ANYWHERE WITH A PIXEL

Nielsen’s recent release of the Fourth Screen Report claims that 237 million ad exposures reached adult audiences in measured digital location-based networks. The report, called the “Fourth Screen Network Audience Report” (Nielsen is calling it the “fourth screen” after television, the computer and mobile), was released last Monday. It researched 10 screen networks, from companies like NCM Media Networks and Screenvision, which run ads in movie theaters, to Gas Station TV, which places screens on gas pumps.

According to Nielsen, this is the first time that any measurement company has provided a comprehensive, standardized audience reporting that allows advertisers to easily compare data from these networks with measurements from the other three screens: TV, Internet, and Mobile.

 

 

GROSS MONTHLY DIGITAL VIDEO AD EXPOSURES, P18+

(September-December 2009)

 

Network	Venue	Persons 18+	% 18-34
NCM	Movie Theaters	35,301,188	47%
Captivate	Elevators	31,332,148	55%
Zoom Fitness	Health Clubs	29,396,229	43%
Screenvision	Movie Theaters	26,390,071	47%
Zoom Social	Bar/Restaurants	25,165,269	84%
AMI	Bar/Restaurants	22,609,400	53%
The Hotel Networks	Hotels	22,196,922	34%
GSTV	Gas Stations	21,306,028	44%
indoorDirect	Restaurants	14,146,853	43%
RMG Fitness	Health Clubs	9,548,019	35%
TOTAL		237,392,127	50%

 

I’d like to examine the report more closely to understand Nielsen’s methodology and to see how comprehensive demographic and psychographic categories are organized. Today, each network has its own way of measuring their audiences and the industry is still challenged by its inability to streamline unique measurement and creative asset allocation while targeting on a hyper local level.

Furthermore, some agencies and networks raised questions about Nielsen’s approach. Jack Sullivan, senior vice president and out-of-home activation director at Starcom USA, part of the Starcom MediaVest Group division of the Publicis Groupe, said he was not certain that Nielsen took into account all the differences in these networks.

“A doctor’s office is different than a grocery store is different than an airport is different than an elevator,” he said. “So the consumer is different in every one of those categories, and the screens are different sizes. There’s really no common denominator. Presence, awareness, notice, and dwell time are factors that need to be considered across the board. But the key lies in demographic profiling.  

Reaching 237 million ‘adults’ can be much more impressive if these networks were combined and the campaign was targeted using demographic and psychographic audience profiles. Each network mentioned can reach a quasi-impressive number of men, but can this identify an audience of men with an annual household income of over 100k a year, iPhone and BMW owners? This is where the true value lies and this is what will continue to drive advertising forward. Hyper-targeting.

Can this be done? I think that the data is simply not there yet, but we are definitely working toward a solution that will revolutionize the industry. Advertisers still buy not only by vertical but by audience. The more a network understands their audience, the more value it is for an advertiser.  

Nielsen’s Fourth Screen Audience Report certainly opens the door for networks by positioning the value of scale and reach, yet this leaves room for sophisticated aggregators to drive even more insight and efficiency in the way advertisers buy media. “If you took the 10 networks that we measured and put a spot on each of the 10” for a month, “you’d draw more exposures than having a spot on every one of the top 20 programs in prime time” in a given week, said Paul Lindstrom, senior vice president of the Nielsen Company.

The discussion continues to evolve around where media dollars are best spent through ROI-driven methodologies. Big broadcast media buys continue to be where most marketing budgets are spent for major brands, while internet advertising continues to grow and mature until digital out-of-home reaches that tipping point where scale and efficiency can deliver more exposures—or perhaps more value in the way brands connect to relevant audiences in meaningful ways. Digital signage is growing to become a not only an effective general communication vehicle but also a merchandising tool for retailers.

At the end of the day a large digital footprint still needs to encompass the ability to deliver insight and efficiency to relevant audiences. Each of the networks mentioned in the report have value through scale, but these large footprints still do not come close to the reach of a unified network with the ability to filter screens, locations, and audiences in an automated way.

Networks need to evolve in order to increase value in the eyes of advertisers. Smaller, less sophisticated networks must demonstrate proper proof of play reporting while distilling appropriate data on a screen to screen, location by location basis. This is exactly where a unified platform can contribute to the entire industry by raising the bar in dynamic distribution, audience profiling, and intelligent place-based media selection.

 

 

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A lot of our new prospective clients have been asking this question and it’s interesting to see how our solution fares with the countless software platforms in the market today. We’re certainly proud to have introduced, at least, what we think, is the most complete SaaS solution for digital destination, digital out-of-home, and digital signage network management. Of course, all companies tend to have their own claims and tend to sound the same. We have our core competencies and we like to talk about them as well: to us, Entourage is the most intuitive and intelligent content management system for digital asset allocation, display monitoring, playlist optimization, and reporting-bringing maximum efficiency and versatility to your digital destination network.
That all sounds great, but so what? The best part is that our software is so easy to use. Hands down. I think that this is the key differentiation. Not to mention that as an end-to-end digital signage solution, it’s half the cost of any software in the market today.

We have the most cost-efficient pricing structure in the market, as far as I know, at $10 per player license per month. It’s interesting to me how certain content management systems aim to capture either a smaller network or large. It’s critical that a software soltution be robust enough to suit networks both large and small. Scalability and flexibility is now standard. We aim to deliver capabilities that extend far beyond the status quo by providing the most dynamically advanced technology and sophisticated management tools the industry has to offer.

Ok, cheaper, faster, stronger, more intelligent. Sounds like a bunch of fluff, right? I guess you never know until you try it out, so I would highly recommend calling us for a demo. We’re constantly evolving the platform to address universal challenges in content management. We’re always looking for ways to evolve in flexibility and reliability. Willingness to improve is not unique. Ability and functionality that addresses all needs and challenges, with the flexibility to customize your own network platform is perhaps a step closer.

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Great post on AdExchanger.com about the Holy Grails of digital advertising. Seems to be a hot topic intersecting many industries from technology, advertising, and media, to businesses that focus on digital interactive and marketing research and intelligence.

The quest for the most versatile digital media planning and buying tool has evolved to mythic proportions. But the question remains, who will be crowned king of technology and advertising innovators?

The very best platforms seem to maximize the media planning and buying process most efficiently. However we must be aware that the notion of the Holy Grail remains elusive, as functionality continues to scale and evolve organically, which eventually replaces version after version with additional features and improvements. This is where the conversation gets interesting. The following are some of those specific digital “Holy Grail” functions and features.

Real-Time Bidding at Scale

This capability is robust in itself, but if it were to be strongly aligned with a cross-platform distribution platform, the tool will be boundless in its potential to transform digital advertising forever. Once media space or digital ‘real estate’ can be selected and media plans built through a real-time auction and bidding engine, with complete reverse auction and pricing criteria selection, the advertising industry will be flipped on its head. The ad industry will simply be “Googlefied”.

The power of buying is back in the hands of the advertisers, which enables price discovery on a high level. Let’s see how much a Sportstron billboard is really worth at Staples Center versus Oracle Arena. This will give advertisers an opportunity to optimize the value of their marketing campaigns while justifying the actual validity of campaign strategies, audience traffic measurement, and the cost of digital units per placement. Tie this in with an audience hyper-targeting feature, and this platform will be beyond nirvana.

The Digital Back Office

There are companies out there that are super stellar at this. MediaBank’s OX Platform enables layered agency to client login features that takes you through the buying and execution process with scale and comprehensive analytics tools when integrated with their complimentary AX suite for data aggregation. It will be interesting to see what else they have up their sleeve once all of these different suites become a unified and consolidated process. But can it be crowned king of innovators?

True “Grailness” can only be achieved when media planning, execution, tracking, and optimization can be unified into a multidimensional process that incorporates both traditional and digital vehicles. The management layer will have to be versatile in being able to handle multiple users with various roles assigned—from a strategic media planner, to an execution master, to a research guru that wants to do an apples to oranges comparison of media delivery. It gets difficult when you deal with multiple media platforms. MediaBank is certainly in Lancelot form. Let’s see what happens when they come out with a new integrated optimization platform, VP.

Mobile Marketing

Everyone knows that this is the staple click-through for digital out-of-home. Aggregators have developed capabilities to include mobile in their core offerings but this integrated aspect for digital destination advertising has not caught on as quickly as mobile offerings alone—perhaps because the re-targeting element is still in infancy. The key here is to find “sweet spot” locations that bring together two different audiences—identifiable mobile patrons as they congregate in specific digital signage zones that are geographically and demographically addressable.  

The Cross Digital Attribution Tool

This tool can come in many forms—as a media planning analytics gatherer, as an optimization kit, or as a media buying platform that can harness multiple channels seamlessly. Why not build an integrated tool that can do it all? This is where the conversation gets interesting, because each one of these functions is a holy grail. Cross platform attribution will consist of a single platform on a global virtual network through which networks and advertisers can harmoniously participate in media selling and buying. This tied in to the real-time auction and bid engine will prove revolutionary for the industry—giving the power of discovery back in the hands of those who want it—the brands looking to efficiently manage their marketing campaigns.

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As we are garnering tremendous feedback from global brands and their advertising agencies on building the most intelligent, versatile, and dynamic network possible, we are finding that the issue of distributing content on sound-enabled displays keeps popping up. Bill Gerba wrote a great post on the pitfalls and benefits of audio-enabled capabilities for digital signage. This post highlighted the Arbitron Study conducted back in 2005 with interesting findings about how impactful audio-enabled screens can be at the point of purchase from the consumer’s perspective.

Gerba’s post focused on the pros and cons from a network’s perspective and how sound-enabled screens would affect their staff, customers’ dwell time, and the retail environment’s influence on purchase decisions. The last element is the most interesting to me, but I’d like to look at it from different perspective. I think that it would be interesting to go deeper into this discussion by exploring the value audio capability from a brand and agency POV while revisiting his Gerba’s key points, as this issue continues to stir up debate. The key findings of the Arbitron study included these facts:

·         More than half of the retail audio audience recall hearing commercials while

shopping. Fifty-four percent of the shoppers who recall hearing retail audio during

their most recent shopping trip also recall hearing commercials or promotional

announcements.

·         Seven in 10 shoppers who recall hearing ads have a positive attitude toward

retail audio advertising. Seventy percent of shoppers who recall hearing retail audio

advertisements find the commercials and announcements to be very or somewhat

helpful to their shopping experience.

·         As the chart shows, more than 40% of the shoppers who heard a retail audio advertisement made an unplanned purchase. Specifically, 41% of shoppers who recall hearing retail audio ads made a purchase they were not planning on making after hearing a commercial or announcement about the product in the grocery store or drugstore.

·         More than one-third of the shoppers who heard a retail audio advertisement

purchased a different brand. Thirty-seven percent of shoppers who recall hearing

retail audio advertisements purchased a brand different from the one they originally

intended after hearing a commercial or announcement in the grocery store or

drugstore.

It’s interesting to see how general assumptions can be confirmed by syndicated research. Gerba articulated the concerns that networks should have when considering making their displays sound-enabled. But in terms of what advertisers would find valuable, the discussion is more intricate than meets the eye. One would assume that it is preferable to launch campaigns with sound-enabled ads, because of the reasons stated above. But how do you attribute value to audio-enabled campaigns versus silent, display-only campaigns? I think that this discussion naturally centers around what elements deliver levels of brand-awareness and registered recall, recency, contextual relevance, and purchase intent.

What Advertisers Find Valuable

We always want to focus on what advertisers find valuable and from our extensive experience in dealing with agencies, we’ve found that delivering campaigns through sound-enabled screens is a must. Duh, right? Considering most major brands already have broadcast-ready creative assets. But when it comes to digital out-of-home, plenty of informational broadcast campaigns require sound to get the message across, or at least closed-captioning capabilities. The challenge for advertisers then becomes a matter of selecting screens within a network that can distribute content to only sound-enabled screens.

In our network of almost 500k screens, a significant amount of screens will not be sound-enabled, but we have a robust search feature that can filter out the screens that have this capability. Advertisers have found this feature to be extremely valuable. When this is resolved, the advertiser then just has to decide whether or not their creative gets the message across without sound. An advertiser that has a specific campaign meant for broadcast would benefit from repurposing the same creative without having to recreate it for a digital signage campaign.

Ads that are ready for broadcast can be naturally integrated into a content management system and added to a playlist or loop. Advertisers will not be down with having a creative with witty dialogue or specific voice-over narration that plays a key role in the messaging of the ad on screens that remain silent. Doing this would be counter-intuitive for the campaign. The exception to this rule is when a particular ad has a message that can be easily interpreted and retain from the visual messaging alone. These types of ads are rare, but there are also circumstances in which they are valuable regardless of audio delivery.

 I am finding that many advertisements that have very strong visual narratives that can deliver the same kind of impact regardless of whether or not sound is enabled. TV commercials are very theatrical—especially those that utilize humor to convey their message. These ads will have the highest level of broadcast to DOOH portability.

Like I had mentioned in a previous post, digital signage display creative will evolve to a point in which ads that sustain a brand’s message throughout the entire spot will garner more retention. Think of an out-of home poster that breathes and glows to radiate a brand’s logo. Retention rates for these types of spots are higher. There have been ads like this created for television. A visual image is conveyed, text appears in and out of the picture at the bottom of the screen, and the brand’s message remains consistent throughout. This creative can be easily repurposed in the retail environment. Sound will essentially enhance the message’s impact by 40%—again referring to the facts noted in the Arbitron study.

So advertisers don’t fret—audio enabled screens can be targeted not only within each network, but also filtered to hyper-target your audience. Entourage Advertising gets this done. In terms of broadcast to DOOH portability, utilize humorous ads that are theatrical, even over the top—creative that has strong visual narrative elements that convey the message in a compelling way. An image is definitely worth a thousand words. Throw sound in the mix, and you exponentially engage your audience and maintain retention in a retail environment where they are more likely to purchase your product.

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The phrase, “Hyper-Targeting” has more recently been tied to digital out-of-home (DOOH) to a certain degree and I think it would be worthwhile to explore the huge implications of this.

 

Networks are growing at blinding speed, while advertisers remain indifferent and somewhat bewildered at how they can keep track of multiple campaigns without having account management nightmares. So precision targeting has simply not been in the cards for them, since there are too many bottlenecks to break through before any meaningful targeting can take place. 

 

Actually, advertisers are slowly beginning to understand the sheer power of digital out-of-home as a collective tour-de-force when it comes to achieving ubiquity, but the missing piece remains to be the ability to hyper-target select screens in each network as a part of a larger integrated media campaign. It seems that no matter how large a single network is—it remains pale in comparison to the collective power of all digital networks combined, each of which has developed specialized marketing channels with specific audiences.

 

So it’s the aggregators that can begin to establish some insight into how brands can meaningfully reach an advertiser’s audiences and niche markets. But I’m not talking about just any aggregator. I’m talking about setting a new standard of achieving unified distribution as an aggregator of aggregators. Companies can have great intentions toward advertisers garnered from long-established relationships and a certain level of stewardship to help media companies understand brands. But brands themselves would argue that no one can understand their brand better than they can. This tells me that there is an entire layer of inefficiency that can be removed from the process. Hyper-targeting within the wide fragmented landscape of digital out-of-home always centers around conversations about efficiency, insight, end-to-end integration, and accountability.

 

I would argue that hyper-targeting in a meaningful way can only be accomplished with certain tiers of efficiency. I will discuss each of these tiers of efficiency in the spirit of how digital communication is evolving—in an integrated fashion, because each tier effects one another in a tremendous way. And of course—all of these tiers combine to create a complete and versatile solution that is exponentially greater than the sum of its parts.

 

The tiers of precision targeting efficiency in digital destination advertising are:

 

1)     Precision-Enhanced Scalability

2)     A New Approach to Aggregation  

3)     Developing Deeper Insight through Screen Profiling

4)     Dynamic Integration

5)     Cross-Platform Content Transformation

 

Precision-Enhanced Scalability

 

You know what they say about large footprints. Great reach. But in a metric-driven world, efficiency can only be accomplished with one unified distribution platform to extend the reach of a single digital asset across multiple platforms. Scale is arguably effective if you have an unlimited budget and hundreds of creative assets to choose from, with a team of a hundred account executives managing each project. But even the largest brand in the world like Coke wants something more than high-powered ubiquity. They want to execute highly-targeted campaigns just likeevery other brand.

 

The collective power of all the digital signage networks in the world means nothing without a unified distribution platform to deliver insight, efficiency, and measurability. A level of sophistication is always needed when building a media campaign, as it needs to sync up with specific product launches, release dates, and integrated initiatives. Scale with targeting efficiency has tremendous power. This kind of capability has yet to be achieved in a meaningful way, until now.

 

Therefore the take-away from this tier of efficiency is that from an overarching perspective, scale must be achieved, but with targeting efficiency in mind. Aggregators need to do more than manage multiple accounts and campaigns using different networks—real scale needs to be guided with precision targeting capabilities and a unified platform of distribution.

 

Digital out-of-home has seen an influx of hardware, software, media player, distribution, and campaign management platforms—but with little communication between organizations. No one had a huddle and agreed on a unified way to reach specific audiences through millions of screens. Fragmentation has escalated and that’s why advertisers tend to shy away from digital out-of-home opportunities. Scale can be harnessed into pure efficiency for advertisers if all screens were harmonized. Hyper-targeting can then be more eaily achieved because more comprehensive information would become available.

 

A New Approach to Aggregation

 

Aggregation can provide the level of efficiency that advertisers want. Many digital out-of-home agencies certainly have the capacity to create multimedia campaigns that have both strategic and tactical functions–full-scope branding and marketing initiatives combined with metric-driven promotions. Isn’t this the goal? Shouldn’t the process be consolidated for efficiency?

 

Then it comes down to the process of aggregation, or perhaps valuable aggregation. Advertisers need to keep asking themselves if they are maximizing efficiency out of every strategic and tactical initiative they choose to engage in. Aggregation is only so valuable as the investment in time and effort it takes to accomplish a specific set of marketing objectives. What is the balance between what can be accomplished through account management and technology?

 

There is certainly great value in building relationships and practicing stewardship, but efficiency can be accomplished in more meaningful ways through a single web-based pltform that has more meaningful and relevant information, granted the right rules of automation are in place.

 

The process it would take a digital out-of-home advertising specialist to build a campaign, make the appropriate negotiations, manage multiple insertion orders while researching the right demographics and geo-targeting strategy can be minimized through a single solution that levels the digital playing field and accomplishes all of these functions simultaneously. Hyper-targeting screens in specific networks depending on an audience profile is the ideal solution for advertisers.  

 

Account managers no longer need to micromanage the tedious creative process and repurpose content time and time again while making sure it plays on all the select channels properly. Technology must prove insightful by boosting an aggregator’s ability to do all the essential homework upfront—by profiling each and every screen in a network, by taking into account all of that screen’s attributes, distribution capabilities, resolution, location, and even the audience most likely to congregate in front of that screen. Technology brings mind-blowing insight to the process of aggregation.

 

It doesn’t matter how many screens are in an aggregated group of networks—if it doesn’t accomplish the specific requirements and objectives of the campaign, it is simply not efficient. Targeting then becomes more meaningful if scale, aggregation, and insight are utilized harmoniously.

 

I think we are starting to see a pattern here—that perhaps all these functions need to work together to maximize efficiency. What is scale without precision targeting? What is aggregation without insight?

 

Developing Deeper Insight through Screen Profiling

 

The key to precision targeting centers around having the right information about your audience using the most relevant sources. Sources have to identify audience demographics on a local level. The U.S. Census fares well for general information and account managers and marketers do their best to make assumptions based on this data. Psychographic information is a little more challenging to come by, but is available via syndicated research studies, white papers, and sometimes provided by networks themselves.

 

Insight in audience targeting comes from using the right methodology to select each unique distribution platform, network, venue, and screen for an ad campaign. It is about understanding the right metrics that come into play when selecting venues and screens in each network. We take into account 130 different fields of information to profile a screen, which gives us unique unparallel insight into each network.

 

Having a robust database of each and every screen in a network is one sure way of developing deeper insight and efficiency. Screen profiling is the only way to be able to know that your message is getting to the right audience. You have to gather information from the right sources, but sometimes this is not enough. Sometimes it takes a phone call to a particular doctor’s office to find out that the majority of the patients there are Hispanic. But most of the time it is simply common sense. You should be able to type in Sports Fan in a search field, and all of Arena TV Network should show up in your results. Business office elevator screens should not. That is why screen profiling is the key to precision targeting efficiency. Marketing on a one-to-one basis elevates the campaign building process.  

 

Targeting at a local and zip code level at one time seemed daunting to advertisers. Now you can not only target audiences within three miles of a desired business location, you can do this at the drop of a dime, time it properly to launch in accordance to your promotion and marketing schedule, and instantaneously change, pause, or cancel multiple campaigns to execute various aspects of your overall marketing initiatives. Therefore the campaign management process also comes into play when dealing with precision targeting efficiency because the process of how you select media based on audience targeting is just as important.

 

Dynamic Integration through Cross-Platform Content Transformation

 

When I think of integration I’m talking about cross-platform mobility for a versatile digital asset, in the right contextually relevant distribution point (digital destination), targeted to the right audience, at the right time. Retail networks are working toward achieving this higher level of mobility. On the agency level, media directors are constantly trying to create succinct integrated campaigns, utilizing out-of-home and traditional mediums for branding, and interactive platforms for deeper levels of phased connectivity. It all depends on the campaign and marketing objectives, but precision targeting efficiency is affected by the strength of a particular digital asset, and the advertisers ability to maximize ROI through cross-channel distribution.

 

One digital asset across a select network of screens based on audience profiles. This is the true meaning of hyper-targeting in digital destination advertising. Dynamic integration means being able to break up that digital asset into layers, so that each combination of layers is seen properly—depending on the requirements of the screen in which the message is seen. As I have mentioned in a previous post:

 

Each piece can be combined into a given digital platform to create a unique message—in another digital destination, a different combination of layers might work better, or a single layer with the brand’s logo might be enough to create a lasting impression toward a purchase decision—it all depends on the objectives of the campaign. I am only giving an example of what may evolve from this transformation and harmonization technology.

 

Dynamic integration ultimately means being able to manage multiple tactical digital campaigns that are all a part of a larger end-to-end campaign. Advertisers should be able to execute as many individual campaigns as they want, be able to target with efficiency however they want, depending on what they know about their audience, or the media they utilize per campaign. Hyper-targeting should be accomplished if the right aggregation methods are in place to deliver a unified and dynamic platform for distribution. Entourage Advertising has all of these components and more—and should become the industry standard for cross-platform campaigns that maximize efficiency and ROI.

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The tide is turning as technology continues to evolve at broadband speed and audience segments become more sophisticated. Identifying these profiled segments naturally becomes more challenging as media vehicles multiply and the battle for awareness escalates. This is not a new obstacle in digital marketing—even with the evolution of data analysis, market research, and technologically advanced distribution platforms. What we are faced with is a challenge of combining the right kind of solutions to the most significant problems—the bottlenecks and obstacles that prevent advertisers from maximizing efficiency. It would be worthwhile to explore these components and more importantly—exploring the actual recipe that creates an ideal solution.

What does it mean to have a complete digital communication solution in digital out-of-home and digital destination advertising? Our CEO, Steve, has always been intent on creating “Nirvana” for advertisers. This, to me, is the only way to build a product: executing with the kind of rigorous attitude that transforms industries by asking “what’s wrong?” and “what can be done better?”

In the spirit of this inquisitive methodology, we asked those of who would benefit the most.
Several thought leaders in the space have coined our solution as being the “Holy Grail” of advertising. As flattering as this sounds, we didn’t stop at the first milestone and pat ourselves on the back. We knew that we had to dig deeper into the core elements of the solution and immediately ask how we can make it even better. This is why we have been meeting with key influencers and thought leaders in the space—to arm ourselves with the intelligence to continuously evolve our platform.

We have received the kind of feedback we need to make Entourage an even more effective platform. We sat down with a dozen or so thought-leaders in the space—the innovators, influencers, movers, and shakers that know what it takes to create a great solution—digital EVPs, head media directors, C-level network leaders with the drive and intelligence to get to the core of what this industry needs—a jumpstart—something fresh to reinvigorate the industry in a meaningful way.

So far, according to thought leaders in the media and advertising industry, these are the elements that collectively create a complete platform:
• Robust, versatile, and dynamic technology
• Audience profiling and targeting intelligence
• The right information presented at the right time
• Metric variance against total audience
• Third-party research validation
• Comprehensive network profiling
• Intuitive campaign building process

When it comes to audience profiling, leveraging comprehensive, consistent, and useful marketing intelligence has always been somewhat elusive. There are many tools that exist that can help marketers identify silos (to break them) and entities that can drive business more efficiently—the Atlases and Experians of the world know what great media solution platforms need to be—dynamic, consumer-oriented, fresh, and completely versatile.

A lot of it depends on the way a marketer wants to buy media—the way they want to build audience profiles, the way they want to identify the right media vehicles to reach that particular audience using metrics they know, or perhaps they have the intuition to reach the market they want—they should be able to use the same tool in a more meaningful way to achieve targeted visibility in a place where it matters most. Our audience profiling methodology makes sense for advertisers because they don’t need a major research company to tell them that certain venues are more valuable than others when reaching their market. Our profiling team does the heavy lifting by assessing each and every screen in a network to match the audience with the right media vehicle. But if third party validation is what they need for a media vehicle to get on the plan, then we provide that as well. We are working on incorporating the appropriate metric information throughout the campaign building process.

It all goes back to that fundamental principle of efficiency. What is the right combination of solutions? How do all of these components come together cohesively to help a marketer reach their objectives in the most effective way? At the end of the day, agencies want to serve their clients better. So networks have a responsibility to create, fuel, and facilitate the most effective solutions to execute campaigns.

This will drive the industry forward very quickly and what will elevate innovation and marketing savvy. This is intrinsic to building effective enterprise solutions—incorporating fundamental attributes that make the planning and buying process more intuitive—a combination of stewardship and technologically advanced tools to eliminate the layer of inefficiency. This is what the influencers are asking for and this is what we are delivering as we evolve Entourage.

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Bill Gerba posted a poignant article on a survey recently conducted that explored the current state of the digital signage industry. The survey gathered answers from industry professionals, agencies, and brands.

The most interesting finding centered around the industry’s biggest challenge—explaining the value of digital destination media. A critical question was posed: “What do you think is the biggest challenge behind buying/selling digital signage today?”

The answers were as follows:

Too hard to explain the value 34%
Requires too much cooperation between different disciplines/departments/people 27.7%
Still too expensive 18.4%
Too hard to keep the signs “fresh” with new content 8.5%
Too technically complicated 4.3%
Other answer 7.1%

According to Gerba, “the key takeaway here is that while the cost of implementing digital signage has plummeted in recent years, as an industry we still have a hard time answering the question “but what does it do?” That’s a big problem, since more and more screens are being deployed every day (fueled by hype and decreasing prices). That means that more and more screens will be missing their targets (in terms of ROI or other metrics) and probably getting hung up on the same problems that we’ve been facing for a decade or more now.”

It would be extremely worthwhile to explore what advertisers find valuable in digital signage/digital destination advertising. The conversation could also stem from what they could potentially value, if we could fix the many problems, bottlenecks, and inefficiencies in the industry. Each of the pain points mentioned above touches on the notion of efficiency.

Ultimately I would argue that efficiency is what advertisers find most valuable in any advertising/marketing campaign they choose to engage in. This is why interactive platforms are so valuable—they are highly measureable, they can reach their audience in a state of contextual relevance—and capture them in a setting in which they will be more likely to purchase a product.

But digital signage is currently not efficient for them, simply because networks are so fragmented, so disparate, that even if the media vehicle has an impressive footprint, targetability is still a challenge. The other challenge is that they will be burdened with having to create dozens of versions of a single digital asset, since each network has their own content management system. The process becomes highly inefficient.

If we were to remove these two bottlenecks, the industry would truly be revitalized. Then value would not only be explained with ease—value will be intrinsic to the process. This would also eliminate the rest of the pain points and challenges—digital signage would no longer be too expensive, because wasted impressions would be limited, collaboration between departments would be synchronized and there would be a more efficient process in place. Imagine being able to simply build a campaign on a web-based portal, through which you could hyper-target select screens in any given network based on your specific audience profiles. This would be intrinsically valuable to advertisers.

In terms of keeping the signs “fresh” with new content, I believe that a new era of content producers will naturally emerge. I am getting ahead of myself but I believe that if a unified distribution platform for digital destinations were fully functional and mature, then this would give creative shops the incentive to push the envelope by producing creative assets that are completely versatile and dynamic, easily inserted into different destination platforms. These bundled creative packages would consist of different versions of an ad—similar to TV spots that are broken down into different lengths. I’ll touch on this a little bit, but I have a feeling that I will need to dedicate an entire post to this subject once people start wrapping their heads around the capabilities of a unified solution.

For digital destinations, the complete creative asset would perhaps consist of various “layers” that get broken down and reassembled to create the entire ad—each layer can be assimilated into one end-to-end advertisement, but can also be used in a combination of layers. One layer could be a backdrop visual, a drop of water that continuously flows for one minute straight. The second layer could be the text, copy, and messaging, the third layer will be the brand’s logo, which remains consistent throughout each digital destination.

Each piece can be combined into a given digital platform to create a unique message—in another digital destination, a different combination of layers might work better, or a single layer with the brand’s logo might be enough to create a lasting impression toward a purchase decision—it all depends on the objectives of the campaign. I am only giving an example of what may evolve from this transformation and harmonization technology.

In terms of the solution being too technically complicated, I would argue that the breadth, depth, and scope of the technology doesn’t matter—as long as it works to help them reach their marketing objectives. Advertisers have valued the power of digital signage, its reach, and its collective footprint, but an essential piece was missing—being able to navigate through multiple networks.

So now if someone were to ask, “Exactly what does digital signage do?” You can answer that “It allows you to reach your specific audience anywhere with a pixel.” If that isn’t valuable, I don’t know what is.

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Keith Kelsen, founder and chairman of MediaTile, revised his list of The Top Trends in Digital Signage for 2009. He wrote the list back in January and has now made a few additions. The article by itself is insightful and compelling, but I thought it might be interesting to enhance this viewpoint by exploring how each of these trends inevitably intersects the next evolution of digital destination advertising technologies and marketing intelligence.

I have no doubt that the years to come will be a period of significant transformation on every level for many industries. We are just now seeing glimpses of the vast opportunities that lie ahead, due to the robust technology we have at our disposal. We are on the cusp of something phenomenal, too extraordinary to discuss in one post, so I’ll go over each of Kelsen’s identified trends one by one and elaborate how Digital Advertising Technologies will play a significant role in shaping a new industry.

Trend #1: Content is the next main talking point for the industry

No doubt, ‘Content is king.’ This has been repeatedly ingrained in our psyches for as long as digital signage has been around. Content providers are constantly flexing their creative muscles to tell stories and communicate in more effective ways. But to me, this brings up a more important question: How can marketing intelligence improve the content creation process? It’s obvious that no matter how compelling an ad is, even if I’m singing the theme song and dancing where the impression was made, I won’t respond to the message unless the message is for me. I just won’t buy a box of Tampax unless my wife asked me to, and even this is a stretch! A more interesting discussion evolves from this: what kind of digital content has a consistent impact and response-eliciting attributes, regardless of contextual relevance? Can a thirty second spot on TV deliver the same message in an elevator? Obviously not, unless the elevator screen was sound-enabled right? With the advent of content transformation and harmonization technology, creatives need to step it up and create new and innovative templates that can be distributed cross platform. This will be the norm and content trendsetters will rule the kingdom.

Trend #2 Traditional broadcasters are getting into the digital signage marketplace

Kelsen touches on my previous points as he explains how traditional broadcasters are tasking their creative departments to implement cutting-edge tools to create the next evolution of digital signage content. Will they be Flash, Rich-Media enabled? After Effects and CGI-oriented down the line? I sure hope so. This will have to happen in order to evolve the industry. But if there was indeed a unified platform for distribution, and a technology that can transform content and deliver it anywhere with a pixel, this could also mean a transformation in the media buying process itself–maybe even syndication. Also, can a digital signage media vehicle support brand initiatives in new ways, blurring the lines between platforms? Content transformation technology can truly lead to pure integrated marketing. Account directors no longer have to manage multiple campaigns. One buy means executing an array of advertising initiatives and a new level of interactivity.

Trend #3 Agencies are awakening to the power of digital signage

His points are sound but I would also be willing to argue that even though agencies are realizing the power of digital signage, they are also weary of the vehicle and frustrated because of the lack of efficiency in this space. The digital signage industry is too fragmented to execute efficient media buys. Too many networks, too many formats to recreate content. Not enough time. There needs to be ONE platform to deliver brand messaging across ALL digital signage networks and a technology that can transform content and deliver it to any audience, anywhere with a pixel. One distribution channel across multiple platforms. One powerful audience targeting application. This is what advertisers and agencies value. Efficiency. If you could take the power of a technology with a global enterprise solution and digital asset management classification, and combine this power with an application that had the robustness of an Atlas Media Console through which you can hyper-target select audiences, agencies will call this solution the ‘Holy Grail.’ They have.

Trend #4 Brands are shifting money to this market from traditional TV

Brands are indeed shifting budgets to digital signage, but also keep in mind that budgets are getting filtered into the digital space in general, not just digital destinations. Online is still what advertisers value the most because of its measurablility and functionality. If we can bring the power and functionality of the web to digital signage, the industry will truly be revived. I just think that a layer of sophistication needs to be added to the mix when it comes to measuring audiences. OVAB is currently working on establishing a clear set of guidelines for media planners to abide by in order to measure audience recall and to justify media spending on select networks.

Trend #5 Cross-platform and interaction with cell phones is critical and Trend #6 Interactivity and measurement

Multi-platform integration will always be the industry’s hottest topic. Mobile is a natural compliment to any digital destination campaign because mobile itself, is a digital destination. It displays messages with pixels. All global brands understand how important mobile is and they’ve proved it by spending billions of dollars on mobile campaigns with phased interactivity and opt-in initiatives. The next evolution here will be an evolution in proximity advertising and blue tooth technologies. D.A.T is partnered with all of the major digital sports networks like the NBA, NHL, and Nascar. These networks have the most captive audiences because sports fans are the most loyal audiences in the world. Their participation in any interactive marketing initiatives have a huge success rate granted the campaign is compelling and trendsetting. Mobile is measuable and functions like a click-through in digital signage. This kind of complimentary component will add value to any digital campaign.

Trend #7 Data-driven content or ad search for DOOH

This is where Digital Advertising Technologies establishes itself as the ultimate trendsetter and innovator of smart advertising solutions in the digital space. D.A.T is paving the way for the next generation innovation in digital destination advertising. Today, Entourage Advertising is the only platform that offers full media planning and audience targeting solutions that can execute powerful, focused ad placement across all networks of digital destinations worldwide, enabling advertisers to reach their target market with captivating precision through the digital universe of the Entourage Media Network. Entourage helps advertisers better understand their audience, maximize budgets, and improve ROI. So far, this solution is unmatched in the industry.

Trend #9 Consolidation and failures will continue

Networks are simply having a hard time monetizing their remnant ad inventory. This is why the industry is in need of a versatile aggregator to help extend their reach and increase their business. Advertisers want efficiency. The only way to accomplish this intelligently is to consolidate all digital destination platfoms into one unified media channel. Since content transformation and harmonization is already a reality, a complete and unified network is already growing and evolving its audience-targeting intelligence. You guessed it, Entourage Advertising and the Entourage Media Network.

Trend #10 Growth for the industry is positive

Growth is definitely positive if the industry is fixed first. A collective effort needs to take place, one that refurbishes a fresh set of marketing intelligence into a tool in which advertisers can target their audiences more effectively. Growth will only take place once this layer of sophistication blankets the entire industry.

Trend #11 The print industry seeks digital

I forsee the next trendsetter will have a digital foundation as their core solution, but print and all other types of marketing can be an added value to the campaign. Perhaps all media should be bought this way–through one platform that has the ability to aggregate digital destinations the same way Google AdWords aggregates websites. The true trendsetter is the company that bears in mind all of these trends, and delivers a solution that is versatile enough and adoptable on a massive scale. So far, Entourage Advertising seems poised to be the ultimate trendsetting solution.

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I have worked in media, advertising, and marketing for more than ten years now, in all facets: from broadcast, event planning, guerilla marketing, and print, to sitting on the agency side of the business building online CPM campaigns, interactive strategies, and of course, immersing myself in the digital space, and now working intimately in the digital signage industry.

I have learned a lot about the digital signage industry over the past two years. The most important thing I’ve learned is that the industry is very broken. This post is simply a rant that is dedicated to how we can begin to approach solving the major problems of the industry and leaping over the major challenges by shifting our perspective of the industry. In turn, a collective shift may just evolve into a unified solution that will bring value, insight, and efficiency to a newly invigorated industry.

Let me start by saying that there is an immediate need to invigorate the digital signage and digital out-of-home industries—so much so that we should even change the name of the industry itself. The term “DOOH” should only remain to be a remark coined by Homer Simpson and not an acronym that identifies the sophisticated animal that it is: fast-growing, rapidly-evolving, cutting-edge, and technologically advanced—these elements are its core strengths, but there remains to be a need to utilize the full-scope of these vast media platforms, as they grow and evolve with astonishing velocity. The power and versatility of these networks have great potential that is far from being reached. Herein belies the need to reinvigorate it. The need comes from two major sides of the business: the networks and the advertisers.

This need is underscored by a significant lack of advertising dollars allocated to digital out-of-home platforms. No allocated media budget means no business for networks equates to no growth. But the barrier is quite legitimate from the advertiser’s perspective. They don’t allocate budgets because networks are so fragmented and vast, that advertisers and media planners don’t have the time to navigate through cluttered networks inefficiently.

Therefore the pattern is detrimentally reciprocal. On the network side, major digital networks simply need to fill their remnant space. On the other side, advertisers like large footprints, but need to target their audience intelligently. Not to mention the challenge of having to reformat a single piece of creative content to distribute on multiple digital platforms. The industry needs a completely fresh perspective on how to maximize efficiency with creative technology, and a way to harmonize creative content across all digital platforms.

The terms “digital out-of-home” or “DOOH” are somewhat stale and uninteresting, undermining the dynamic nature of the platform and “newness” of the industry itself. These terms take with it some mediocre connotations about the platform’s performance and the terms don’t quite resonate as dynamically as Web 2.0, Interactive Media, or Integrated Advertising.

This notion reveals something inherent in the current perception of the industry, as well as a shift in thinking from the thought leaders that decide what is valuable and efficient. These are the digital media providers, the advertisers and the agencies that represent them. Perhaps a shift in thinking means that we need to get rid of these terms completely, as the terms “out-of-home” advertising still carries with it implications of freeway billboards, coffee sleeves, and wallscapes. Not that these media vehicles are subordinate—it’s just that the digital age requires a new lexicon to guide a new and reinvigorated industry. There is indeed a new perspective, a new way to approach it, a new term altogether.

What if we call it—Digital Destinations. A digital destination simply refers to anything with a pixel. Our vision for a versatile, fully integrated digital network must have the capability of being able to distribute content to any digital destination within any given network with an API. The power of this vehicle must have a robust technological infrastructure that allows networks to deliver digital content to any endpoint in their digital real-estate portfolio:

· Digital Billboard
· Digital IPTV
· Large Format LED
· Digital Vending
· Mobile Device
· Email & Web
· Streaming Media
· PC Platforms
· Wireless Networks
· Public Kiosks
· VOIP Networks
· Outdoor LCD
· Jumbotrons

A new term is needed to encapsulate how to seamlessly reach digital endpoints at the touch of a button, and more importantly, the term is needed to embody the implications for a revolutionized integrated solution, and a digitally-transformed industry.

The term ‘Digital Destinations’ was originally coined by Steve Roberts, the visionary CEO of Digital Advertising Technologies, who simply wanted to create a solution that works, a solution that advertisers would actually find useful, a solution that advertisers and media planners actually took part in building, which contributes to its success. This new terminology is the foundation of D.A.T.’s philosophy and brand, because this company is intent on changing the way advertisers communicate to their audiences, the way brands plan and buy media, and the way marketers micro-target individuals.

It doesn’t mean that there should be a new dictionary for everyone to learn among the many media planning languages they are already learning and just starting to build confidence in. It just means that there should be a more effective solution that will take this “new” industry to captivating levels of efficiency, growth, and success. The new term “digital destination” encapsulates the ultimate vision and philosophy of what’s to come.

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