DSE: Digital Signage Expo

Alex Richardson
Cross Channel/Digital Signage
Ralph Lauren

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

We look out in many directions and see an expanding landscape of digital innovation. We understand that the shopper is ahead of us in the digital shopping revolution.
We’re passionate about amazing, new digital technology that makes the cash register ring.

1) Is OOH/Digital Signage at the top of the priority list for the shopper or retailer?

Each day, new innovations speed the path-to-purchase that compete directly with OOH/Digital Signage solutions.

I went to a major grocery store recently and used their handheld scanner to scan and bag my groceries. As I walked down the aisle, the little 2 x 3 inch LCD display barraged me with promotional messages generated directly from the CRM to keep track of my past purchase history-$2 off on Tropicana, buy one, get one free on Cabot Vermont cheddar, reminders to stop at the deli and $10 off for 3 cases of diet Coke. Now that you know my personal eating habits, ask me if I stopped and looked at any of the large HD - LCD displays over the vegetable, deli or pharmaceutical departments? No. Shoppers are looking for simple ways to add convenience, relevance and time to your daily life. Handheld, mobile, iphone solutions will be a growing partner to the in-store digital mix.


2) Do the solutions provide incremental value or blow kisses at the shopper?

Many of the solutions in the marketplace don’t appear to me to have the right balance between brand & promotional messaging. What problem does my shopper want to solve at that moment in time, in that particular part of the store? How do we avoid all the clutter in the messaging? Where is the simple wow in the messaging?

3) Do we want in-store technology that seems to become obsolete overnight?

Since technology advances every 90 days, why should I spend more dollars on hardware/software/staff time on solutions that will be obsolete in a short amount of time. We need to find a way to make the solutions appear to be “timeless” and last 5 years or longer, without major service upgrades and expense.

4) More Seamless Solutions

I want the technical installations to be seamless and not ads for video display or mount manufacturers. I want the hardware to be invisible to the shopper and wow the shopper with amazing content and storyline.

5) Cross Channel Integration

Lastly, I want them to leverage my digital media assets without having to create a whole new TV division with talent, make up, green screens and expensive production equipment. I want them to work with my other in store initiatives: ecommerce, mobile, iphone, store associate campaigns, merchandising plan and tie into my CRM without the need to tie up IT resources.

 

Bryan Meszaros
Chief Business Dev. Officer
OpenEye Global

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

I believe one of the biggest issues that stands-out for all of us is “cross network integration.” The challenge we have is to somehow create a consistency so we can not only develop content, but deploy media campaigns seamlessly. We find today that each network utilizes a different playback application, which in most cases is proprietary and requires some additional programming. I think more groups are becoming frustrated with the industry since there isn’t a standard to use when deploying content. As a group we need find ways to make proprietary applications communicate with one another so the industry can grow with ease.

Chris Borek
Sr. Mgr., Multi Channel Digital Marketing
Target

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

Standardization is absolutely essential for DOOH to survive and thrive as a medium. While networks vary by environment (retailers, stadiums, office buildings, clinics, etc), having common analytical metrics as well as how the medium is purchased has to exist for brand managers and agencies to understand and integrate OOH into their advertising plans.

OVAB is an organization that is tackling many of these issues. Their goal is to bring uniformity as to how the medium is measured, bought and understood. They will continue to work with network operators, agencies and technology companies to bring DOOH into media plans and make it a prime channel consideration when considering marketing strategies as other mediums are today – such as network TV, online, radio and print.

 

Christopher Burtt
Global Signage Prod. Manager
Thomson  Reuters

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

The most critical issue we face is lack of standards in our industry. Some of the most crucial standards we lack are in the areas of technology, content delivery, traffic measurement and pricing. Since there are no standards, it means that every project, and at times every installation, has to develop a custom solution, making the odds of success much lower. It also means that the industry as a whole is working at cross purposes, rather than building collectively to products optimized for the digital signage space. Lack of standards for content makes it much more difficult to run national or global campaigns, and also makes it more expensive for content providers. For those purchasing space on digital signage, it is nearly impossible to compare the effectiveness or value of different screens.

The difficulty with standards is that we are a wonderfully diverse industry, spanning small screens on gas pumps to massive Jumbotrons in Times Square. In order to create useful standards, we first need to define segments where standards would be applicable. We should standardize on screen resolutions for different sizes, operating systems and hardware configurations. We need to define a common methodology for traffic estimation, recognizing that conducting an actual count at each location is likely cost prohibitive. POPAI has made some progress in these areas, but I have not yet seen output, which addresses all of the issues we face. There will always be an element of bespoke development as each site will be different. However, by standardizing as much as possible, we can make our industry more efficient and much more productive.

David Matera
CEO & Co-Founder
OOH Pitch, Inc.

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

Continuity

Over time, all other media have reached a point of equilibrium with the marketplace. Critical to this is the level of continuity that other media have attained. Television, and its programming, is the sight, sound & motion medium with uniform measurement & metrics (Nielsen, etc,). Radio is sound only measured with Arbitron. Print is sight only with services like ABC and Starch providing measurement & metrics. OOH you know.

Digital OOH needs the same level of "known" elements - not so much to perform but more to make the advertiser/marketer comfortable. Marketers like continuity and don't like surpris
 

Gary Halpin
President
Agency 225

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

I believe there are a few critical issues. The most pressing at the moment would have to be the economy. While we may not have much control over it, we should all be cognizant of it, and prepare accordingly. Because of the unprecedented massive monetary inflation in the last 8 months, there is a very good chance we're about to encounter price inflation like we have never seen before. In addition to price inflation, monetary inflation has many other unintended consequences. One is its tendency to create bad investments, as companies misread the market and misallocate funds and resources into unsustainable initiatives. It's important to realize that it is savings (not easy credit) that help create a solid economy, as savings are what are used for the capital side of the production equation. With that said, and to turn a negative into a positive, the decision to install OOH networks really falls into this capital side, i.e. the foundation of solid growth. This investment (capital) by retailers and brands can be a huge cost savings in the long run, as well as provide them with more efficient and effective marketing tools. This makes a DS network a good investment, not a bad investment.

As far as something our industry can control, or have input in, I would continue to stress that everyone involved continue to concentrate on strategy. Because of the economy, it has become more important (again) to dig deeper into each project, each endeavor, and each idea. For me, it has been encouraging to witness this old-school business ideal as opposed to the 'throw some monitors up and make it work' strategies of the recent past (talk about bad investments). Answering such simple questions -- why are we thinking of installing an in-store or OOH network, what is its primary purpose, its secondary purposes, how are we going to track it's effectiveness, etc. -- are what we all need to be aware of in order to improve the industry as a whole. There have been too many bad experiences in this industry, which has caused companies to take a step back. But if we keep taking our time and stressing strategy over rushing into a launch, we'll all benefit as the industry will have that much more of a solid foundation to build upon.

George Nauman
Partner/CMO
Chute Gerdeman

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

Thanks to its ability to adapt to any kind of environment, Out of Home Digital Media is increasingly found in every situation delivering messages and relevant content for every imaginable kind of public grouping. And therein lies the key to Out of Home Digital Media, the relevance of the information carried on the medium is what decides whether it succeeds or fails.

Out of Home Digital Media is increasingly enabling applications that were never possible or even thought of only a few short years ago. The composition of each message in terms of words, images, color codes and visual effects, as well as the creative scheduling of different messages are at the heart of the success of any project. Out of Home Digital Media is one of the most powerful modes of communication to an audience of our era, adding new forms of adaptability and reactivity to mass market messaging.

Until recently, one of the greatest difficulties in convincing retailers, brands, agencies, etc. that Out of Home Digital Media was a viable medium in its own right came from the fact that there was very little valuable data available when it came to audience statistics. Now that there are capabilities to gather this data, I think it has to become an important part of the process whether you are the retailer, brand, advertising agency, digital signage vendor, etc. Through the data you are able to find out about customer experiences and evaluate the content they have seen: whether or not they are inspired, the recall rates on advertising etc. This will help insure the medium is being used effectively and can help identify opportunities for further improvements.
 

George Yunis
Sr. Director Creative Services
ARAMARK

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential?

It is my belief that while there are many issues that are important to address, perhaps we wouuld all benefit most greatly from creating some sort of common industry standards/practices that lead to more easily understood terminology, technology, performance measurement and defiinition, etc. One aspect of this could be as basic as a set of symbols that more universally define competitive differentiation features of OOH Network products, software, and service (think consumer-friendly ratings/features you've seen on products, software, services you've purchased). Ulitmately, the real intent is to even further communicate and legitimize an underlying industry standard and more reliable way to compare and contrast companies and the products/services they offer.

Why is this a critical issue

As someone with a relatively short (3 year) but intense immersion into this industry, I have found navigation of features, technology, and options to be the most challenging and process-stopping barrier to implementing a network, and have heard similar concerns from various other colleagues in and out of our corporation.

What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

Create an exploratory steering committee to pilot and test within and outside of t
the industry and proceed from there.

 

Gwen Morrison
CEO, The Americas & Australia
WPP (The Store)

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

Measurement is the most critical issue. With the pressure on the economy, every touch-point becomes scrutinized for effectiveness. Brand development and sales lift need to be tied to this medium. We are seeing new tools on the horizon, which will help make better use of the dynamic media.

Out of home media is dynamic yet most advertisers are not using the capability yet. Content can be altered based on time of day, day of week and other factors that connect with consumer needs and behaviors. With increasing pressure on measurement, we will likely see more sophisticated rotation of content with improved results.

Jack Sullivan
SVP/Out-of-Home Media Director
StarCom Worldwide

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

Measurement is the most critical issue confronting the medium. If we can't convey to a client who's seeing their message and how many are seeing their message, then how do we get their interest in the medium? How can buyers gauge if they've correctly valued their purchase if they don't have accurate measurement data.

In a perfect world it'd be great if we could find one Digital Sign measurement company that could apply the same methodology across the varying Digital Sign companies. My suspicion is that it'll require several companies with skills that can tackle the various measurement challenges presented by all the place based venues. Not an easy chore but certainly achievable. The most important aspect of the measurement is that it has to be of course, accurate and it has to be believable. It can not be filled with fat, the numbers need to demonstrate a lean audience (likely to see the ad). Finally, it needs to be priced at an introductory offer level and not at a premium price level. Remember we're still in the push/pull portion of getting clients into this medium. We need to build traction and a history continued success. As it builds momentum demand for this medium will set pricing.

Jeff McQueen
President
Proscenium Pictures

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

At first blush, this seems a very simple question. Unfortunately, there are many critical issues as this industry remains very fragmented and at the precipice of proven success, or a very unfortunate and costly failure. First priority – create content that moves the business needle – meaning, create ad-based content that works. Folks don’t go to malls to watch recycled entertainment - they go OOH to experience new and interesting and useful products. Let’s make sure our branded content (i.e. OOH advertising) is effective and creating a compelling experience that sells units. Once this is adapted by the industry, and I predict that this is still several years out, then measurability will indeed become a powerful sales tool. We will then be able to verify ROI on brands’ behalf, and prove that OOH is indeed an advertising value worthy of ad buying budgets. Thirdly, let’s put IT concerns aside, and focus as an industry on creating valuable networks to the consumer, not simply advanced technology built around distributing non-appropriate spots and gathering up the ad revenue dollars. If networks view ad revenue as more important than the consumer and the subsequent value of their network, I believe the OOH industry will be in for some dramatic surprises.

 

Jeff White
Owner, CEO
Bar Channel

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

The most critical issue is the bringing together of all 4. Brands, Ad agencies, Vendors and network operators. The Digital Signage Expo has made great strides to get these groups together. Last year we saw more advertisers and agencies. The agencies and Advertisers need to have a better comprehension of the digital signage industry. They need to “dive in” and understand the power of our medium. Digital signage can do so much more. With the level of technology, running ads is just the tip of the iceberg. I believe that if the agencies sat down and understood what can easily be achieved they would embrace our industry. We are not just “screens with ads”. The capability to customize everything from Screen layouts to promotions to store-by-store messaging is probably something that agencies don’t understand. Bringing these groups together will lead to a better understanding and I am convinced even newer ways to showcase our industry.
 

Kevin Culp
Director, Information Technology
Gaylord Entertainment

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

I believe before the industry can realize its full potential that a deliberate effort around education needs to occur. What I mean by this is that outside the industry the public at large still seems to be “fuzzy” on the many benefits of digital signage technology. Once the “public” can understand the true power I believe that will be the time the industry experiences unprecedented growth.
 

Margot Myers
Director of Education & Training
Platt Retail Institute

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

A critical issue for all end users, vendors, and others involved in Digital Out of Home (DOOH) media is the ability to have accurate metrics relating to impact, effectiveness and value – both for the user and the intended audience. At a time when all of the key players – end users, agencies, suppliers, etc – are dealing with today’s economic challenges, proving that an investment in a DOOH network is fiscally smart is more important than ever. We’re well past the days of “gee, that’s cool; let’s get some screens in our stores.”

There are several approaches currently in play. The traditional notion of return on investment (ROI) certainly is relevant to DOOH networks. In a deployment where it is possible to measure, for example, sales lift related to specific content airing on the network, ROI is calculable. Not every network is designed to impact revenue directly. For example, a primary goal of the network I tested for the US Postal Service was to get customers out of line at the full-service counter and convince them to try the Automated Postal Center kiosk. This sort of impact could be called “return on message” since what’s being measured is whether the message content was effective in changing customer behavior.

The Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) has developed measurement methods that provide consistent audience data across multiple platforms. According to the OVAB website (www.ovab.org), their Audience Metrics Guidelines were designed “so that out-of-home video advertising networks can provide audience metrics in a way that allows advertisers to more easily evaluate, plan and buy these networks.” The guidelines allow comparability of DOOH and other media. For users who are planning to sell advertising on their networks, audience research and metrics provide the necessary data that support developing a credible rate card for advertising.

No matter what form it takes or where it’s seen, DOOH media must support the end user’s key business strategies. Sound metrics and analytics provide the information that will allow DOOH media to achieve its full potential.
 

Mike Hiatt
Consultant
JMH Consultancy

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

In many ways, the most critical issue is to create a true advertising currency for OOH. In traditional media, GRPs act as that currency. The online world has a few, but they are all relatively easy to understand-- Cost-per-Click and Cost-per-Conversion, being the most common today.

Many industry players have attempted to bring GRPs into the retail space, the last, most noted effort being PRISM. In some OOH models, GRPs can work, but in many cases reach x frequency is simply not a good barometer of what the network should be offering to advertisers. It also presses networks to focus on the wrong variables and pushes operators into bad network designs, hurting the overall industry.

In the end, there will not be one singular metric, like GRP, but my hope is that the currencies we do have will provide an easy method for agency media buyers to understand and evaluate their OOH options. It will take investment and leadership from major retailers, agencies, and operators to make this happen.

Mike Quinn
SVP Marketing, Research & Product Dev.
PRN

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

One of the unique characteristics of our industry is the complex relationship that exists between venue owners, marketers, agencies and digital network providers. These relationships, like many others, are best served by frequent and open communication…and the basis of communication is language. Unfortunately, as an industry, we have made very little progress when it comes to speaking the same language.

When I started in our industry 13 years ago, the biggest concern of clients and partners was “cost”. As costs came down that concern morphed into “compliance”. As compliance improved, attention turned to “content”. Now that we have handled the basics of becoming a real and reliable industry, our current challenge is “confusion”.

As we talk to our clients and partners today, their number one challenge for the industry is to become less confusing. This is particularly true among marketers and agencies who meet with multiple vendors every month, where no two meetings ever use the same language.

Nearly every client tells the same story: “I meet with dozens of companies in your space every year they all use different terminology to describe their networks. If our meeting is scheduled for 30 minutes, we invariably spend 29 of those minutes just trying to understand and agree on the terms they are using to describe what they deliver.”

Let’s face it, any relationship where you spend the majority of your time arguing about what words mean, is not destined to become a healthy relationship.

To that end, over 30 companies (along with agency and client advisors) have joined together to form the OVAB (Out-of-Home Video Ad Bureau). The simple mission for this group is to “make it easier for clients to evaluate, plan and buy OOH Networks”. If you have not looked into the work of this group, I urge you to do so. Although we all have differences in how we sell, position and talk about our networks, we must strive for some level of consistent terminology regarding the basics of what we deliver to our clients.

The only way we will improve our communication within the marketplace is to improve the communication among ourselves.

 

Pat Hellberg
President
Kaicon Consulting

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

Technology continues to improve almost on a daily basis. The ability to deliver the appropriate message/ engaging experience already exists, and will only get better. Measurement is making great progress and also, will undoubtedly increasingly validate the size and makeup of the DS/DOOH audience. But content, specifically the quality of content continues to lag the other pieces of the successful digital signage puzzle. What this industry needs is greater focus on the message. We need better art direction, better creative, better writing. We need better content. Everywhere. On every screen. If we don’t give our DS/DOOH audience a reason to engage with the messaging on our displays, the technology, the hardware and the software really doesn’t matter. Our audience has to engage with our message. It’s as simple as that. If we don’t give them a reason to watch, game over.

As a group, we need to focus on content best practices. We need to see what’s working out there and emulate the successes. We need to determine what’s not working, determine why it’s not working and grow, creatively, from that input.

Today’s technology makes it easy to send content to the right place at the right time. Going forward, we have to make sure the content we are sending is relevant, appropriate and compelling.

Paul Flanigan
Producer
Best Buy

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

I think the critical point of discussion surrounds the proper measurement of audiences. But it goes deeper than simply saying, “Our audience is XYZ with 123…” In order to understand our audiences, there are two vital initiatives that must occur: First, end-users must test and learn about impact, the granular aspects of compelling content that alter a viewer’s behavior. Second the end-users must educate back to the vendors, brands, and agencies the findings in the test and measurement.

Agencies in particular have the most to gain from this understanding. Helping them understand the “who/what/why/when/where” of targeted messaging, they will be able to own the process of creative multi-channel campaigns that are tailored for their clients and the network.

Where do we start? I believe the end-users need to start with themselves. We (retailers and others) need to test our programs and find out what works. The most compelling content I have ever used has been content I have created myself. That’s because I know my audience. The gap to bridge is showing this to agencies and brands, showing them what worked and why.

At that point, agencies will understand the value of targeted programming, will understand the monetary needs for compelling campaigns, and will start to position the industry as a leader in consumer engagement across all channels of communication
 

Philip M. Cohen
President
Care Media Holding Corp.

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

Speaking from the perspective of an operator of advertiser supported digital signage networks the most important issue for us to address is ROI for the advertiser. If we can't show research based return on investment for the advertiser they have no motivation to spend their ad dollars with us. Our industry has outgrown the ability to sell on promises. We are mature enough at this point to be expected to deliver. At this point failure to conduct the research and base rates on that research will result in an inability to generate sales. As a group we need to stop making up excuses to avoid researching and reporting our audience numbers but, instead, use the resources available to us to address this important issue.
 

Tim Johnson
IT Manager
AT&T

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential?

The most critical issue to address is how viewership is measured. There needs to be a gold standard created in the industry that OOH viewership be measured on actual impressions and therefore sold as such to advertisers. The hardware and software available for this type of audience measurement is now very available and affordable. The false comparisons to in-home advertising viewership metrics is creating and causing far too much confusion for advertisers and therefore limiting the available dollars for the OOH network medium.

Why is this a critical issue?

This will bring significant credibility to the OOH Network medium as a very targeted and accountable medium for advertisers. This is the same way the cable and satellite industry has created niche cable channels in order to drive further targeting of audiences in turn allowing advertisers to narrow the focus of their messaging for better penetration.

What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

Audience measurement hardware and software needs to become a basic standard offering in any OOH network solution. Manufacturers and integrators need begin offering this capability as part of the minimum standard offering. There also needs to be industry wide discussions about the best way to develop scales and metrics with specific guidelines so advertisers can compare apples to apples across multiple OOH network solutions to choose the best fit for their advertising.

 

Vernon West
Marketing Initiatives Manager
Lowe's Companies

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

The most important thing that we can do is to determine a valuation strategy for DOOH (including retail) that moves beyond a traditional CPM/GRP mass media approach. We need to have systems that can measure for various forms of impact. OVAB has made great progress regarding WHAT to measure, but now we have to figure out the HOW. 

The reason this is so important is that the current CPM/GRP is actually one of the lowest of all media types available. Correspondingly, this makes ROI harder to reach. When we can measure for impact, we can start to charge a premium for our advertising, thus reaching an ROI for our efforts much quicker. 

Also, we really need to figure out how mobile and other emerging technologies properly fit into the equation. As we continue to create digital marketing programs for "all 4 screens" (TV, PC's, mobile and place-based), we must find ways to streamline them across all 4 screens from strategic planning, creative execution, placement and measurement perspectives. This perhaps is the greatest challenge, but also what holds the greatest opportunity.
 

Vivian Rosenthal
Art Director & Co-Founder
Tronic Studio

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

It seems that OOH advertising would be strengthened by a stronger working relationship between all the different parties. At this point in time, it feels that there isn’t a clear model for how the agencies, brands, retailers, creative companies and vendors are working together. As a result, the campaigns developed for the brands aren’t necessarily being leveraged in the OOH space. It seems like we could all benefit from a smoother integration of OOH advertising with the rest of the advertising landscape.
 

Patrick Moorhead
Director, Emerging Media
Razorfish

Most critical issue facing retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others:

MEASUREMENT & ROI

Why is this the most critical issue?
The DOOH and digital in store opportunity has immense potential to bring the best of internet advertising and DR messaging out of the PC and into the real world consumers move through every day. The ability to dynamically target and address messaging, coupled with the huge reach opportunity DOOH scale brings, and the efficient buy side structure of the media (CPM, Impressions, CPA etc…) has many of my clients keenly interested in the DOOH opportunity. That is, until the question of measurement and ROI comes up. Right now, our industry does not have a good answer for how to accurately quantify the impact of DOOH media, nor how to contextualize that impact within the larger media ecosystem of brand marketing. Our best measurement frameworks of today are still heavily reliant on rapidly outdated models borrowed from billboard advertising and television commercial measurement (opportunity to see, GRP, traffic flow analysis etc…). When we tell the story of OOH media, 90% of it resembles internet based thinking, yet the measurement standards (and the brand expectation of that quality of measurement) don’t line up with the rest of the opportunity. Internet advertising metrics have (rightfully) spoiled many brands into an expectation that ANY digital media should provide the same level of detail and accountability that the web does so well, but today DOOH is not there. Obtaining better insights into how to assess the performance of media dollars in DOOH, and what kinds of impact those dollars can ultimately have for brands, will be the last piece of the puzzle for this industry and allow brands to confidently invest real dollars with the expectation of real results.

What should we do as a group to move this ahead?
Stay focused on solving the puzzle through the lens of what really matters to the customers (in this case brands) who we expect to fund the growth of our medium. Don’t start by asking “what can we measure and how can we spin that story?” Instead, start from the POV of the brand, understand THEIR challenges, needs and opportunities, and solve for those. This way, the answers we achieve, even if they are relatively small, will go directly against solving business problems for our customers. Also, bone up on internet measurement techniques and frameworks. You may not think your business has much of a resemblance to internet advertising, but the brands you are looking to acquire as customers are using those techniques and frameworks to assess your opportunity, and you need to be familiar with those rulers yourself if you’re going to be able to speak intelligently about how your inventory stacks up.


 

David Doyle
VP, IT Theatre Operations
Regal Entertainment Group

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

Several challenges can be encountered on the road to maximizing the potential of out-of-home networks, including calculating a return on investment, identifying key metrics, understanding the technology platform and more. Perhaps the key issue facing retailers, brands, advertising agencies and digital signage vendors is the quality of the content.

Digital content and displays are fast becoming commonplace. Ordinary content will not capture the interest of the consumer. Understanding how to produce creative, to the point, relevant content will ensure OOH network success.

As a group, we should follow the lead of networks that do a great job producing content – including the First Look program that runs before feature films at many movie theatres, Target stores and others.
 

Jerry Harris
Director Audio Visual Services
Georgia Aquarium

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

In most industries there are standards or guidelines that aim to support that supplier and clients with concept, structure and deployment. In the digital signage industry our most critical issue is setting standards or best practices. New industries often find themselves at a crossroads when developing best practices. The pioneers in the industry have learned the good and bad when deploying an OOH Network. Which sometime is not shared due to fear of trade secrets being unveiled. The reason why this is vital to our industry is not only for us to use as a guidepost, but for the prospective client to have an understanding of the process and the ROI expectations. Sharing of information is vital to our industry and I believe through this knowledge transfer the industry will have the necessary foundation it needs to sustain itself.
 

Paul Bleimeyer
Mgr. of Media Systems
Mayo Clinic

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

In last months question we were asked about the largest opportunities for growth in the industry. I mentioned how for many parts of the of the OOH industry the area for growth was in their ability to connect the data and to be able to grow their networks based on being able to show and provide value. The first step in this process in a common frame of measurement or standards in the industry, which in turn leads to proof of value or ROI.

With radio we now have proof of play and in print we a number of ways to measure return on investment or overall ROI. The real challenge here is how one connects the views of digital signage with an end experience or purchase of a product. In some cases you are not looking for the immediate sale of a product but instead you might just want to raise awareness of your brand overall. Also being able to customize the content dynamically based on who is viewing the content is deeply connected here but one must be able to correlate the overall viewing experiences that you are capturing with what the expected outcomes should be.

By having a comment set of measurements that your customer base not only understands but can also reliably point to as a industry accepted and trusted point of view, then you can sell your media as having a reliable way to rank and rate the data the system can collect. My leadership challenged us with a similar situation in which they wanted to see value in not only what we might save by not using another medium, but also how we might measure the effectiveness of the DS as an overall media. When looking at this just ten short months ago, it was very apparent that there were a lack of overall standards not only in collection methods and also in how one could rank the measurements and combine the data between systems. While there were a number of ways to collect data and technology was there to create data, the ease of which to connect everything was definitely not there. We ended up using a variety of the combined technologies and methods to confirm what we had suspected about the data. This proved to be both time consuming and somewhat difficult until we had a number of different types of feedback data in order to prove our theories.

With OOH a clear set of measurement methods and practices are going to be needed in order to rank and configure the proper mix of DS media vs. other advertising This will also require the overall industry to provide a common set of reporting and results interchange methods. Customers want to be able to look at the results in a variety of different ways at different intervals and sorting orders. By have a common set of agreed upon measurement methods, then this lets the integrator, advertising agency, and or OOH provider connect the data and provide a report or information that can be combined with other data and allow for it to be aggregated in a meaningful way. This will be critical to move past the pilot phase or try and buy for short intervals in these times.

"Why is this a critical issue?"
Without the connection then the advertiser has very little to work with in order to press the sales of future advertising in this market. Just ten months ago, a customer might be willing to risk a sizable portion of their advertising budget on a high risk loosely ranked and measured advertising solution. There was capital available to make a move like this. With today's economy the amount of available funds for higher risk and possibly low return on investment solutions that cannot be measured is very limited. We are currently in a limited risk time period, which may last for several years. Companies which may have superior technology but with limited reporting options may find that their customers have moved on to a competitor or even purchased outright as the market consolidates. This puts the advertiser in a very difficult sales position if this measurement cannot be proven.

"What should we do as a group to move this ahead?"
This group is in a unique position to work in partnership with the various parties to encourage and help coordinate a common measurement system. By pulling the vendors, providers, and advertisers together in discussions like this combined with shared industry meetings and workgroups an agreed upon process and ranking system can be vetted and agreed upon. This can then be followed by updates to the existing systems and software to provide the value the customers and users of these systems truly need.




 

Tom Lapcevic
President
ClubCom

Which issue is most critical for retailers, brands, advertising agencies, digital signage vendors and others active in the industry to address collectively for the OOH Network medium to achieve its full potential? Why is this a critical issue? What should we do as a group to move this ahead?

It’s important that flexible operational and comparative guidelines be defined and broadly implemented (e.g., OVAB guidelines). The guidelines need to be “flexible” in order to be applied to a broad range of environments having very different digital media applications, challenges and objectives. The OVAB guidelines represent a very good blueprint. These guidelines are critical in providing reliable information and direction for the different benefactors of digital networks including venue operators, third party advertisers, patrons, network operators and the digital out-of-home industry at large. Indeed, proper feedback and assessment tools are essential for the ongoing development of the industry. The best step we can take as a group is to get behind our industry’s professional groups including DSE and OVAB.