ANYWHERE WITH A PIXEL

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.