We are being inundated all of a sudden with opportunities to create content for various "channels." We are very excited and cautiously optimistic. It creates another chicken and the egg scenario: first it was the whole who is going to put in the screen without advertisers in place vs. what advertiser is going to buy ad-time on a non-existent network; now it is create the content and then we'll sell the advertising vs. sell the advertising so you can afford to create the content!
HD video content done well is not cheap. It is not TRIVIA art cards or powerpoint. It is not ads. These channels are going to have distinct "broadcast-quality" graphics packages branding each one of them. They are going to have general interest and site specific short form dynamic media content.
It is astounding what has happened in a little over one year in terms of the industry's sophistication as it relates to video content.
It indeed is not TV. But then again, television is the closest experience that the public or layman can relate to... When I say "digital signage," it is an inadequate term. I am not talking menu boards or screens displaying sale items on aisle 3. I am talking about comedy and short films and informative and entertaining hosted segments on any variety of topics. So what do I call this?
I need like-minded individuals to help me coin a term for this next iteration of digital signage. What is it? Is it "closed networks"? Too limiting. Doesn't describe what it is. "Media out-of-home"? TVlite?
Ideas? We need a new term. Narrowcasting almost gets it. out-of-home media networks does to... IPTV is not Digital Signage: the software isn't sophisticated enough to manage content playlists or stream the kind of quality we need or zone screens.... So it is Digital Signage because we use DS software and media players... Hmmmm....
The Future is upon us. Game on.
6.17.2008
6.07.2008
Blind optimism
Had an eye-opening meeting yesterday with a blind man who is head of sales for a digital signage company here in LA. He has a terrific model that has his screens generating revenue by filling the 15 minute loop with 30 second ads from businesses within a 5 mile radius of the business that has a screen. This helps business owners generate revenue (as they participate with a percentage of ad-revenue) as well as local businesses who don't want to advertise on local cable or radio.
If I have a barbershop, it doesn't make sense to advertise on cable or radio because 98% of the viewers and listeners will not be in the vicinity of the barbershop and will not travel across town for a haircut. I see an ad on cable for Tito's Tacos in Culver City. It is indeed an amazing taco, but the same ad is running all over Los Angeles. If I'm in the valley or Hollywood, the chances of driving to Culver City for a damn taco is remote, no matter how good --- especially now that gas is about to be 5 bucks a gallon!
As natural resources become more valued, communities will become more insulated. Needs will change for small business owners and residents alike. I for one would like to discover a new dry cleaner or bank in my neighborhood. Smart marketing.
While not as scalable as other business models, I think my sightless friend has a unique community-based "vision" that can be replicated in other markets. Perhaps we tweak the model to include some "targeted entertainment" and streamline content management, we just might find a worthy niche. Many business owners would like to get the word out to the people who may indeed populate their stores or use their services! What a concept!
We laughed at the fact that this blind man was educating sighted small business owners all over town about the power of digital signage.
If I have a barbershop, it doesn't make sense to advertise on cable or radio because 98% of the viewers and listeners will not be in the vicinity of the barbershop and will not travel across town for a haircut. I see an ad on cable for Tito's Tacos in Culver City. It is indeed an amazing taco, but the same ad is running all over Los Angeles. If I'm in the valley or Hollywood, the chances of driving to Culver City for a damn taco is remote, no matter how good --- especially now that gas is about to be 5 bucks a gallon!
As natural resources become more valued, communities will become more insulated. Needs will change for small business owners and residents alike. I for one would like to discover a new dry cleaner or bank in my neighborhood. Smart marketing.
While not as scalable as other business models, I think my sightless friend has a unique community-based "vision" that can be replicated in other markets. Perhaps we tweak the model to include some "targeted entertainment" and streamline content management, we just might find a worthy niche. Many business owners would like to get the word out to the people who may indeed populate their stores or use their services! What a concept!
We laughed at the fact that this blind man was educating sighted small business owners all over town about the power of digital signage.
5.28.2008
"digitized signage"
The vast majority of the people in the entertainment industry don't know anything about DIGITAL SIGNAGE. I work in Hollywood and meet with people in mainstream entertainment. Yesterday, I had two meetings that illustrate this point. My morning appointment was with a prominent TV writer who writes for the Oscars and most of the variety TV specials on broadcast and cable. He --- like most --- never thought about all those damn screens he sees everywhere as a new avenue for "targeted entertainment," that people have to program those screens like ANY network and that advertisers have to get their messages out there and that OOH is a natural avenue for them, and that --- like TV in the 50's --- CONTENT ultimately will drive the marketplace. He immediately saw the frontier.
My afternoon meeting was with a casting director who has done movies and TV for the last 15 years. She too had never considered the various flat screens popping up at her bank and florist and coffee shop and pet store as a bonefide vehicle for broadcast-quality media. She said "all I see is powerpoint and bad production value and news, news, news...maybe some weather." Exactly. She immediately saw the future.
Being at the epicenter of ENTERTAINMENT and coming from a pedigree that can be traced back to the very beginning of television gives BCP a huge advantage in this burgeoning industry. We are walking in the right direction and, as Oliver Wendell Holmes said (paraphrasing) sometimes that is as important as where you stand.
We are certainly not there yet. Advertisers are skittish. Research is spotty. Standard practices are non-existent. People are in a huge chicken-or-egg battle over how to start (do I build out or sell advertising? Wellllll, can't do one without the other and can't do the other without having the one...). And the old guard in this industry (people I respect greatly and in whose debt we all owe our present open field running...innovative technology and forward-thinking leaders like Gerba and Haynes and Gorrie and these companies out carrying the canary....thank you thank you thank you...) are attached nonetheless to the "known."
Think about it: the possibilities are unlimited. It is a revolution out there. Here in Hollywood, the writing has been on the wall since the proliferation of CABLE CHANNELS. Fewer and fewer big numbers; more and more niche audiences.
With digital technology creating the highway and the possibility of out-of-home Networks, we can go anywhere. Possibilities are unlimited. Those that say we need to stop and establish what works and duplicate that fail to realize that at this point in the industry, by the time you duplicate success, the ball is somewhere else. And so is the audience.
We must keep trying new things. New ideas. Stay fluid. In the flow. We must. Otherwise we do not innovate. We do not break through the morass of obstacles we all face.
Onward!
My afternoon meeting was with a casting director who has done movies and TV for the last 15 years. She too had never considered the various flat screens popping up at her bank and florist and coffee shop and pet store as a bonefide vehicle for broadcast-quality media. She said "all I see is powerpoint and bad production value and news, news, news...maybe some weather." Exactly. She immediately saw the future.
Being at the epicenter of ENTERTAINMENT and coming from a pedigree that can be traced back to the very beginning of television gives BCP a huge advantage in this burgeoning industry. We are walking in the right direction and, as Oliver Wendell Holmes said (paraphrasing) sometimes that is as important as where you stand.
We are certainly not there yet. Advertisers are skittish. Research is spotty. Standard practices are non-existent. People are in a huge chicken-or-egg battle over how to start (do I build out or sell advertising? Wellllll, can't do one without the other and can't do the other without having the one...). And the old guard in this industry (people I respect greatly and in whose debt we all owe our present open field running...innovative technology and forward-thinking leaders like Gerba and Haynes and Gorrie and these companies out carrying the canary....thank you thank you thank you...) are attached nonetheless to the "known."
Think about it: the possibilities are unlimited. It is a revolution out there. Here in Hollywood, the writing has been on the wall since the proliferation of CABLE CHANNELS. Fewer and fewer big numbers; more and more niche audiences.
With digital technology creating the highway and the possibility of out-of-home Networks, we can go anywhere. Possibilities are unlimited. Those that say we need to stop and establish what works and duplicate that fail to realize that at this point in the industry, by the time you duplicate success, the ball is somewhere else. And so is the audience.
We must keep trying new things. New ideas. Stay fluid. In the flow. We must. Otherwise we do not innovate. We do not break through the morass of obstacles we all face.
Onward!
5.22.2008
possibility
Dave Haynes is an elder statesman in this industry. I bow before him. I enjoy his steady and measured output even though I'm not a fan of BroadSign. Below is a link to his BLOG and an excerpt from an entry yesterday and then a response I posted.
His Blog: 16:9
Yesterday's Entry (check out link to report below):
"Interesting little analysis posted today by Northern Sky Research , a Boston-based market research firm."
And here is my comment on the matter:
Ridiculous naysaying. Ours is a nascent industry. Of course people are getting it wrong.
And the people that come after will learn from these trailblazers. And the “bad” and the “ugly” are essential for there to be “good” in the first place.
We have to remember that Everything About Communication is changing in our society…and that to try to assess or find or even try to establish rules or a definitive how-to is folly.
I realize that this is VERY unsettling to those who do not have a high tolerance for ambiguity (read: analysts, researchers and most in the traditional media industry).
However, NOT KNOWING is essential in order to move things forward.
Advertisers have been trying to find a place to take their money where they can reach their customers’ customers for years as cable cut into broadcast eyeballs and now as internet et al cuts into cable.
To raise this kind of a red flag is static on the line between you the industry visionary and the goal of a breakthrough…
Ride the waves and don’t be scared off by those who fall off their boards — and especially not by those standing at the shore, waving and telling us how dangerous it is out here in the water…
All there is… is possibility.
His Blog: 16:9
Yesterday's Entry (check out link to report below):
"Interesting little analysis posted today by Northern Sky Research , a Boston-based market research firm."
And here is my comment on the matter:
Ridiculous naysaying. Ours is a nascent industry. Of course people are getting it wrong.
And the people that come after will learn from these trailblazers. And the “bad” and the “ugly” are essential for there to be “good” in the first place.
We have to remember that Everything About Communication is changing in our society…and that to try to assess or find or even try to establish rules or a definitive how-to is folly.
I realize that this is VERY unsettling to those who do not have a high tolerance for ambiguity (read: analysts, researchers and most in the traditional media industry).
However, NOT KNOWING is essential in order to move things forward.
Advertisers have been trying to find a place to take their money where they can reach their customers’ customers for years as cable cut into broadcast eyeballs and now as internet et al cuts into cable.
To raise this kind of a red flag is static on the line between you the industry visionary and the goal of a breakthrough…
Ride the waves and don’t be scared off by those who fall off their boards — and especially not by those standing at the shore, waving and telling us how dangerous it is out here in the water…
All there is… is possibility.
5.21.2008
Media Training for Native Youth
BCP and NMTN also helped jump start a media training initiative at Fox Studios.
Thanks to visionary leadership by Gerald Alcantar (pictured), Fox Studios VP of Diversity Development, the program is now one of the industry's success stories. Every June, the Fox Studios American Indian Summer Institute gives native youth hands-on experience in production and post production. In addition, they are introduced to job possibilities in the industry, and, as important, the industry is introduced to native youth from around the country.
View Excerpts from BCP Training Projects:
2002 - Tribal TANF high school workshop
2003 - Fox Studios AISI
2004 - NPR Next Generation workshop
2005 - Fox Studios AISI
2006 - Fox Studios AISI
The Evolution of a Vision....
In 1999, BCP began working with Floyd Red Crow Westerman (pictured left), Syd Beane (pictured right middle) and the Southern California Indian Centers, Inc. to create a job training program for American Indians in film and television production.
Floyd passed on in the fall of 2007, but his vision is alive and well...
The job training program he initiated has grown into the Native Media and Technology Network, a national initiative dedicated to building media capacity and a job pipeline for American Indians through training and the creation of culturally relevant programming. NMTN has since affiliated with non-profit community centers all over the country and over 300 tribes.
The NMTN tri-chairs are (pictured upper right: left to right) Frank Blythe (Omaha), Syd Beane (Minneapolis) and Lyn Dennis (Pacific Northwest). Shortly before Floyd died, BCP partnered with the leadership of NMTN to form a digital signage company: Earthstream Media promises to be a tipping point for native media. Digital technology now makes it possible to create private media networks on Tribal lands, thereby creating job opportunities while building media capacity and an outlet for creative expression.
2.08.2008
CNIGA/DSE/NIGA in April
Earthstream Media's coming out party is next week in Palm Springs as we attend the convention of conventions for California Indian Casinos. We and Wireless Ronin are partnering in this exciting initiative. We will be in BOOTH #727. Come on down and see the future of Digital Media Networks as it applies to tribal communities. This is a run-up to the NIGA convention in April. However, since 60% of all Tribal Casinos are in California, CNIGA is the big show...
And in 3 short weeks we will again be paired up with Ronin at the DSE in Las Vegas. What an exciting time. Hard to believe it has only been 9 months since we found out what Digital Signage was....or rather, since we saw what it could be...or will be.
So much has happened since May in this space. Not sure it is any less fragmented ---- especially since there are so many people (like us) jumping into the fray. Although with CBS buying SignStory in what, October?...that was the first sign that a major shift was starting to happen.... Still waiting to see how the recent movement by the big corps (like starving cats who suddenly see mice over by the door....running blindly at us, claws out) bodes for the entrenched. The congloms are not going to swoop in and solve what ails the industry.
What ails the industry, you ask?
A colleague (ok....actually, he's my brother) works for an "inside sales" company and I have been pointing him at the industry for the last 3 months. He has big publishing clients...like big newspapers...and I keep telling him that paper is going away... Anyway, he may come to DSE. So, he asked me yesterday the questions that sum up the whole industry:
"Ben, who do I approach? Help me understand. Should we offer services to the people who own the networks? Or the vendors that are advertising on the networks? Or the actual providers of the system? It seems like no one is leading the charge. It's this amorphous thing with no head."
Exactly.
His company would call prospects on behalf of a BroadSign (...if BroadSign were worthy....)...or a NanoNation, trying to find real estate for systems. Or they might work with existing Network owners to call potential advertisers in order to increase revenues. Or (as is in our business plan....---only serious investors need apply----) his company would become our representatives in the space. He would call other Network Owners and Network Managers to find out whether they need content. His company becomes our sales force.
Once we have the streams of content for the different verticals, then it is simply a matter of marketing. Best content wins.
So....
Oh man, did we come across some paradigm-shifting mo-co application today!!!! So excited to launch this new content play at DSE. Come by the Ronin Booth in Vegas.
And don't look in the box.
And in 3 short weeks we will again be paired up with Ronin at the DSE in Las Vegas. What an exciting time. Hard to believe it has only been 9 months since we found out what Digital Signage was....or rather, since we saw what it could be...or will be.
So much has happened since May in this space. Not sure it is any less fragmented ---- especially since there are so many people (like us) jumping into the fray. Although with CBS buying SignStory in what, October?...that was the first sign that a major shift was starting to happen.... Still waiting to see how the recent movement by the big corps (like starving cats who suddenly see mice over by the door....running blindly at us, claws out) bodes for the entrenched. The congloms are not going to swoop in and solve what ails the industry.
What ails the industry, you ask?
A colleague (ok....actually, he's my brother) works for an "inside sales" company and I have been pointing him at the industry for the last 3 months. He has big publishing clients...like big newspapers...and I keep telling him that paper is going away... Anyway, he may come to DSE. So, he asked me yesterday the questions that sum up the whole industry:
"Ben, who do I approach? Help me understand. Should we offer services to the people who own the networks? Or the vendors that are advertising on the networks? Or the actual providers of the system? It seems like no one is leading the charge. It's this amorphous thing with no head."
Exactly.
His company would call prospects on behalf of a BroadSign (...if BroadSign were worthy....)...or a NanoNation, trying to find real estate for systems. Or they might work with existing Network owners to call potential advertisers in order to increase revenues. Or (as is in our business plan....---only serious investors need apply----) his company would become our representatives in the space. He would call other Network Owners and Network Managers to find out whether they need content. His company becomes our sales force.
Once we have the streams of content for the different verticals, then it is simply a matter of marketing. Best content wins.
So....
Oh man, did we come across some paradigm-shifting mo-co application today!!!! So excited to launch this new content play at DSE. Come by the Ronin Booth in Vegas.
And don't look in the box.
1.05.2008
2008: the future is NOW
We are as excited as ever about the moves we have made towards this new frontier. I am a faithful member of the Writers Guild, and this strike (now in it's 3rd month with no end in sight) has inadvertently given the creators of digital media the push we needed to de-centralize. It is WAYYYYYY too easy to create and distribute without the help of huge, multi-national conglomerates that have been so entitled for so long that they have forgotten how they were built in the first place.
It is the same in the music industry and the publishing industry. Artists of all stripes who also have a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit look around and see an open field.
Quick digression: two years ago I wrote a novel. I tried for 18 months to get a NYC agent and/or an old school NY publisher. I am not a quitter. Hustle I did knocking on many, many doors.
Hoping is not a strategy; and in this world of ours we can make things happen without permission.
Last month I published my novel. It has an ISBN number for international tracking and is in cue at The Library of Congress. Here is the link: CIRCLING THE DATE. Soon it will be available at all online retailers and who knows what lies ahead for it.
Granted, obviously there are pluses and minuses to both models. The point is we now have ways to get in the publishing game without the old guard gatekeepers holding us at bay.
And the same holds true in digital signage. It is the wild west. NBC is holding upfronts for media buyers not for broadcast TV but for out-of-home networks! It is the best news of the year so far! While certainly not going to sort out the fragmented environment that is the industry, it indeed validates our premise that the future of digital signage is some version of the broadcast model.
It is the same in the music industry and the publishing industry. Artists of all stripes who also have a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit look around and see an open field.
Quick digression: two years ago I wrote a novel. I tried for 18 months to get a NYC agent and/or an old school NY publisher. I am not a quitter. Hustle I did knocking on many, many doors.
Hoping is not a strategy; and in this world of ours we can make things happen without permission.
Last month I published my novel. It has an ISBN number for international tracking and is in cue at The Library of Congress. Here is the link: CIRCLING THE DATE. Soon it will be available at all online retailers and who knows what lies ahead for it.
Granted, obviously there are pluses and minuses to both models. The point is we now have ways to get in the publishing game without the old guard gatekeepers holding us at bay.
And the same holds true in digital signage. It is the wild west. NBC is holding upfronts for media buyers not for broadcast TV but for out-of-home networks! It is the best news of the year so far! While certainly not going to sort out the fragmented environment that is the industry, it indeed validates our premise that the future of digital signage is some version of the broadcast model.
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