Madonna's Digital Signage Debut
Anything to get some industry "buzz." Noventri touted that Madonna was showcased on one of their digital signage network. It reminds me a bit of when Helius did some co-branding with the Blue Man Group. Although, in Helius' case, I think the Blue Man Group was all about the cross-promotion. I do not know what Madonna's opinion was on the subject. I do know that David Haynes had some interesting thoughts about the ordeal. A portion of the press release stated:
"Madonna performed at the Minute Maid Park on November 16, 2008 for her Sticky & Sweet Tour. Noventri's Content Creation and Management Team, who continues to create and manage content for the stadium's menu boards, created digital menus that featured Madonna and her tour with a video feed that encapsulated the live concert to prevent fans from missing any part of the show."I'm not really a Madonna fan myself and personally would not want my brand sitting alongside someone who has a reputation like hers. That's just me. Still, the PR served its purpose. Often, any news is good news.
Playstation 3 Digital Signage?
When the world of B2B starts morphing from B2C, interesting beasts start to emerge. Such is the case with Sony's digital signage applications powered by PS3 software:
"At the show, held at Kensington Olympia in London, the company demonstrated how Ziris Canvas works presenting it on a semi-spherical, multi-screen display. The system can display content on HD screens using any layout size, shape and orientation. The spatial configuration of the displays can vary from 0 to 360 degrees. The sizes of the screens can also be varied. At the show the company had a nine screen display with screen sizes varying from 42-46in.The picture at right shows visually what the system has allows Ziris Canvas the ability to do. Implementing such a system could have an applicable use in many environments heretofore undiscovered in the industry. Similar technologies were displayed at this year's digital signage expo.The Cell Processor power within the PS3 gives Ziris Canvas stability and high image quality. Josh Honda, digital signage solutions senior manager, Sony Professional, said: ‘The product is a great example of using a Sony consumer technology, PS3, in a serious business application, to create stable performance and outstanding computing power.'"
Adcentricity and ImpactMobile's Duo
Adcentricity jumps on the mobile marketing bandwagon with Impact Mobile. The solution is a full-service, cross carrier for mobile marketing. The press release showcases some benefits Adcentricity will gain from partnering with Impact Mobile:
"Working with Impact Mobile will enable Adcentricity to offer mobile capabilities in four areas. The first offering is based on calls to action including SMS, votes, sweepstakes, contests, coupons, promotions, text for information, surveys and call-back request.The next is retail and redemption offers comprising bar-coded mobile coupons, unique PIN numbers that drive to Web and ticketing.Content delivery including ringtone, wallpapers, videos and games is the third service. Finally there are mobile applications comprising mobile Web sites and smartphone applications."Reports have shown that mobile marketing and digital signage will be nearly completely merged in the next several years. It will be interesting to see how Adcentricity is able to integrate mobile into the 80 or so networks they have aggregated for advertising.
CognoVision and BroadSign's Audience Measurement Partnership
With digital signage metrics requirements and numbers ringing constantly in our ears, CognoVision and BroadSign seemed to have found a good match in one another. Providentially, the two companies have come together in an effort to improve audience measurement. The central reasoning behind the union was to eliminate guesswork and increase advertisers' desire to utilize digital out-of-home in campaigns:
CognoVision's AIM system processes the data feed from the optical sensors embedded in the screens and generates anonymous viewership statistics. The aggregated data is then correlated with proof-of-play reports from the BroadSign network management software using CognoVision's web-based analytics tool, which is consistent with the Out-of-home Video Advertising Bureau's (OVAB) Audience Metrics Guidelines. The reports generated in real time provide insights regarding what specific ads were seen, how long each ad was watched for, and viewer gender breakdown for each ad.It is certainly appropriate that BroadSign has taken a liking to one of the several audience measurement companies out there. For, in the future, digital out-of-home audience measurement will be the rule, not the exception. And, as such those who have not even dabbled in the technology at that point will be left in the dust, while those at the top of their game have prepared their networks and clients for the larger media buys that will certainly be coming."The combination of our analytics application and BroadSign's proof-of-play data opens up unprecedented opportunities for marketers to gauge the effect of almost every ad dollar invested in a digital signage campaign," said Haroon Mirza, Director of Business Development at CognoVision. "By using our system, both network operators and advertisers can eliminate a significant amount of guesswork from campaign creation. They will see what content works better, what ad slot length is more effective, how long the loop should be for maximal impact, and can adjust other critical parameters. The audience data can also be processed against point-of-sale records to correlate the digital signage campaigns with actual sales lift."
iCOMPEL is the BlackBox digital signage software package. Much like Wirespring's EasyStart, it is created for taking digital signage to the mainstream. Mario Calabro, Black Box Multimedia Products Manager says iCOMPEL is ideal for any size user. “You can have one unit in one location or thousands of units playing different content around the globe." There is a big push by all companies involved in this industry to take digital signage to the total available market. This is a great push, but when will the tide of inquiries really flood in as research suggests? We have seen increases in Google searches for digital signage, but the total available market has not even begun to emerge.
Neo Expands to the United States
Expansion just seems to happen when an industry is in a growth stage. Neo, the Canada-based digital ooh firm, is no exception:
"The US market has been in our sights from the very beginning," says Benjamin Mathieu, CEO of Neo Advertising NA. "We needed time to field-test various business models and establish a solid track record in Canada. We had also dedicated a lot of time and effort to researching the robust market south of the border. We are now confident that we can import Neo's success story into the United States. Strategically, it is also a good moment for such a move, as entry barriers for real estate acquisitions are lower when the economy slows down."It seems this expansion has been in the works for sometime. Neo has ambitious goals to increase their dooh footprint in the United States like they have done in Canada and the United Kingdom.
This week had some great digital signage news pieces that came in. These stories, caught my interest particularly. Thanks to all those who keep submitting their stories. It's good to see the industry continue to expand outward. Keep the stories coming, all of us stand to benefit from the wealth of information all our users provide.
