 200 lo-cal banks were using the Rabobank digital signage system. Each screen displays high-impact short messages and ads focused at the local customer market.

Because each local bank is indepen-dently managed, standards had to be

Chapter 4: Banking/financial

developed to ensure the corporate message, position and image were maintained. However, local banks also needed to develop unique con-tent to deliver to their area of the country. New capabilities were added to accommodate the local needs of the banks.

Templates were developed by Ra-bobank corporate, in collaboration with Hulskamp Group BV, and re-fl ected the image and mission of the bank. Text fonts, logos and images were standardized and methods were developed to allow local bank man-agers to contribute to their in-house digital signage network.

Rabobank attracts new clientele with

datacasting network.



Over the period of the project, the installation rate grew from 20 screens in 2002 to 390 in 2005. Rabobank estimated that in 2006 the network would grow to more than 600 screens in local banks throughout the country.

To measure growth, plausible metrics were needed for a ROI justifi cation; Rabobank began measuring the number of users, the number of ad contacts per year and the maximum effective message length. Users grew from 28,000 to 43,000 over a few months. Previously, Rabobank was measuring 200,000 ad contacts per year. The maximum effective ad length was 10 seconds, reaching a minimum of 70 percent of viewers. Results showed that Rabobank was measuring 17,500,000 ad contacts per year.

To quantify its metrics, Rabobank calculated the cost of the network equaled 2.4 cents per ad contact, based on an initial investment of €5,000 per screen. Rabobank cites the advantages of the network as informative, modern and innovative. With screens running 24/7 in all local banks, the ad contacts attained far outmeasured the company’s tradition-al television ad campaigns.

As the system grows, Rabobank will use the same network infrastructure to communicate with customers and employees. Sharing the same infra-structure for training and customer-

facing brand re-enforcement provides a better ROI, as different startup costs can be spread across budgets of multiple cost centers.

Credit union enhances customer experience with live feeds

Since fi rst opening its doors back in 1976, the Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union (PSFCU) consistently has strived to offer the highest level of customer service to its ever-expanding member base, which has more than 68,000 customers. Pro-pelled by its desire to offer customers more, PSFCU contracted ADFLOW Networks to integrate digital signage networks into its store environments in lieu of static signage.

The digital signage initiative had to serve multiple purposes. The main objective was to improve the in-


Rabobank’sinstallation rate grew

from 20 screens in 2002 to 390 in 2005.



branch customer experience. Another key component was to inform custom-ers of the many products and ser-vices PSFCU provides.

By watching eye-catching, captivat-ing screens, patrons are entertained while waiting in queue, which helps decrease perceived wait times.

This initiative saw ADFLOW Networks install display screens in each of the PSFCU branches in the United States. The screens display live Pol-ish TV feeds, promotional content in support of marketing campaigns and other fact-based information relevant to members and staff alike. The digi-tal signage offers great fl exibility of programming, enabling content to be changed as necessary, depending on the time of day.

ADFLOW Networks confi gured the network so PSFCU would have the fl exibility to switch between a split screen (Polish TV, brand and product awareness content) and a full-screen feed of Polish TV, utilizing ADFLOW’s Dynamic Messaging System.

PSFCU installed screens at its cor-porate offi ce to monitor, manage and continue to promote the usage of in-branch digital media throughout the organization.

The network arms PSFCU with an enhanced brand experience, an inter-nal communications tool and enter-tainment for patrons. The benefi t is signifi cantly greater than that of static posters, which don’t have the fl exibil-ity or impact that dynamic messaging offers.

The Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union

deployed digital signage to improve the in-branch

experience and inform customers of products

and services.




McDonald’s patrons in the Philippines are enjoying a new taste at the chain’s

outlets — the taste of dynamic digital signage. McDonald’s joins the boom-ing multimedia-savvy corporations all over the world that have embraced the power of Scala’s visual communica-tions in the current era of technology.

Implemented and managed by Globaltronics Inc., a provider of digital media management services and systems, McDon-ald’s digital signage network sought to enhance the store experience and strengthen the chain’s branding exercise by keeping customers informed, entertained and educated with visually rich content. The sig-nage network also was aimed to enhance the customer shop-ping experience and ensure a focused message is delivered to its intended audience.

Powered by Scala InfoChan-nel, McDonald’s digital signage network runs in most of its outlets spanning the Philippines archipelago from metro Manila to Cebu and Davao City.

Most of the fast-food outlets are equipped with a 42-inch plasma screen (several locations have two screens installed) positioned mainly at or near the counters in the store and driven by one Scala InfoChannel Player.

Chapter 5:Foodservice

The digital content for all locations is developed and managed by Global-tronics, and remotely controlled from the Globaltronics Network Operations Center (NOC). The content is up-dated twice a week — or as often as necessary — for the entire network, selected outlets or sometimes specifi c individual outlets.

The media-rich content includes McDonald’s marketing and product collaterals, product promotions, video commercials and special announce-ments. Further revenue is generated from the sales of advertising space to McDonald’s business partners as well as third-party advertisers.

The management and control of the digital signage network is supported

McDonald’s digital signage

network runs in outlets from metro

Manila to Cebuand Davao City.



by an infrastructure comprising a proxy server installed at the main server that is used to distribute the content on McDonald’s WAN system. A 256Kbps VPN connection links the Globaltronics NOC with the proxy server at McDonald’s headquarters.

Restaurant integrates 12 screens of digital signage

Owned by Canadian restaurant brand SirCORP, Alice Fazooli’s Italian Grill is an upscale casual Italian restaurant chain with locations across the coun-try. The chain used ADFLOW’s DMS for a digital signage deployment in one of its restaurants.

ADFLOW worked with SirCORP to come up with a strategy for an in-store digital signage solution to broadcast sporting and other events and to make a signifi cant contribution to the atmosphere of the restaurant. The restaurant has a bar/lounge, but wanted to broadcast sports without giving it the feel of a sports bar.

ADFLOW’s solution was a video wall that was spread out across the back of the bar. The wall consists of 12 42-inch LCD screens arranged in a 1x12 format. The screens are visible from all parts of the restaurant.

ADFLOW supplied a technology that enables each screen to be controlled individually to broadcast sports or other live television. To add to the

atmosphere, ADFLOW partnered with Artisan Live to create content that could span all 12 screens. For ex-ample, one piece of content that runs at Alice Fazooli’s makes the screens look like an aquarium and features a shark and whale that swim from one side of the bar to the other.

Chapter 5: Foodservice

ADFLOW created a video wall for Alice Fazooli’s

Italian Grill.



Santiago International Airport deployed a large digital sig-nage network using Scala

InfoChannel offering those passing through the airport critical fl ight infor-mation combined with advertising via multiple channels and a video wall.

ViewMax, a Scala-certifi ed partner based in Chile, designed, installed and operates this large network for the Santiago International Airport.

Santiago International Airport, the main airport in Chile, has more than 7 million passengers passing through each year, 60 percent of whom are international. The airport has 115 service counters in its 90,000-square-meter facility and was chosen by passengers as the best regional airport by Asociación Internacional de Transporte Aéreo Latinoamericano (AITAL).

The airport decided that digital sig-nage was what it needed to improve the service experience of the passen-gers, modernize the infrastructure of the airport and obtain advertising in-come. The airport chose to leverage the combined expertise of Scala and ViewMax and the sales and market-ing expertise of Massiva to make the project successful.

A total of 281 42-inch Samsung plasma screens were deployed throughout the airport (domestic and international) in six channels: coun-

Chapter 6:Transportation

ters assignment, counters, boarding, baggage claim, arrivals and departure information, and pure advertising. In addition, a video wall of two 4-by-4 plasmas was installed in a strategic location of the airport for advertising and public announcements.

“The main challenge of the project was to improve the quality, visibility and design of the information pro-vided to passengers, and to generate revenue for the concessionary. After two years, our evaluation, as well as that of the passengers, has been very positive. We are very satisfi ed with the project,” said Antonio Smith de Aguirre, commercial manager for Santiago International Airport.

“We are very pleased with the evolu-tion of this complex digital signage project. The technology has proven to be robust and fl exible, and we are

Scala InfoChannel shows advertising and public announcements

at Santiago International Airport.



experiencing a sustained growth in advertising revenues showing the ma-turity of the new media. We are quite confi dent that at the bottom of all this, working closely with our partners at the Santiago Airport, we have devel-oped a strong business model that really improves the customer experi-ence of passengers, who were the focus of the project,” said Mauricio Carrasco, general manager of View-Max.

Nuance installs duty-free shops in Toronto Pearson Airport

To travelers, nothing is more impor-tant than getting where they need to be on time. This presents a challenge to companies that market their prod-ucts in airports, where most of the traffi c is hurried.

“Travelers do not have much time to browse, and, therefore, you do not have much time to infl uence their pur-chasing decision,” said Wayne Ruttle, vice president of digital signage pro-vider ADFLOW Networks. “The airport is a hustle-and-bustle retail environ-ment with customers on the fl y, and attracting their attention and trying to infl uence their buying decisions is tough.”

With 320 stores in airports, The Nu-ance Group is the largest global duty-free retailer in the world. In 2004, the company’s North American branch decided to install seven digital dis-

plays at its stores in Toronto Pearson Airport, in an attempt to catch the attention of some of the estimated 25 million people that pass through each year.

“The screens allow for vivid, animated visuals to be changed in a very short period of time, and also allow the fl exibility of updating and changing communications almost instantly,” said Mona Lee-Tam, Nuance’s North American director of marketing and promotions. “It is also more cost-ef-fective than updating traditional print media.”

The screens, connected to AD-FLOW’s media player hardware and Web-based content management system, serve two purposes: Some are mounted in store windows, facing outward to bring in traffi c, while the rest are situated strategically inside the store, strengthening merchandis-ing efforts and allowing the retailer to tap co-op advertising dollars.

Case in point: A key liquor supplier wanted to run a national promotion on one of its products within Nuance stores. It created a one-minute video clip and purchased a month’s worth of time on the in-store displays. The result? A sales record for that product during the promotion.

The screens also provide signifi cant operational effi ciencies for the re-tailer. Since Nuance has suppliers all




over the world, managing its media assets is no small task. But the AD-FLOW Web-based content manage-ment system provides the company with an always-open pipeline for incoming content, from anywhere in the world.

Ruttle said the Web-based system was one of the main reasons Nuance chose ADFLOW; the other was the fact that it offered an IT-free solution.

“Since their corporate network infra-structure was off-limits to any digital-signage initiative, our Web-hosted solution was ideal,” he said.

Growth is on the way for both the airport and for Nuance. Toronto Inter-national is in the middle of a 10-year, multibillion-dollar expansion and de-velopment program. By 2010, Nuance will have expanded its signage pro-gram to 36 display screens through-out the airport, all networked and controlled by the ADFLOW system.

“Millions of people every month will see the screens and react according-ly,” Ruttle said. “Digital signage works best when it is strategic in nature and designed to meet specifi c retail objec-tives.”




Carnival, recognizing the need to deliver information to its guests quickly and effec-

tively, decided to look toward digital signage, and the potential this form of communication held in enhancing guests’ “Fun Ship” vacation.

The challenge was to inform, enter-tain and enhance the guest cruise experience. In addition, recognizing the potential for advertising, a digital signage network provided a founda-tion to build an advertising platform. With the implementation of digital signage, other obstacles became ad-dressable, including reducing the wait time at information desks by supply-ing an alternate source of on-demand information.

The solution

Carnival chose Scala InfoChannel as the solution to drive its digital signage endeavor.

Scala InfoChannel powers a variety of Carnival Cruise Lines shipboard in-formation displays. From large-format 61-inch plasma screens to 32-inch LCDs, Scala InfoChannel adapts to a variety of display platforms, includ-ing several large-screen interactive kiosks, providing Carnival’s guests quick, easy access to large amounts of information. The touch-enabled digital signage kiosks are used by guests to access information about deck plans, onboard events, dining

Chapter 7:Hospitality

times, shore excursions and other port-of-call information.

Carnival Cruise Lines implemented Scala InfoChannel on its vessels in 2001, with the introduction of the Carnival Spirit. Since then, Carnival has deployed more than 150 units across the fl eet and has extended installations to the cruise terminals in a variety of embarkation ports. To run the operation, Carnival employs a group of A/V professionals dedi-cated to the installation, maintenance, programming and design of the entire network of units. All content updates are performed from the company’s Miami headquarters via satellite.

The benefi t

Guests now have quicker and on-demand access to vessel and cruise information. At the same time, the

Carnival CruiseLines uses digital

signage to provide guests access to large amounts of

information.



company is able to cross-promote other itineraries with further informa-tion about the Carnival fl eet.

“The goals of Carnival’s digital sig-nage network is to effectively inform, entertain and enhance our guests’ cruise experience,” said Tony Manthe, production and design manager for Carnival Cruise Lines. “Ultimately, our goal is to enhance our guests’ vacation experience. With the Scala InfoChannel product, we are able to achieve this objective.”

“Utilizing Scala InfoChannel, Carni-val is able to produce an industry-standard product, demonstrating to their guests that they are dedicated to researching and implementing avail-able technologies to better enhance every aspect of the customer experi-ence,” said Samantha Kelly, design and multimedia supervisor for Carni-val Cruise Lines.

Mohegan Sun Hotel & Casino utilizes digital signage in hospitality setting

The Mohegan Sun Hotel & Casino in Uncasville, Conn., has utilized digi-tal signage in a hotel setting better than most and may be the best in the United States. By using Symon Com-munications hardware and software systems, the hotel displays all meet-ings and events, along with marketing images promoting all of the its ame-nities. The information is presented

with cutting-edge graphics, in all of the public areas and on the guest in-room channel.

The hotel is implementing real-time scheduling information for bus sched-ules interlaced with traditional casino marketing of upcoming events and facilities. Implementation of wireless Symon digital appliances has enabled it to change and modify the locations of signage without regard to the facil-ity’s previously planned wired loca-tions.

In addition, it has integrated real-time point-of-sale meal order informa-tion with rich casino graphics in the food court area. For the majority of the facility’s 30-plus restaurants, rich graphics are mixed with the daily menus. The portrait LCDs mounted at eye level add to the friendly customer service attitude that the Mohegan is known for in the industry.

The entire digital signage experience is well placed around the complex with world-class fi xture design that fi ts very well into the theme and motif of Mohegan’s unique style.

Chapter 7: Hospitality



Monopoly Media, a Scala-cer-tifi ed partner, has enhanced its digital signage network

based on Scala InfoChannel, to 40 private medical clinics in Bucharest, Romania.

The network, named Clinic TV, was implemented to entertain and inform patients waiting for their medical ap-pointments. The objective of Clinic TV was not only to achieve a more modern image and improve customer service, but to generate revenue by allowing third-party advertising on the network.

Finding themselves in the clinic’s lobby and having an average waiting period of 15 to 20 minutes, patients are more than willing to be informed and entertained. The patients repre-sent a target audience for direct cam-paigns and brand advertisements.

Throughout all high-traffi c areas in the 40 clinics, 40 42-inch plasma screens and 32 19-inch LCD screens broadcast via a high-speed Internet connection.

“Since Clinic TV is a specifi c targeted channel, the nature of most content is medical and includes information on different diseases and their cures, medical tips, medical curiosities, an-swers to frequently asked questions, symptoms for diseases and so on,” said Gabriel Fafl ei, Monopoly Media general manager.

Chapter 8:Health care

“Also, the digital signage network is the perfect medium for third parties promoting different medical seminars, symposia, conferences and also advertising for medical products that do not require medical prescription,” he said.

Additionally, the clinic can distribute its own messages to patients. There-fore, the network can broadcast in-formation concerning the clinic’s fl oor plans and doctors on duty and also promote services offered by the clinic or special promotions. Monopoly Media plans to enhance the Clinic TV network in Bucharest and across the country.

Digital signage educates shoppers at Moroccan pharmacies

Impact Net in Morocco has deployed a Scala InfoChannel digital signage network at more than 100 pharmacies

Clinic TV operates in 40 private medical clinics in Bucharest,

Romania.



throughout the country. The Pharma Channel was created to offer a new digital and interactive advertising channel for pharmaceutical com-panies, focused on enhancing their sales.

“The most signifi cant challenge in this project was to convince each phar-macist to approve the implementation of all necessary equipment, including LCD screen, computer and Internet connection on their premises”, said Imane Mikou, Impact Net’s general manager. “While the equipment re-mains the property of Pharma Chan-nel, coupled with the fact that phar-macies in Morocco are independent and not part of a franchise network, implementation of Pharma Channel must be undertaken pharmacy by pharmacy.”

About 100 pharmacies in main loca-tions in cities such as Casablanca and Rabat contracted Pharma Chan-nel partners for a three-year period, with no charge for the deployment.

“This network is the largest Info-Channel network in northern Africa and consists currently of more than 100 InfoChannel players”, said Alain Bodenstedt, Scala’s regional execu-tive. “With Scala’s InfoChannel Suite, we are able to provide highly profes-sional, effective communications more quickly and effi ciently.”

The heart of the equipment package is the Scala InfoChannel software suite, which manages content from a central location and transfers the ads, or health-related information, via a Wimax connection to the points of

sale.

The solution was accepted widely by the pharmacies and, more impor-tantly, by the pharmaceutical com-panies. The content, mainly videos, is either created internally by Impact Net’s graphical team or provided by the clients. The ads are updated once a month.

“This initial deployment with more than 100 pharmacies installed within three months is proven successful,” said Mikou. “The clients showed their interest in having a wider audience through an extension of the network


Pharma Channel, deployed in more

than 100 Moroccan pharmacies, was widely accepted

by the pharmacies and pharmaceutical

companies.



to a larger number of prime sites, not only in Casablanca and Rabat, but also in other major cities throughout Morocco. Our goal is, therefore, to reach the critical number of 300 phar-macies by the end of 2010.”




When a natural disaster or terrorist threat strikes south Florida, the Offi ce of Emer-

gency Management for Miami-Dade County springs into action. The OEM coordinates all aspects of disaster management for Miami-Dade County, including the organization of fi re, pub-lic safety and medical services, traffi c situations and updates on shelters for displaced residents. To ensure that critical information is updated rapidly, OEM needed a software system that could display immediate changes. For this, OEM turned to Scala Inc. and Scala’s InfoChannel 200 soft-ware to update information without service interruptions.

Scala’s software is used to dis-play live information on fi ve plasma screens set up for specifi c sections of OEM’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC), each concentrating on a different element of the disaster. The EOC contains 72 seats occupied by representatives of each agency or function to ensure that the commu-nity’s needs are met. In times of peak emergency, 200 to 300 people — including government offi cials and the media — crowd into the EOC.

“We gather all the information to get a true picture of the disaster, assess the needs of the community and then distribute scarce resources,” said Bill Johnson, OEM’s assistant director. “Scala’s software allows us to re-spond to information as soon as it is

Chapter 9:Government/public sector

available — something that becomes incredibly important in times of disas-ter.”

The software is used to update the fi ve information service screens that include Miami-Dade County’s areas of human services, public safety, infrastructure and operations. Since response time is critical for the OEM, four operators collect and update details via keyboards and the data is simultaneously updated and dis-played on the screens.

Key areas include the capacity of all area shelters, public safety board listings of the location and hours of curfews, possible automobile traffi c issues, road and bridge closings and power and communication interrup-tions. The large operations screen provides the “overall snapshot” of

Five screens at the Offi ce of Emergency

Management for Miami-Dade County

focus on different elements of a

disaster.



what already has been done and future plans.

“It is essential for the people at these tables to know what the others are doing. So we have fi ve status boards that are continually updated,” John-son said.

“Prior to our use of Scala, we relied on fl ip charts and dry-erase mark-ers, pieces of paper and projection monitors. Having someone brush by a board and accidentally wipe off our disaster plans has been known to happen.”

Digital signage at the Naval Academy

Digital signage has been showing signs of expansion in America’s mili-tary, from on-base notifi cation to Navy ship command centers. Visitors to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., can fi nd some of the most im-pressive digital signage not on a ship, but in a museum.

The U.S. Naval Academy Lacrosse Museum, located on the base, boasts a 12-screen video wall in its main lobby designed to show the program’s accomplishments over the years. The display is divided into four separate zones that sequence through game footage and historical video.

The sequencing is done through a MediaXtreme server from Keywest Technology. The quad-head server can output different video to each of the sections of the display through a switching matrix, allowing footage to be shown on different sections at dif-ferent times.

The result is a more eye-catching display for visitors to the museum. Through use of the sequencer, three monitors can show video or display museum information, while the other nine screens run a constant video loop.

Chapter 9: Government/public sector



Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation in conjunction with Scala-certifi ed partner

Advanced AV of West Chester, Pa., implemented a digital signage net-work to connect the 15 buildings of the 200-acre Novartis campus in East Hanover, N.J. The network, running over the Novartis local IP infrastruc-ture, informs employees of company news, employee events and benefi ts.

Prior to implementing the digital communication network, the internal communications team distributing foam core posters throughout the corporate campus. Changing mes-sages was diffi cult and expensive. After a while, employees ignored the signage because it wasn’t relevant.

The solution for Novartis was a digital signage network conceived by Jim Morgenland, associate director of NPC Communications, and Kris Vollrath, CTS, director of Conver-gence Technologies of Advanced AV. The goal was to develop a corporate network that provided real-time com-munications between the company and its employees while increasing employee awareness throughout the company. Also, Novartis needed to fi nd a more cost-effective solution over its current system.

The Novartis digital signage network is composed of 18 40-inch Mitsubi-shi LCD screens in building lobbies, cafeterias and break rooms. The net-

Chapter 10:Corporate communication

work took approximately six months to implement, including developing relevant content consisting of 1- to 1.5-minute message loop cycles, implementing IT protocols and install-ing screens. Advanced AV performed the initial implementation work for Novartis.

While evaluating the effectiveness of the network, the communications team concluded the messages must be relevant to the employee commu-nity. Corporate news and business issues were not enough to catch the interest of their employees; the mes-sages had to be focused on the daily interests of the employees.

“The implementation of our network represented a signifi cant cost re-duction and provided Novartis with the ability to communicate with our employee community on a real-time

Novartis Pharmaceuticals

Corp. communicates with employees using a digital sign network.



basis,” Morgenland said. “Upon im-plementation of the network, the cost of designing and printing signs was reduced by 90 percent. Additionally, the cost of distributing and disposing of posters was eliminated.”

Adventist Health System: Support from the top

Adventist Health System (AHS) is the largest not-for-profi t health-care organization in the United States with 43,000 employees, serving nearly 4 million patients annually. When it decided to deploy a digital communi-cations application, the organization wanted to ensure that headquarters could maintain control of the corpo-rate message, but allow the local college or university to create and manage content relevant to the local campus.

AHS fi rst employed AxisTV in June 2004, and it is in the process of up-grading to the newest version, 6.0, which was launched in August. AHS corporate headquarters in Winter Park, Fla., purchased all software and hardware, and houses the central content server, which feeds displays at the Winter Park complex and six remote campuses: Andrews Univer-sity, Berrien Springs, Mich.; Union College, Lincoln, Neb.; Southern Ad-ventist University, Collegedale, Tenn.; Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences, Orlando, Fla.; Oakwood College, Huntsville, Ala.; and South-

west Adventist University, Keene, Texas.

AHS administrators keep the pro-gram balanced by partnering with the campuses in lieu of a top-down strategy. “It’s our product, but we see ourselves in more of a support role for the campuses. We don’t want to dictate to them. We want it to be use-ful and benefi cial to the campuses — not just a bulletin board for corporate messages,” said Anthony Vera Cruz, coordinator of corporate communica-tions at AHS. “The reason we prefer AxisTV to any other solution is that it’s so easy to use. With some basic training, you can put up a text bulletin in a matter of minutes. We’ve gotten a great response from the not-so-tech-savvy users.”

Corporate uses a 16-by-9 format on a single plasma in the lobby. Messages are delivered in a three-window plus crawl confi guration to 42-inch plasma displays at each of the six remote facilities, usually in the student cen-ter or cafeteria. Corporate uses two of these windows to deliver inspi-rational messages, recruiting news and photos of various AHS facilities. Local content includes bulletins, video programs, announcements, news, weather and event schedules.

“In the beginning, we published more of the content in order to show the campuses the potential,” said Vera Cruz. “Now the campuses are turning




over bulletins anywhere from every two days to rapid changes within a day.”

Every site has its own processes — some with individuals generating content and others using a team ap-proach, with faculty and students sub-mitting content. Andrews University uses the video window option to show its campus-produced news show, and Southern Adventist University has incorporated event schedule display. At corporate, AHS is exploring the use of its plasma’s picture-in-picture option to show CNN or Fox News with bulletins in the background.

“We really like the fl exibility of the system for the different sites,” Vera Cruz said. “It’s able to accommodate all types of users and uses. Instead of making our people fi t the product, the system adapts to our needs.”




T he Nanyang Technological University (NTU) became one of the fi rst educational institu-

tions in Singapore to deploy its own in-house network channel to serve as a dynamic visual communication platform for internal publicity and an-nouncements within the campus.

Implemented in June 2005 and named ChannelNTU, the system is based on the Scala InfoChannel plat-form. The network is managed and maintained by a small team of three to four staff members in the Center for Educational Development (CED). One staffer oversees the technical deployments; another staffer handles the design and content authoring, while another manages the schedul-ing. A fourth member is expected to join the team to manage the content coordination.

The multimedia content for the chan-nel is developed and managed using Scala InfoChannel Designer, with In-foChannel Network Manager sched-uling the transmission that is broad-cast to seven plasma screens around the campus. The CED team creates multimedia-rich content that is chan-neled to the screens in high-traffi c areas in seven locations with three screens in the cafeterias, two in the administrative building and the rest placed in the fi lm school and café.

ChannelNTU provides students, staff and visitors with content that includes

Chapter 11:Education

prime-time news and headlines ex-tracted with the RSS feed technology (currently in the experimental stage). The integration with the NewTek Tricaster Pro provides can broadcast live events such as graduation cer-emonies and freshman orientations.

Intranet streaming is made possible with the addition of the Windows media encoder that also provides live webcasts of distinguished speakers or visitors and Internet video casts. Student publicity announcements and trailers also are played on Chan-nelNTU. The channel fl ourishes as a platform for NTU and students’ pro-ductions to be aired and viewed.

The infrastructure for this solution in-cludes an audio compressor for audio normalization, an FM transmitter to manage noisy locations and remote software monitoring client to assess playback. ChannelNTU is controlled and centrally hosted from the CED using fi ber networks that connect the plasma screens throughout the vast

Nanyang Technological University broadcasts campus newswith ChannelNTU.



campus, which spans about 200 hectares with more than 50 buildings. The channel op-erates for approximately 11 ½ hours daily Monday through Friday, year round.

The deployment of the Chan-nelNTU network was imple-mented with the help of Click Grafi x, a Scala-certifi ed dis-tributor and system integrator for the Southeast region.

VT bookstore steps up to Intellimats

Students entering the Virginia Tech bookstore in Blacksburg, Va., are exposed to digital signs used for promotional advertising, but they’re not on the wall. Instead, the signage is on the fl oor in the form of the Intel-limat, a fl oor display system that sup-ports dynamic digital signage content.

The Virginia Tech deployment was part of pilot program for Intellimat. The mats were placed in several col-lege bookstores in hopes of increas-ing sales for logo apparel. The mats ran content that advertised sales and promotions. As a test of the screens’ effectiveness, bookstore owners gave away VT mugs that were advertised only on the mats, and received 133 requests for the items.

Sales also went up for VT merchan-dise. But the bookstore operators and Intellimat also found that, when

the screens ran content containing Virginia Tech football clips, customers tended to stop and pay attention to the mat for longer amounts of time.

Chapter 11: Education

The Virginia Tech bookstore features

the Intellimat, a fl oor display system.



Part IIIState of the Digital Signage

Industry SurveyDigital Signage Today conducted a survey of 600 executives, from companies that deploy digital signage and the companies that make it. Here are the results of that survey, showing how digital signage is used today, how it will be used in the future and which industries stand to benefi t the most from the technology.



Part III: State of the Digital Signage Industry Survey

4.3%

4.7%

49.6%

29.1%

3.8%

8.5%

More than 1,000

250-999

100-249

25-99

1-24

None

How many digital screens/signs does your company use across its entire enterprise?Not surprisingly, most of the compa-nies we interviewed are at the very beginning stages of exploration with regard to digital signage — nearly half of them have no screens de-ployed, and nearly a third of them have between one and 24 installed.

As material prices continue to fall, and as the business case for digital signage continues to emerge and become clearer, watch for these numbers to skyrocket. New construc-tion of business facilities, from retail space to offi ce parks, likely will be a hotbed of digital signage installations.




Are all your screens networked and capable of being managed remotely?One of the biggest strengths of digital signage is the ability to update con-tent across all screens from a central location — it represents the end of counting on employees to travel from location to location, changing POP materials and updating in-store pro-motions.

But surprisingly, most of the people we surveyed aren’t taking advantage of this — more than half of the re-spondents who use digital signage have their screens centrally net-worked. Instead, they are relying on “sneakernet” update methods, such

as manually inserting DVDs or fl ash cards at the screen level.

Sneakernet allows companies to save a little bit of money in the short-term, perhaps shaving a few pennies off of a digital signage project. But in the long term, it is unquestionably “pound foolish”; choosing not to network your screens guts digital signage of one of its strongest features. Deployers are advised to plan for connectivity from the beginning of a project, not count on going back and adding it later.




Are your screens plasma, LCD, projection or a mix?LCD is in the lead here, with more than half of respondents using the technol-ogy either exclusively or primarily. Projection still is in the minority, but watch for this number to increase in the coming years, as the technology improves and the unusual and interesting applications continue to proliferate.

13.8%

31.2%

Plasma

LCD

Projection

Mixed, primarily plasma

Mixed, primarily LCD

Mixed, primarily projection

Other

2.8%

12.8%

26.6%

4.6%

8.2%




Are your screens customer-facing or employee-facing?Most digital signage applications are designed to face the customer. This is no big surprise, but it points to an area of untapped potential. Those same screens can be used for employee-facing purposes, such as training sessions, “morn-ing calls” and internal communication. An added layer of effi ciency is realized when employee- and customer-facing screens are run from the same content-management platform.

44.6%

30.0%

Entirely customer-facing

Mostly customer-facing

Mostly employee-facing

Entirely employee-facing 2.7%

22.7%




For which of the following purposes is your digital signage network used? As we mentioned earlier, much of the attention within the realm of digital signage has been paid to the ad-sup-ported business model. But our sur-vey respondents are not using their screens primarily for that purpose — most of them are using the screens for brand messages and market-ing. Many of those same deployers also are delivering assisted-selling information; fewer than a fourth of respondents are running ads on their screens.

In the coming months and years, businesses will start to study the relationship digital media has on the customer experience they are trying to create. Advertising is a portion of this, but only a small one; the un-derstanding of how digital signage works in the business environment is an emerging discipline, with crucial discoveries on the way in the next few years.

66.3%

54.3%

Brand messaging/marketing

Assisted selling/product information

Third-party advertising

Digital menu boards

Wayfinding

Entertainment channel

2.7%

22.8%

16.3%

21.7%

13.0%




If you are using screens for advertising, what percentage of your screen space/time is budgeted for advertising content?Less than 10 percent of respondents entirely subsidize their screens with advertising. Once again, the notion of “hang screens on a wall, pay for them with ad money” is evaporating. The majority of respondents who are selling ad space are doing so in measured amounts, devoting between 10 and 50 percent of their screen time and space to third-party messages.

21.7%

100 percent ad subsidized

50-99 percent

10-49 percent

Less than 10 percent

Not used for advertising

16.3%

8.7%

10.9%

42.4%




Do you create the content for your digital signs in-house, use an external source, or a mix?Content is the lifeblood of digital signage, and many an initiative has failed because not enough time or money was budgeted for the ongoing creation of fresh content.

For many, the best strategy is to hire an external agency to handle all digital content; for larger companies,

such a relationship often already is in place to handle media such as televi-sion and radio. But most of our survey respondents use a mix of in-house and out-of-house content creation tal-ent, with only 14 percent outsourcing all of the work.

14.1%

We use a mix of in-house and outsourced content

We create all of our content in-house

We outsource all of our content

50.0%

35.9%




Which software platforms power your digital screens? This question may seem incidental and even trivial, given the fact that most deployers think of digital signage as an appliance. But the coming months and years will see a move toward integrating digital signage with other business networks, and at this point the software platform will become a key consider-ation.




Which software platform will become dominant for digital signage in the next fi ve years?Fifteen percent of respondents said they believe Linux will become a dominant platform for digital signage in the next fi ve years.

In many ways, Linux is an IT devel-oper’s dream — a robust and stable operating system that also is open-source. That means the IT team can

modify it to suit their exact needs. This is particularly useful for digital signage, as it allows developers to remove all of the unnecessary code — Windows, for instance, has scores of features that a digital signage net-work has no need for — making for a lean deployment code.




How many digital screens do you plan on adding in the next fi ve years?Of our respondents planning to deploy digital signage in the next fi ve years, most of them are taking a measured approach. Roughly one-third will deploy 24 screens or fewer, with 13 percent aiming for up to 100. Seven percent are do-ing massive deployments of 1,000 screens or more.

8.6

More than 1,000

250-999

100-249

25-99

1-24

None

7.0%

7.6%

13.6%

32.4%

30.8%




Overwhelmingly, the perception exists that digital signage is primarily a vehicle for retail — nearly half of the respondents said retail has benefi ted the most from the technol-ogy, and more than half said that segment stands to gain the most in the next fi ve years.

In Part IV of this guide, you’ll meet nine industry experts who were asked this very same question — and their answers vary, although many of them point to food-service, hospitality and travel as areas of major growth.

For now, the fact re-mains: In the minds of most people, digital signage is largely a re-tail technology. But that is changing, and the next fi ve years surely will bring an expanded awareness of other industries that stand to benefi t.

Which industry has benefi ted the most or stands to benefi t the most from digital storage?

Retail

Entertainment

Restaurant

Government/public sector

Financial

Transportation

Hospitality

Education

Hotel/motel

Trade show

9.5%

6.3%

53.2%

47.2%

9.1%

10.2%

7.1%

2.8%

5.8%

9.1%

4.9%

10.0%

4.1%

3.0%

2.4%

1.3%

2.2%

4.1%

1.7%

Which industry has benefited the most from digital signage

Which industry stands to benefit the most from digital signage in the next five years




Virtually everyone has a cell phone in their pocket or purse, and increasingly, those phones are able to do some pretty advanced things. Our respon-dents are aware of this, and most of them look to the cell phone as the harbinger of the next wave of digital signage interactivity.

Some companies already are tinkering with this notion — in-viting a viewer to send a mes-sage to a number displayed on the screen, for instance, and letting that viewer manipulate content through his phone. This is a very new application, one that is still having its kinks hammered out, but expect to see much more of it.

Our respondents also are interested in aggregate digital signage networks, which allow media buyers to place messages on far-fl ung screens from a single interface. The more screens an aggregator can pull under its umbrel-la, the greater its value to the buyer.

RFID

Interaction with mobile phones/SMS

Biometrics

Social networking

User-generated content

Aggregate for media buyers

5.4%

26.7%

13.9%

11.3%

37.7%

9.5%

4.8%

25.1%

15.9%

15.2%

22.4%

12.3%

Which technology will impact digital signage the most in the next five years

Which technology will impact digital signage the least in the next five years

Which technology will impact digital signage the most and the least in the next fi ve years?




To most of our respondents, digi-tal signage is primarily useful as a tool for conveying brand and marketing information. Truly, this is an instance where digital signage becomes just another part of an establishment’s physical presence — right alongside printed materials, store design and fi xtures.

Entertainment ranks low, even though it’s a very common means of populating screens. Looks like those businesses hanging LCDs on the wall to show CNN or Bloomberg content might not be getting their money’s worth.





Wayfinding

Digital menu boards

14.3%

11.0%

31.1%

24.9%

33.9%

36.9%

5.3%

10.8%

4.5%

8.4%

10.8%

8.4%

Which digital signage application has been the most successful so far, in terms of value to the deploying business?

Which digital signage application has been the most successful so far, in terms of customer acceptance/appreciation?

Which digital signage application has been the most successful so far, in terms of value to the deploying business and customer acceptance/appreciation?




Product selections get larger all the time, and the products themselves are increasingly nuanced and com-plex. Retailers know they will need to continue educating customers in a fashion that doesn’t feel like educa-tion — it will need to feel more like empowerment — and digital signage is a great way to deliver that educa-tion in an almost subliminal fashion.

A large number of our respondents see potential in digital menu boards, which have only begun to make an impression on the public radar. But once companies begin to see the incredible value and operational effi ciency that such menu boards provide, we can expect to see them in many more places. Watch for a drastic increase in digital menu board deployment in the next fi ve years.

22.4%




Digital menu boards


Wayfinding

30.7%

24.8%

11.8%

6.2%

4.1%

Which digital signage application holds the most potential for growth in the next fi ve years?



We sat down with nine industry leaders and asked them what the future holds for dynamic signage. Here are nine insights into the industry, a virtual roundtable with some of the brightest minds in digital signage.

Page 54: Mike Abbott, ADFLOW Networks

Page 57: Brian Ardinger, Nanonation

Page 59: Bill Gerba, WireSpring Technologies

Page 61: Rob Gorrie, ADCENTRICITY

Page 65: Rocky Gunderson, SeeSaw Networks

Page 67: Jeff Porter, Scala

Page 69 Nurlan Urazbaev, BroadSign International

Page 73: Jeff Weidauer, CBS Outernet

Page 75: Mike White, Multi-Media Solutions Inc.

Part IVWhat the Future Holds



Mike Abbott, ADFLOW Networks

Which industry (retail, fi nancial, restaurant, etc.) is currently mak-ing the best use of digital signage, on the whole?

The retail sector is probably leading in overall adoption of digital signage. Because they have the most wide-spread adoption to date, retailers have had more of a chance to ex-periment with the various elements of digital signage, including content strategies, screen size and place-ment and, more recently, integration into the overall retail store design. Many of these digital signage net-works have already delivered solid business results for retailers. With adoption increasing, costs decreas-ing and broader acceptance of digital media by customers, advertisers and brands, I believe that retail is cur-rently making the best use of digital signage, on the whole.

Which industry has the most potential for growing its use of digital signage?

Because the adoption levels are still quite low overall, all industry seg-ments, including retail, fi nancial, restaurant, hospitality, public places and corporate, to name just a few, stand to benefi t from deploying digital

signage in their businesses. These businesses will also benefi t from inte-grating digital signage with their other critical customer-facing and business communications applications, such as self-service, POS, loyalty programs, in-store music, corporate messaging and many more.

What are the biggest mistakes you’ve seen companies make with this technology?

By far, the biggest mistakes we have seen thus far are when companies deploy digital signage without clearly defi ned business objectives, along with a digital signage strategy that is linked to those objectives.

I like to use this analogy: It is hard to play a game when you don’t know the object of the game — or the rules of the game. Worst of all, you don’t know whether you are winning or los-ing.

The same thing applies when invest-ing in digital signage technology with-out clear objectives, measurements and defi ned success criteria. Without knowing these, it is hard to play the game — and maintain continued support for the investment. And that’s what digital signage is — an invest-ment. Companies that don’t see it this way will usually get it wrong.

Part IV: What the future holds



How open are executives and decision-makers to the benefi ts and costs of digital signage, rela-tive to a year or two ago? How have their attitudes changed?

We are observing a signifi cant shift in the thinking of executives and deci-sion-makers that we speak to, a shift toward much more open acceptance of digital signage and other media technology. Increased adoption, often by competitors, is helping to drive this shift, together with a growing body of research that supports the posi-tive impact of successfully deployed networks. When these benefi ts are combined with ongoing declines in hardware costs, the business case for adoption of digital signage has never been more compelling.

If there was a single misconception about digital signage that you’d like to correct in the mind of the business public, what would it be?

There is still a misconception among many executives and decision-makers that successfully deploying a digital signage network is a diffi cult, complicated task. The reality is that, with clearly defi ned objectives, a solid strategy and the right partners, it is simple. And it’s happening out there.

What emerging technologies are you most excited about?

I get the most excited about what I like to call “closed-loop marketing.”

Digital signage and interactive kiosk technology at the point of purchase, or at-retail, has the potential — when data is correlated and analyzed to-gether with other data such as traffi c counting, audience measurement, dwell times, customer interaction and, most importantly, sales data — to pro-vide what has forever been the Holy Grail of marketing: a cause/effect link between marketing messaging and actual results.

All traditional marketing media suffer from the same failing — an inability to accurately measure their effective-ness. Digital media has begun to offer closed-loop marketing — on the Inter-net and, increasingly, at retail. We all have seen the fi rst fundamental shift in marketing spend toward Internet and away from traditional media. Get ready for the next shift, from tradition-al media to at-retail.

Do you foresee any fundamental changes to this business in the next fi ve years?

I expect to see mass adoption of digital signage and related technology and signifi cant consolidation across the solution-provider community.

How long before digital signage is an established “must-have,” con-sidered to be just as essential as POP displays and POS systems?

I think we are already seeing evi-dence of this, in our informal discus-




sions with retailers and others in-volved in the retail store development supply chain. We are also seeing several studies that have identifi ed in-store media technology as the top priority for a growing number of retail-ers.

Mike Abbott is vice president and co-owner of ADFLOW Networks Inc., a provider of digital signage and interactive kiosk solutions. Abbott has more than 20 years of experience building leading-edge technology companies that deliver solid business value to customers across North America.




Brian Ardinger, Nanonation


Retailers are making great strides in implementing and innovating with the use of digital signage. From in-store branded media networks like Harley-Davidson and Nike that inform customers and enhance the brand, to interactive touchscreen networks that provide measurable interactions with products, retailers are utilizing digital signage to drive effi ciencies and im-pact the customer experience at the point of purchase.


We’re seeing growth in a number of segments with retail and fi nan-cial services leading the way. These industries offer growth because of the sheer number of customer endpoints and the different types of solutions that can be deployed, depending on the type of business and target mar-kets served.


One of the biggest mistakes is to start with the technology fi rst without an analysis of the business, customer

and environment factors that can affect the success of a deployment. Businesses need to understand why they want to utilize digital signage networks and match that with the customer’s needs and expectations. Other key pitfalls are to base a deci-sion solely on low price or to pur-chase a system that doesn’t allow for future fl exibility — whether it’s new media formats, interactivity or inte-gration into other data sources and networks.


Attitudes continue to change as new rollouts continue to happen and price points continue to lead to faster ROI. While there still needs to be contin-ued analysis and measurement within the market, it’s getting harder and harder to fi nd people who don’t think digital signage can be effective at driving sales and increasing effi cien-cies with the real-time messaging and measurement capabilities available with today’s technologies.


I think one of the key misconcep-tions is that digital signage is just




an ad-driven business. Customers rarely walk around thinking, “Boy, I’d like to see more advertising.” While there are a few ad-based networks that make sense, digital signage is about customer communication and creating environments that enhance the customer experience. It’s about integrating a variety of content and information in ways that make it easy and effective to interact with custom-ers in a public venue environment.


Technology triggers from RFID tags to cell phone-driven signage ap-plications will help create new ways to enhance and leverage existing signage systems. Other key technol-ogy advancements will come from the software used to deploy, monitor and manage these systems with en-hancements in everything from data integration, content management and measurement tools.


With the pricing on hardware and screens continuing to decline, the technology components of a digital signage network will continue to drop while the power and capabilities at the same price point will increase. We’ll also see a move to embedded screens that fi t into the environment

rather than simply a plasma on a wall.


I think we’re already seeing this. Virtually every new store deploy-ment or redesign is including multiple digital media technologies into their build-out plans. With companies real-izing both the increased effi ciencies in media deployment, messaging and execution of campaigns, com-bined with the impact on the overall customer experience, it’s becoming easier and easier to make a case for including these systems into a variety of environments.

Brian Ardinger is senior vice president and chief marketing offi cer at Nanonation, a soft-ware company creating customer experience technologies from kiosks to digital signage. Prior to joining Nanonation, he was head of research at Ion Global, a Hong Kong-head-quartered technology fi rm where he developed Asia’s fi rst dedicated customer experience lab to analyze and measure how customers utilized technology in their shopping and online experiences.




Bill Gerba, WireSpring Technolo-gies


While retail has received the most attention, I’d have to say that travel/transit centers have by far made the best use of digital signs. Airports and train stations are the only places I can think of where I actively seek out the screens to get vital information, and that, to me, is a sure sign of their ef-fectiveness and their success.

Which industry has the mostpotential for growing its use of digital signage?

Retail, health care, outdoor and corporate all look like strong contend-ers, but if I had to choose one, I’d say that corporate communications signage (for wayfi nding, announce-ments, safety, etc.) will be the biggest revenue-generator over the next two to three years. After that, the balance could tip in favor of retail and retail-oriented venues simply because of the amount of money being put into nontraditional out-of-home advertising right now.


The biggest mistake, bar none, has been companies with no ad sales ex-perience trying to deploy and mone-tize ad-funded networks. We’ve seen this happen in virtually every vertical from automotive to travel, and it is by far the biggest predictor of failure.

Similarly, many groups have a “build it and they will come” mentality where merely deploying the digital signs is suffi cient for achieving some desired result (like so many dollars of ad sales or some percentage of improve-ment in employee compliance). Of course, the ongoing management of the screens is absolutely critical in these cases, as is the management team’s ability to execute all of the other necessary components of the overall business plan.


I don’t think benefi t expectations have changed that much, but the costs certainly have. Lower initial and ongo-ing costs mean quicker and easier return on investment for our clients, and that makes it both more palatable for them to do pilot projects and more




likely that those pilots will turn into full deployments.


There are two that I frequently en-counter. First, it’s not TV. Really, it’s not. I don’t want to see your 30-sec-ond TV spot running in my grocery store because it was cheap and easy for you to get that content onto the screen. It does nothing for you (the advertiser) or me (the shopper). If you don’t have resources to spare on content production and management, (or you can’t rely on third parties to supply purpose-driven content for you), you probably shouldn’t be think-ing about a digital signage network.

Second, digital signs are a medium, not the end-product. By themselves, they don’t do anything. They need content, and they need to be kept fresh and relevant. Believing that the screens are the important part of the network is like believing that putting a bunch of blank posters on the wall is valuable. Without the content, the medium is pretty useless.


I’m pretty excited about interactive technologies. On one side, I see a lot of large-screen kiosk projects in the works, and, of course, these can be

used as traditional digital signs when not engaging a user. On the other, direct interaction with mobile devices continues to grow rapidly, and as more people fi nd themselves with smartphones capable of download-ing data and making transactions, I expect the level of interaction with out-of-home digital media to increase greatly.


As costs continue to fall, more com-panies will be able to experiment with different kinds of networks, and that’s likely to produce business models and applications that we haven’t even thought of yet. I think that’s the most exciting thing about working in an in-dustry that’s so young, is growing so quickly and has so many possibilities for synergistic applications (like with mobile and Web media).

Bill Gerba is co-founder and CEO of Wire-Spring Technologies, a retail media software and services company whose products have been used to remotely manage more than 8,000 interactive kiosks and digital signs around the world. An industry advocate since 2000, Gerba is chairman of POPAI’s Digital Signage Awards and a member of the group’s advocacy and education committees. He also maintains a number of industry news and analysis Web sites.




Rob Gorrie, ADCENTRICITY


In the short term (the next year), the health and wellness industry is where I’m seeing large-scale growth and demand because the audience mix is mature and in demand by a broad cross section of brands. It also pro-vides an environment and dwell time where existing creative assets (TV and Internet “commercials”) can work in a limited capacity without a large amount of repurposing. Regardless, the content will need to change go-ing forward for it to attain maximum effectiveness, but, short-term, people are willing to spend money in this channel.

Starting in the fall, the quick-service restaurant vertical may start to fi nally see pronounced growth and execu-tion, moving away from franchise-based trials to a more defi ned strat-egy and corporate belief that the medium can actually provide their patrons with value and entertainment. Some will follow the Canadian “Tim Hortons” model, wherein the content is purely Tim Hortons related. Oth-ers, however, are strongly evaluating third-party revenue models that sup-port the rollout. It will be quite inter-esting to see which QSRs support which philosophies.


There are a few mistakes I continue to see. Many new entrants, from re-tailers to advertisers, still don’t prop-erly set success benchmarks for their initiatives. It sounds simple and ob-tuse, but defi ning what success is will give you something to work toward and a true idea of if you’re going in the right direction. Ask yourself what you truly are trying to accomplish.

For third-party, ad-supported net-works, reliance on a 100-percent advertising model is destined for failure. You wouldn’t buy a maga-zine that was 100-percent ads. Why would you assume that consumers are interested in that? Spend some time understanding your audience and their needs and cater to them. This adds value to your network and attracts advertisers.

For brands and agencies, thinking this is TV and addressing it as such is a sure-fi re journey to failure. This model was attempted back in the late ’80s and early ’90s and was a cata-strophic failure — remember Check-out TV?

One of my advisors at Interpublic and an ex-CEO of one of the larger ad companies in New York said it best: “This medium (digital signage) has tremendous capabilities for clients,




but agencies need to take a new look at their approach. My suggestion would be to try holding focus groups with deaf people to understand how they are engaged in the real world by our work (creative/advertising).”


Capital expenditure cost and a lack of true, large-scale, ongoing North American success have ultimately kept digital signage from fl ourish-ing. Much of the commodity staples are now coming in line, which makes the actual fi nancial decisions easier. Most attitudes in our industry have changed from the blue-sky mental-ity of old to a more down-to-earth “I understand your problems/concerns and am here to try and address and fi x them.” This goes a long way to supporting a realistic conversation at the c-level and so attitudes have moved to really addressing how this will benefi t each stakeholder.

In addition, some of the larger play-ers, from Ingram Micro to Deloitte to Accenture have now entered the space. This gives buyers a sense of comfort and security that their deci-sions will be supported and rein-forced. Our industry hadn’t reached this credibility level until now, which meant that a large-scale decision

simply wasn’t feasible. No execu-tive will risk his company’s future or shareholder dollars without the “A-level” support of the a major partner; it’s the old saying of “No one ever got fi red for hiring IBM.”

Lastly, the advertising budgets and attitudes are slowly realigning, led by brand demand. P&G, Coke and J&J have all realigned dollars into shopper marketing and place-based efforts. This gives executives a more realistic idea that dollars from major spenders will be accessible to sup-port major rollouts. This didn’t exist even a year ago. No executive is go-ing to blue-sky revenue or be unreal-istic about a network’s income. Now that this has shifted, it makes the decisions a little easier to support and more worth the risk.


To speak solely from the advertis-ing/revenue end of the business, the message that needs to be sent out and corrected is that this medium is easy to buy, has supporting, ongo-ing success we can point to (even if taken with a grain of salt) and has reached a point of maturity and criti-cal mass, with enough infl uencers in the industry that are here to 100-per-cent support their varying needs to ensure they are successful.





Measurement technologies. The new breed of software and technology service companies that can perform empirical and undisputable analysis in a cost-effective manner on not only traffi c/audience but age/gender/race and “eyes on screen” have an oppor-tunity to transform not only the digital signage business but also the retail-ing, creative and media businesses. Coupled with smart consultancy and human analysis of what the data actually means and how to execute on it, we can start to remove some of the “black box” effect and complicity that some buyers see in our industry, allowing decisions and dollars to fl ow faster.

This level of maturity in quantitative analysis will help shed an enormous amount of light on how to really use the medium. It will likely be fairly disruptive to many; those who are responsible for spending the money will enjoy the transparency and new-found knowledge. This knowledge will yield different approaches to creative, retailing, promotions, screen integration and positioning, etc., that will only serve to benefi t the brand, retailer/environment and consumer stakeholders and let them maximize their success from the medium. The same technologies, however, may challenge some age-old beliefs and thought processes, which may have

signifi cant impact on how the industry sells and executes for itself, and may disprove some long-standing funda-mental approaches that have been used by some companies to date.


Retailing/environmental integration will become much more prevalent. There’s been so much learning that has been accomplished over the last fi ve years but very little action on a mass basis to effect change, espe-cially in many of the newcomers to the digital signage world, who have not had the benefi t of the past learn-ing that the industry stalwarts have grown through. Where screens are positioned, how they’re used to sup-port the shopper and environmental needs, etc., will become much more transparent and understood.

As that happens, people will stop simply slapping screens anywhere they please and start to truly integrate them into environments right from the “design” stage of retail and environ-ment planning. I have many friends in the location/retail “design” busi-ness and they are all acutely aware of digital signage and already using it in their “next-generation” and concept stores as a fundamental support pil-lar for their designs. It will take fi ve years to roll these environments out at scale, but they will make for very




enhanced place-based environments without looking like the digital signage was added as an afterthought in cer-tain situations.

Also, advertising formats and lengths will change. What is approached as a 15- or 30-second spot on a creative wheel will slowly move to fi ve to 10 seconds. It’s how the medium is cur-rently consumed by the audience, and if brands and creatives want maximum impact, the executions will have to go in this direction. Right now, I’m seeing 15-second spots as the norm across 14 different catego-ries of environment. Two years from now, I would hazard that that there will be two formats — six-second “ad-lets” and 15-second “ads.”


I think “must-have” is over fi ve years away if you’re talking holistically. Digital signage doesn’t work in every single circumstance. It may be ap-propriate for a retailer’s “A” stores but not their “B’s” and “C’s,” the same way POP displays are sometimes only bought for “A” stores. We have to be very careful about how we position this between the retailing/advertising and sales/marketing circles — digital signage is appropriate for both (above the line ads and below the line sales) so to classify it as the same as POP

or a POS systems doesn’t fully do us justice in the same way that calling it TV or a static billboard doesn’t do it justice. In addition, networks have to understand that not all venues are equal — even inside a single retail chain. Retailing happens in classifi ca-tions of stature — A, B and C environ-ments. Buyers don’t necessarily want all of your venues and you would be best to focus on the retail environ-ments that the retailers themselves consider their “A list” stores and markets.

Rob Gorrie is president and founder of AD-CENTRICITY, a digital signage media service that helps brands and media buyers make strategic media buying decisions and effective media spends on the digital signage medium. Previously, he was head of interactive and in-teractive point-of-purchase at Gorrie Marketing, and prior to that he was president of an online advertising and marketing fi rm for 10 years.




Rocky Gunderson, SeeSaw Networks


Retail (grocery) has the most experi-ence with digital signage and from an endemic product perspective, linked into POS systems, can provide direct measurement to advertisers. Grocery has also done a good job of deploying different networks in different zones of the store and, therefore, providing a more relevant experience for their customers.

Evolving in the QSR space there appear to be some best practices where companies have combined digital menus with queuing theory and relevant ads and content to help manage the busy consumer through the line, while supporting the servers in describing specials and new items on the menu.

We have good progress in hotels with digital management of conference rooms and events that support those conferences; there has been good use of kiosks in hotels, that support functions such as check-in/checkout, boarding pass printing and gen-eral information distribution. Health clubs, with the addition of interactive screens on cardio equipment, can now provide users with targeted work-

outs, relevant business and entertain-ment content, access to e-mail and relevant ads, adding even more value to the busy executive’s workout.


Transportation, QSR and general retail hold the most potential, as they are key parts of what we call “life pat-terns.”


The biggest single mistake people make is thinking that this is a technol-ogy business. Consequently, content oftentimes is the most under-invested area of digital signage networks.


Newer entrants are extremely recep-tive while many legacy operators are less receptive. The new entrants are studying the market and looking for best practices before they deploy. They are choosing to build from a best-of-breed model rather than at-tempting to be good at everything. At-titudes are largely driven by hope and fear. Currently, hope is winning.





That it is largely an entertainment medium. It is, in fact, an informational medium — which gives it substantial-ly more credibility as an advertising/marketing medium than an entertain-ment medium.


Mobile interfaces to increase func-tionality of both signage and the devices themselves — a highly symbiotic proposition. The sum will be greater than the parts. Additionally, measurement technologies will add credibility to the industry and drive up CPMs that will support more invest-ment in measurement technologies.


Far more interactivity, real-time mes-saging and more robust analytics. We may see signifi cant market consolida-tion.


No medium is closer to the point of consideration or point of purchase. Additionally, digital signage offers

fl exibility and adaptability relative to the real-time conditions of each loca-tion. Therefore, no medium should have greater value to a company try-ing to sell their wares. This media will begin its “hockey stick” growth curve by the summer of 2008.

Rocky Gunderson is founder and vice presi-dent of marketing and network development for SeeSaw Networks. Prior to starting SeeSaw, he was a CEO and senior marketing executive in hardware and software businesses in the retail, supply chain and manufacturing sectors.




Jeff Porter, Scala


In the United States, retail petroleum (gas pumps), menu boards, banking and health care are growing at the highest rate. Corporate communica-tions and educational networks have long been very strong, and continue to be so.


Based on sheer numbers, retail pe-troleum has the greatest potential. Its only rival will be vending machines, but this market has yet to signifi cantly take off.


Content is where the majority of mistakes are made. Some classic mistakes are advertising Charmin toilet paper while waiting for your food at McDonald’s and having Donald Trump advertise All brand laundry detergent at the deli counter with a Bloomberg-style crawl. Clearly, the wrong message at the wrong time does not work.


I have never seen the level of activ-ity in the industry as it is today. The CAGR is about 60 percent, which is quite high, but I have a feeling we’re just at the knee of the curve. Certain sectors in certain geographies are growing more rapidly. For instance, we have a network of over 350 phar-macies in Poland, but no major chain drug store in the U.S. has deployed anything signifi cant to date. I claim that Europe is easier to deploy since each country is in smaller “bite-sized chunks,” whereas in the U.S., critical mass requires an order of magnitude or more in terms of size (and capital expenditures).


Traditional media folks in the U.S. are slow to catch on to this new medium. Digital signage is not TV. It’s not print. It’s not a billboard. It’s not the Web. It’s this new thing. You need to change your mindset when devel-oping effective content for this new medium. The old television paradigm doesn’t work here. The dwell times are different, and often sound is not an option. In addition, you must have




a dynamic platform to be able to sup-port differences in pricing per region or store, as well as product mix. Playing the same video in all stores just doesn’t work. Snow blowers are never offered in New Orleans, for instance.


Interactive digital signage has some great potential to further give viewers a more customized experience. I also think that “mini-digital signage” will make a big difference as soon as the pricing is within reach. I also believe that more and more screens will be-come IP addressable with computers built in, and not just a dumb display.


I do expect some consolidation in the industry in the next fi ve years. We’re already starting to see that now. Also, as the next generation of media buy-ers “come to power,” I think that they will be more accepting of this new media, and not fear the risk of try-ing this. The prevailing attitude will change from “we’re looking into it” to “of course we’re doing it.”


Probably fi ve to 10 years, depending on the vertical. Some markets are maturing faster than others. Some countries are embracing this sooner than others. For instance, many east-ern European countries have com-pletely skipped the 20th century in terms of technology. They went from Cold War to 21st century in one step.

What is going to be your com-pany’s primary focus in the coming years?

I expect that the Far East will show dramatic increases in the next fi ve years, perhaps even over taking the U.S. or Europe.

Jeff Porter is executive vice president of Scala Inc and has been employed by Scala in various capacities since 1994. Porter also serves on the board of directors for POPAI, the global association for marketing at-retail, where he serves as chairman of the digital signage group. Prior to Scala, he was employed by Commodore International, where he was responsible for worldwide product develop-ment of the Amiga computer, the world’s fi rst multimedia computer.




Nurlan Urazbaev, BroadSign International


Retail, digital outdoor billboards and cinema advertising are defi nitely at the forefront of digital signage ap-plications. The growth in all three segments is organic, driven by rev-enue from selling network airtime. In the past few months, there have been several major developments in the above fi elds:

• A new study by Deloitte Consult-ing revealed that in-store media is growing at a faster rate than Internet, mainly due to the rapid expansion of digital signage. What’s impressive is that the ad money started fl owing into in-store adver-tising “despite the fact that market-ers have yet to fi gure out how to defi ne, measure or administer their shopper-marketing efforts.”

• Procter and Gamble, the world’s largest advertiser, has restated 11 years of ad spending data to in-clude in-store media, among some other nontraditional media, as part of legitimate expenditures in its nearly $8 billion budget.

• Digital billboards are leading the expansion of out-of-home advertis-ing. A new study by Pricewater-

houseCoopers projects continuing double-digit gains for billboards into 2008, spearheaded by the growth in digital boards. Although the ad space inventory levels are increas-ing rapidly, the demand remains high and so are the rates. Soon after these projections came out, the Federal Highway Administration ruled in late September that digital billboards were “permissible,” which further boosted the installation of new digital faces.

• According to the Cinema Ad Coun-cil, ad spending in movie theaters grew 15 percent in 2006 to $455.6 million, driven by strong ticket sales and the digitization of ad content distribution.


The mistakes I have seen boil down to one big mistake: the lack of con-tent strategy (or the wrong content strategy). It seems obvious, but many entrepreneurs seem to overlook the unbending logic: defi ne what return on investment you want from deliver-ing your message to a given demo-graphic at a given type of locations; research the dynamics and the state of mind of the consumers at those locations; all that will let you defi ne the type of content to be used, the content loop length for each area, the slot duration, lines of sight, screen




sizes and types for each area at the location and all the supporting tech-nology and infrastructure. You get one of those elements wrong and the whole enterprise can go awry. We are seeing many examples of digital signage businesses that fail because they ignored these basics.

A few weeks ago, I saw that my bank branch had replaced the old TV sets that used to broadcast fi nancial news (mostly talking heads, without sound) in the waiting areas with slick LCDs. I have been back there several times since then, but I still have no idea what is advertised or promoted on those screens. By the time I reach the ATM or a teller, I see only a small part of a slowly unfolding ad, or a weather update (I’ve just come in from the street, so I already know what the weather is like). Plus, the background music is so annoying that I am con-sidering changing the branch, or even the bank. The whole installation is not only a huge waste, but a detriment to the bank’s core business. It also proj-ects a bad image of the industry.


I think the attitude on the part of investors and advertisers has shifted dramatically. As I mentioned before, marketers started to divert advertis-

ing and promotional budgets into digital signage without even waiting for the standards and metrics to be introduced; and the lack of those was previously cited as a key obstacle to the imminent “ad dollar tsunami.” So the challenge for the networks now will be how to keep those marketers satisfi ed, and for that, they will need the standards and metrics anyway.


I like this question. I would name the misconception, still lingering among traditional agencies and media buy-ers, that “digital signage is like TV.” This leads to the next misconception that this medium should be measured like TV (e.g., in CPM and GRPs) and priced based on those parameters. However, digital signage is probably anything but TV, except that it uses similar-looking screens, and it offers unique capabilities that are unavail-able to TV advertisers.

Unlike broadcasters, digital signage operators can remotely distribute different content to each screen in a network and make sure each screen is on and playing what’s scheduled, while viewers have no control over the screens. These differentiators open up an unprecedented capacity to report the proof of placement and measure the real effect of program-




ming. Proof-of-placement data, com-bined with audience measurements, gives you accurate “impressions,” but these are only the fi rst levels of ac-countability. Long-sought parameters such as “cost per transaction” and “cost per action” are going to be the next standard metrics made possible by the digital signage technology.

In other words, digital signage offers a way to take a branding message that originates in TV campaigns and do the “dirty” job of transforming it into an actual sales pitch and bringing it to a close, so it’s a totally different medium that should be planned and measured in a different way than TV.


Digital cameras that capture every instance of a customer looking at the screen, the duration of eye contact, the age, gender and ethnicity of the viewer. The most exciting thing for me is that all this data can be reported in real time, then stored and used for content effectiveness analysis. I am also excited about different ways people will be able to interact with screens.


Yes, I do. Media space of numerous digital signage networks will be ag-gregated, standardized and packaged

by consumer profi les and geographic markets. Buying a national campaign on digital signage will be as easy and fast as buying a national TV campaign. Standard and easy-to-use reports will be instantly available for post-buy analyses.

All TV will be digital and most house-holds will have DVRs, so “total mar-keting” will become possible. I mean an integrated campaign following the consumers from their couch to their commuting route (via mobile devices and digital billboards), to their laptops or desktops and to the “fi nal 10 feet” to the product at a retail location, via digital signage. It will be as close to the advertisers’ paradise as it can be.

Many people are concerned about the proliferating “ad creep,” but, paradoxi-cally, the digital and targeted nature of advertising will help eliminate a lot of clutter and marketing waste. And because of the high measurability and accountability of future digital signage, its CPM rates will surpass those of TV and radio and will keep rising, especially in the narrowly tar-geted upscale niches.


Two to three years.




Nurlan Urazbaev is director of marketing for BroadSign International. With BroadSign since the company’s beginning, Urazbaev also worked as a reporter, radio executive, entrepreneur and owner of a media consulting company.




Jeff Weidauer, CBS Outernet


That depends on your interpretation of “best.” Retail doesn’t currently have the screen count of some other areas (e.g., restaurant, fi nancial), but that’s changing rapidly. With the tremendous customer count that retail outlets have, primarily supermarkets, this medium is poised to change the advertising world in much the same way that the Internet has.


Retail is where the action is going to be, particularly supermarkets. Cus-tomer counts help drive viewership numbers that rival major media pro-viders, and the engagement level is above that of in-home media. Shop-pers are interested in the content on the screens in-store, and unaided re-call is greater than that of television.


Assuming the viewer is a “captive audience.” The shopper always has choices and alternatives, and she will vote with her feet if she feels forced to watch content that isn’t relevant.

Tied to that is the danger of not focus-ing on content. No matter how many screens are installed, if the content doesn’t engage the viewer, then the number of screens doesn’t matter, because no one is going to watch.

Also, not enough thought given to screen location. There are many factors in this decision beyond just getting power there. Areas of natural dwell time, where the shopper can linger as long or as little as she likes, are critical.


Many executives remain skeptical, but the tide is turning. The benefi ts of OOH digital are being proven again and again by numerous providers, and this medium is now too big to ignore. More and more companies are dedicating a percentage of their media budgets to investing in digital at retail.


That this is just another TV.





Bluetooth and other interactivity en-hancements; mobile marketing and the ties possible to digital at retail are very exciting in terms of tying different media together in a consistent pre-sentation that benefi ts the advertiser and viewer alike.


Consolidation of providers. This will be ongoing until a small (fi ve to seven) group of effective network providers remain.

More interactivity with viewers, rather than just one-way communication. Developing a dialogue with shoppers is going to be a signifi cant change, but we haven’t begun to understand the possible benefi ts that will be avail-able as a result.

Greater use of digital OOH as a main-stream medium. Digital at retail won’t replace other media, but it is quickly becoming a standard component of well-rounded media plans.


Two to fi ve years. But closer to two.

Jeff Weidauer is vice president of marketing for CBS Outernet. He has been involved in retail for nearly three decades. As director of brand advertising for Supervalu, he created the

vision for the current Supervalu in-store media network, overseeing all aspects of strategic development and expansion, along with con-tent creation and management throughout the chain.




Mike White, Multi-Media Solu-tions Inc.


Before that question can be answered from my perspective, one must defi ne digital signage or at least establish a minimum use of the digital signage technology and a measurable strat-egy to invoke infl uence as a basis for saying this organization is using digital signage. To some, tuning a TV in their retail store to MTV or in a restaurant to ESPN is defi ned as digital signage; to others, it is the use of large LED displays on the streets of Vegas to showcase entertainment venues.

To most, I believe, it is somewhere between those two extremes. With those thoughts in mind, I am con-fi dent that the retail industry has invested more in digital signage than any other industry, followed closely by the restaurant industry. I would also follow that statement by saying that the retail industry has seen more failures than any other group, as well, and that serves as one of our biggest challenges.


The retail industry has the most potential for pure growth by volume, but other industries, I believe, will see faster growth by percentage of adop-tion. I believe that corporate America and its investment in digital signage for employee communications, way-fi nding, announcements and branding will see very signifi cant growth, as well as gaming and the museum verti-cal. Restaurants will continue to grow, with most of the large players sitting on the sidelines waiting for one of the other large players to implement a network and see if it succeeds.


The biggest mistake I see consis-tently is they see this as a hardware IT-based solution with a little content. Digital signage is so much more than just hardware or software or content. It is a living organism that must be fed and must be maintained. To me, the biggest mistake is made up front, by end user and integrator alike, in that they do not look at the whole picture and base their decision on what they hope to achieve or accomplish with their network, rather than looking at the hardware or software as the solu-tion. And I am not trying to delegate those items as unimportant, but to just say, without putting everything together, the network will just join the long list of failures and hurt the industry.





There are so many great technolo-gies that are emerging in support of digital signage that to point to one would be short-sighted. I will mention just a few: small form-factor players (PC/MAC/appliance RISC-based), fl at panels that support connectivity with Cat 5 and include integrated play-ers, directional audio and content-management software that continues to become more fl exible, user friendly and cost-effective.


With the larger corporations and larger networks, I see more of this be-ing brought in-house instead of work-ing with an integrator or even a direct reseller of digital signage systems. I see more traditional A/V integrators, fi nally recognizing the opportunity and making the investments necessary to successfully support the growth that is most certainly going to happen. I see advertising and marketing organi-zations that have shown resistance to the technology openly embracing and some even hiring resources to imple-ment their own digital signage net-work solutions. I don’t think they have a choice. I also see more and more digital printing companies, recogniz-ing the opportunity and engaging as an integrator.



Organizations and their leadership are indeed more open and better educated; regretfully, their education often comes from the IT perspective (a box solution that can be bought cheap). Please understand that I am not negating the very important role that IT plays, and their wisdom and support is required to make a suc-cessful digital signage system, but IT leadership must support the other el-ements of the digital signage network, or it will most certainly fail. This open attitude is based on positive results that are being published, which was not available even last year. In a simi-lar fashion, they can also read about the failures and they are asking better questions.


Successful digital signage is not a box; it is not a software; it is not content; it is not the network deliv-ery system; it is not someone in the organization having ownership and responsibility for the success of the digital signage system. It is all of these working in harmony.




I know everyone keeps saying, “It is going to happen this year or at the latest next year.” My personal opin-ion is that it will continue to see rapid growth, and successful digital sig-nage networks will be become more common, but I don’t see this any dif-ferent than the adoption of video tele-conferencing. For years, it has been speculated that it is the year of the massive upswing in VTC. And yes, there has been signifi cant growth and it will continue, but because of the investment and basic change in the way people do business, I believe it will, like digital signage, just continue to grow and grow and grow. But I do not see a specifi c day, month or year that we can point to and say, “That was the year it exploded.”

Mike White is president and CEO of Multi-Media Solutions Inc., an 18-year-old audio visual systems integration company based in Knoxville, Tenn., with a major focus on digital signage. White sits on the board of governors for Infocomm International and on the dealer advisory committee (acting as its board) for USAV. He is a nationally recognized speaker at many industry events.



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