Okay, because I am not sure anyone ever reads these posts, I am feeling more free to expound on more cockamamie theories and ideas I have been tossing around in my noggin.
First, I don't believe DIGITAL SIGNAGE can continue to be audio free if it is to get the kind of ad dollars that people are hoping. We need to hear the entertainment, so I turn to the TECHNOLOGY breakthroughs to direct audio, to control audio. If OOH remains 80-90% audio-free then it is a long road.
Having said that, I realize that it is location-dependent. Most retail networks can remain audio free (personally, the cacaphony of retail is aggravating enough without Sunjay Gupta telling me I'm gonna get a heart attack or some grating music video. Tired solutions. Uninspired.
So invigorating to think and strategize, the sheer scope of the possibilities is intimidating, like facing an open blue sea.
On Tribal lands, we have a unique opportunity to create narrowcast networks that will create jobs and revenue and, most importantly, an outlet for self-expression. Suddenly the media can be harnessed.
We can teach people to fish. Why not use TRAINING as a part of any network. People tend to support that which they had a hand in creating. Why not enroll the employees in the space. Play with us. What are your ideas? How would you suggest we use this tool in your space?
Too many think they are the one who knows best and thereby miss out on the answer that is just outside of the box.
8.24.2007
8.23.2007
Plotting
We are inching towards creating something that is bigger than the sum of its parts.
Our initiative has gathered some serious momentum and gotten the attention of some serious players. Next week we are hosting a SUMMIT on Digital Signage at the Westin Hotel LAX.
This is an invitation-only gathering of some real visionaries in the space who want to synergize and strategize a significant entry.
Among the participants is one of those BEHOMETH global companies that has been prognosticated about jumping into the DIGITAL SIGNAGE INDUSTRY. One of those 30+ billion dollar companies who needs to step into the space in order to help standardize procedures and start piecing together the fragmented environment that the 500+ little companies scrambling around vying for contracts has created.
This would be an amazing step in the right direction for the industry at large.
My partner likened this company's interest in our goings-on to "a bear being interested/investing in a tick," but it proves that we are onto something here.
We have identified a niche in the marketplace that is difficult to penetrate for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the distrust that still exists in the world between the oppressors and the oppressed (... but that is a different blog entirely). Suffice it to say that we have nurtured our relationships within the American Indian community by having a sincere desire to CREATE CONNECTION by mending the hoop.
We want to BUILD MEDIA CAPACITY in Indian country so that people can harness the tools of this century and tell their own stories.
We aim to be the biggest provider of targeted entertainment for "closed networks" in North America. In order to accomplish this mission, the tick welcomes the bear's interest.
Aho!
Our initiative has gathered some serious momentum and gotten the attention of some serious players. Next week we are hosting a SUMMIT on Digital Signage at the Westin Hotel LAX.
This is an invitation-only gathering of some real visionaries in the space who want to synergize and strategize a significant entry.
Among the participants is one of those BEHOMETH global companies that has been prognosticated about jumping into the DIGITAL SIGNAGE INDUSTRY. One of those 30+ billion dollar companies who needs to step into the space in order to help standardize procedures and start piecing together the fragmented environment that the 500+ little companies scrambling around vying for contracts has created.
This would be an amazing step in the right direction for the industry at large.
My partner likened this company's interest in our goings-on to "a bear being interested/investing in a tick," but it proves that we are onto something here.
We have identified a niche in the marketplace that is difficult to penetrate for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the distrust that still exists in the world between the oppressors and the oppressed (... but that is a different blog entirely). Suffice it to say that we have nurtured our relationships within the American Indian community by having a sincere desire to CREATE CONNECTION by mending the hoop.
We want to BUILD MEDIA CAPACITY in Indian country so that people can harness the tools of this century and tell their own stories.
We aim to be the biggest provider of targeted entertainment for "closed networks" in North America. In order to accomplish this mission, the tick welcomes the bear's interest.
Aho!
8.08.2007
Wild West
I gained a cursory interest in digital signage in January when I heard the two words put together for the first time. I wanted to know more so I went to the Expo in March. I called my mentor and friend -- tv producer Bob Banner -- from the streets of Chicago and told him about the electric atmosphere there, about how no one seemed to be thinking about THE POTENTIAL of using these closed networks as TARGETED AVENUES FOR AD-SUPPORTED ENTERTAINMENT.
I told him that it seemed as if no one knew what the eff they were doing or should be doing.... and found out that he went through the exact same experience in that same city...nearly 60 years ago.
In 1948, he was a theater professor at Northwestern recruited to make sense out of a new media called television.
Digital Signage is such a brand new industry. In spite of all the bluster, no one knows nothin. And those that act like they do, still haven't convinced the other pieces of their "team" (manufacturers, software folks, retailers, advertisers, merch folks) to follow their lead.
Consequently, it's a big clusterf*ck, totally fragmented environment.
Why am I excited by this?
Because it is exactly the way TV started in the late 1940's. No one knew anything about the new medium of television.
Watch this interview of one of the pioneers of television describe the atmosphere in those days. Copy and Paste the addy below into your BROWSER. About 6 minutes into the segment, Bob tells how TV started, how no one knew what they were doing, and how this exciting environment created real opportunities for those with their heads up:
CLICK HERE
So I take all these on-the-cutting-edge machinations and countless iterations of THE solution with a grain of "how can my organization be doing this better?"
Standardization in the space is a couple of years away, at least. There are simply too many people who think they have THE answer and therefore stop looking around, and thereby further delaying our trip up the bell curve.
So with all that in mind, here are links to trade organizations. A cursory glance will illustrate what OOH advertising trends are in place at present:
CLICK HERE
AND HERE
AND HERE
Hang on to your hats, this could get a little western.....
I told him that it seemed as if no one knew what the eff they were doing or should be doing.... and found out that he went through the exact same experience in that same city...nearly 60 years ago.
In 1948, he was a theater professor at Northwestern recruited to make sense out of a new media called television.
Digital Signage is such a brand new industry. In spite of all the bluster, no one knows nothin. And those that act like they do, still haven't convinced the other pieces of their "team" (manufacturers, software folks, retailers, advertisers, merch folks) to follow their lead.
Consequently, it's a big clusterf*ck, totally fragmented environment.
Why am I excited by this?
Because it is exactly the way TV started in the late 1940's. No one knew anything about the new medium of television.
Watch this interview of one of the pioneers of television describe the atmosphere in those days. Copy and Paste the addy below into your BROWSER. About 6 minutes into the segment, Bob tells how TV started, how no one knew what they were doing, and how this exciting environment created real opportunities for those with their heads up:
CLICK HERE
So I take all these on-the-cutting-edge machinations and countless iterations of THE solution with a grain of "how can my organization be doing this better?"
Standardization in the space is a couple of years away, at least. There are simply too many people who think they have THE answer and therefore stop looking around, and thereby further delaying our trip up the bell curve.
So with all that in mind, here are links to trade organizations. A cursory glance will illustrate what OOH advertising trends are in place at present:
CLICK HERE
AND HERE
AND HERE
Hang on to your hats, this could get a little western.....
8.06.2007
Movement
Time flies when you are trying to change the world! We have made tremendous strides in the last 2 months towards getting our new initiative off the ground. Rob Gorrie is my new hero. He is a next-level business owner who has taught me so much about this new industry. He founded a company called AdCentricity that provides a hugely important service in the marketplace.
AdCentricity's model is to aggregate digital signage screens in order to make the space more attractive to premum media buyers. Advertisers are not going to put out-of-home advertising dollars into the marketplace until there is a critical mass of screens (read: eyeballs) for them to reach. AdCentricity is accelerating this growth.
Instead of myriad Digital Signage networks INDIVIDUALLY vying for premium ad buys, Rob is quietly building a powerful platform from which to sell space/time. Everyone wins. SeeSaw is another company in the space; they too are non-exclusively aggregating screens but there is an important distinction between the 2 companies. AdCentricity is changing the way the game is played by forcing the national brands to make PREMIUM AD BUYS into the space while SeeSaw is placing remnant buys. The Industry is so fragmented that I am grateful for both of these companies. They are both accelerating what would take forever if it were up to individual Networks to do.
I spoke to the owner of one of these 'individualists' who scoffed at the idea that someone would charge a fee to sell advertising on their behalf (typically 20%-30%).
"They are doing exactly what we want to do."
Yeah, but...They are doing it NOW.
"The national brands will be coming to us. We won't need a middle man."
Oh yeah? And when exactly do you think Coca Cola or The Gap is going to be interested in your 30 screens?
This kind of thinking is keeping the industry fragmented as well as keeping these networks from generating the kind of revenue that we all know is possible.
My interest is in the future of these Networks, which I know will soon be clamoring for the kind of content that I think of when I hear the word content. Not commercials. Entertainment. This day is coming, and industry innovators like Rob Gorrie are leading us there.
AdCentricity's model is to aggregate digital signage screens in order to make the space more attractive to premum media buyers. Advertisers are not going to put out-of-home advertising dollars into the marketplace until there is a critical mass of screens (read: eyeballs) for them to reach. AdCentricity is accelerating this growth.
Instead of myriad Digital Signage networks INDIVIDUALLY vying for premium ad buys, Rob is quietly building a powerful platform from which to sell space/time. Everyone wins. SeeSaw is another company in the space; they too are non-exclusively aggregating screens but there is an important distinction between the 2 companies. AdCentricity is changing the way the game is played by forcing the national brands to make PREMIUM AD BUYS into the space while SeeSaw is placing remnant buys. The Industry is so fragmented that I am grateful for both of these companies. They are both accelerating what would take forever if it were up to individual Networks to do.
I spoke to the owner of one of these 'individualists' who scoffed at the idea that someone would charge a fee to sell advertising on their behalf (typically 20%-30%).
"They are doing exactly what we want to do."
Yeah, but...They are doing it NOW.
"The national brands will be coming to us. We won't need a middle man."
Oh yeah? And when exactly do you think Coca Cola or The Gap is going to be interested in your 30 screens?
This kind of thinking is keeping the industry fragmented as well as keeping these networks from generating the kind of revenue that we all know is possible.
My interest is in the future of these Networks, which I know will soon be clamoring for the kind of content that I think of when I hear the word content. Not commercials. Entertainment. This day is coming, and industry innovators like Rob Gorrie are leading us there.
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