Digital Signage Content

- By David Trounstine -

Recently I was asked to speak at the first annual Digital Signage for Corporate Communications conference. It was a wonderful event where many of us got to share and learn about the experiences of working with digital signage in a corporate communications environment.

Corporate communications content really is its own beast, and all too often treated as a lower priority. I firmly believe that the better a company does at communicating important, relevant, and motivating messages to their employees, the better they will do at customer service, productivity, and worker retention. Informed employees are happier employees, and that's what we're all after.

The presentation I gave was geared toward the idea of treating your digital signage network as a company "television network". I encouraged communicators to think of their employees as their audience, and create content that was built for them. The use of personally relevant content is going to help foster a relationship between the employee and the information network, which will invariably lead to higher viewership.

I, for one, had a great time at the event, and I hope that the information I put together was informative and helpful. Here's my presentation. Enjoy.

I'm catching up on my blog reading and there for a while I'd have to declare Google Reader bankruptcy. But I'm glad I didn't.

I came across this post from Chris Brogan and about tightening up communication. In his post, he focuses more on public speaking but the lessons learned apply to all forms of communication, including employee communications.

With attention spans shrinking all of the time, communicators must get tighter with their communication. This could be newsletter stories, messages for your intranet or digital signage content.

At this month's Digital Signage for Corporate Communication event, Mediatile's David Trounstine showed examples of how important it is to simply get the point with your content. With digital signage, you might only have somebody's attention for three seconds.

What will they get in those three seconds? That's up to you. David showed a series of examples of content going from multiple paragraphs down to one sentence with a headline. And even if an employee just read the headline, they'd get the gist of it.

The key to is regularly review the content you're displaying and make sure it works for your audience. As Chris writes, "Work on your efforts, and tighten up."
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Photo credit, NeoGaboX

The first Digital Signage for Corporate Communication was a big success (in my opinion of course) because for an entire day we had communication experts focused on how to best use the technology internally. The day-long event also included a tour of Eli Lilly & Company's network, in addition to content presentations from David Trounstine and Steve Crescenzo.

Digital Signage Today was kind enough to publish the list of top opportunities and obstacles facing digital signage used for employee communication. The challenges faced by these networks are often quite different from those that are public facing.

Please check out the full detail on Digital Signage Today but here's a sampling of what the group cited:

The Top Opportunities (in no particular order)I have been asked by many for details on the next event. All I can say at this point is stay tuned. I'm determined to make sure that each event is worth the time and expense it takes to attend events like these.

- By David Trounstine -

Some of our clients don't have the in-house expertise to create, manage and deploy their own content. That's why our team exists. In fact we have some clients who completely rely on us for everything that is shown on their digital signage network. As the economy has forced many of us to tighten up our budgets we are starting to enable these clients take on some of the creative work in an effort to help keep them in the black throughout these tough times. The process is tougher than you might think, but it all comes down to taking small steps toward the goal.

Charles Fleharty, MediaTile's Director of Content Development and one of the engineers behind the new Human Kiosk with 4G VideoPresence, in conjunction with our portal engineering team created a fantastic web-based application that we call Composer. Simply put is is a content editing tool that allows a user to change pre-built templates to include relevant and up-to-date information without the use of a cumbersome and expensive set of digital design tools.

Using Composer our clients can create great looking content with a few simple steps, all within their web browser. The templates can be custom built to the needs of a client. They can include a number of very cool dynamic functions such as RSS display, time & date, and even weather. All parts of the template can be animated, and when the user makes changes to the text or imagery the animation is preserved.

We met recently with a client who uses interactive content to engage their users and provide them with current event information relative to the local area. It would be very development intensive to provide them with a "template" version of this touch screen application, so instead we suggested moving some of that content out to an attractor screen. Allowing passers-by to see the content, and be encouraged to learn more by interacting with the touch screen.

We are pushing forward with the next version of the software as I type this, and the new features will really make the template approach shine. I highly recommend that our clients check it out, and if you aren't a MediaTile client consider making templates that work for your system to aid you in achieving your design goals.

- By David Trounstine -

Our partnership with Alcatel/Lucent and 4G VideoPresence has been mentioned several times in our blog now, but I just wanted to give the design team perspective.

4G VideoPresence is two-way video conferencing software for your digital signage network that will allow customers to connect directly to a specialist at the point in time that they have a decision to make. There has already been a lot of buzz around it, and we have interest from a number of different vertical markets.

With 4G delivery of content is going to become much less restrictive. "Store and forward" will be an option, not a requirement, as full HD video and interactive content will be able to stream to any enabled consumer electronic device. We are talking real time user interaction with Internet based content, and instant feedback to content providers.

Real time interactions draw users in, they also provide extremely useful information because it can be contextual and relevant. Using 4G to drive these real time interactions means they can happen anywhere at anytime, without the need for complicated infrastructure.

Bi-directional video chat is only the beginning... we have much more to come, so stay tuned!

- By David Trounstine -

OK it has been almost a year since I have posted any entries to our design/development blog, and for that I apologize. So much has happened in the last year I don't quite know where to start, but you will be happy to know that I have regained my focus on providing information to the digital signage community about design and development.

The name of the game today is 4G. Being that MediaTile is a cellular digital signage company we have been feverishly working to develop new applications and uses for the high bandwidth of 4G, and some very interesting products are in store for the next 12 months.

In case you missed the announcements from earlier this year we are now doing public demonstrations of 4G VideoPresence, a point-to-point two way video chat client that enables digital signage audiences to connect with customer services representatives instantly and personally. We won a first place award for the concept at the CTIA show, and oh man has it generated some buzz for us.

We are very excited about what's to come, and I will do my best to keep up with the pace and provide insider details.

That's all for now, but I will be writing more... soon!

Several digital signage gurus have suggested that tickers (or crawls) run on digital signage networks are somehow maming the industry. To raise awareness to this "plague," David Weinfeld from The Preset Group have suggested that today, July 9, be Ticker Free Day 2010. Even the folks over at DailyDOOH are falling in line.

But why you ask (and I do, too)? Apparently, they are hoping to prove that networks can run relevant and engaging content without tickers.

Of course they can. Networks can also be run well without video. They can be run well without Flash. They can be run well without the inclusion of weather. It all comes down to content and the choices made. Who knows? Maybe we'll see No Flashy Flashy Day around the bend. I hear September is kind of slow.

I love Cap'N Crunch cereal. It might be my favorite. So if somebody told me that July 9 was Free the Cap'N Day 2010 and that I shouldn't eat the cereal, I wouldn't go along with it. Why? Because I like Cap'N Crunch cereal. That's great if somebody else doesn't like it, but I do.

I blogged that I recently went on a mid-pilot visit with one of our clients running a corporate communication network. We sat down with groups of employees to discuss what they liked or disliked about the network and what could be done to make it better.

Take a guess what the most positive feedbak tied to? Information in the ticker. Our client did a nice job of mixing up the ticker content between both internal news as well as external news (like weather, sports scores, etc.). The employees liked it. And if this company participated in the Ticker Free Day 2010, employees would not like it.

Take another guess if they are going to participate Ticker Free Day 2010 by removing their ticker. David does acknowledge in his post that not all tickers are bad and that they can be used the right way.

So I propose that instead of just telling people not to use tickers, let's teach them the right way.

(Today's Guest entry comes from Mike Foster, CMO and Co-Founder of MediaTile) 

Sprint has included our 3G/4G cellular digital signage as a key element in their public 4G road-shows, the first of which is in Kansas City this week.  

Our HumanKiosk will be prominently featured in Sprint’s 4G Retail solutions “vignettes”, showcasing the live, 2-way video chat using our MediaCast SaaS content management system and 4G Video Presence technology.   With 10x more bandwidth over 3G networks, 4G eliminates any remaining variance between hard-wired, high bandwidth networks while providing all the advantages of a cellular solution: more secure, more flexible, easier to deploy, higher reliability and linear scalability. I’m excited to be in Kansas City as this 4G road-show kicks off.

 

Sprint has accelerated their marketing efforts around 4G, and is now offering 4G services in more than 30 US markets.  We are very excited about the 4G opportunity, including the soon to be released 4G LTE platform from Alcatel/Lucent and VerizonWireless.  

4G networks could very well be a tipping point for the entire digital signage industry, accelerating deployments and enabling new market opportunities.  If you’d like to know more about the impact that 4G will have on digital signage, please visit Digital Signage Today and download the newly updated version of the "3G/4G Cellular-based Digital Signage" guide. This guide includes the latest 4G information and commentary by carriers, users and integrators.

I know that Steve Crescenzo has been preaching this for years, but some people just don't seem to be paying attention. . . including IABC. It was irritating at this year's World Conference that everybody (speakers) seemed to be focused on strategy and tactics and plans and blah, blah blah.

There is nothing wrong with those, but that's what people have been (or should have been) doing for years. What's missing is creativity, which was also missing from the IABC conference.

If corporate communicators ever want to gain the respect they think they all deserve, then you have to plan, be strategic, use the vehicles, report results AND be creative. Doing things the same way over and over have never worked before and won't work again just by repetition.

When corporate communication was part of my daily life, I used to drive my bosses nuts with the "How about this..." and "What if we did it this way..." Everybody's worried about being fired, but you're not going to lose your job by being creative. You're going to lose your job but not getting results. And a good way to do that is by being boring.

Look at new tools like digital signage. Write your newsletter articles differently. Use video more. Do whatever it takes to improve communication.

Don't be boring. Vent over.

"S-A-F-E-T-Y, Safety Dance!"


In my corporate communication experience, I've always enjoyed working with health and safety departments. Depending on where you work, what they do might truly be the most important thing. At many businesses, working safely can be a matter of life or death.

And not every message they send out is that dire, but some are. Yet they struggle with spreading these important messages and getting traction. And if you walk around facilities, 9 times out of 10 they have the outdated posters on the wall. They just don't have a means to delivery dynamic information in an entertaining way.

Enter digital signage, stage left. Health and safety departments can use digital signage to reinforce the sometimes mundane messages while also bringing attention to the critical ones. This can be done simple static images or snap a quick video using a Flip cam.

Creating videos used to be a pain in the ass, but not anymore. Quick 30 second record, maybe a little editing if needed, upload and done. Messages don't have to be static any longer.

Last year, I highlighted Continental Airlines, one of our digital signage customers who has had tremendous success with health and safety messaging. If it can work for them (and it has), it can work for you, too.

Later this week, MediaTile has a cool opportunity to be part an internal event with Draftfcb this Thursday in Chicago. They invited us, along with 19 other companies, to show off what we do and educate them on how our digital signage solution can help their clients. 

I spent the day with one of our current digital signage customers who's looking to expand their network to help with a new internal branding campaign.

First, I love going behind the lines (so to speak) and seeing how our clients are using all sorts of measures to improve communication with employees.

Second, I love when they use digital signage to do it.

There divisions and lines of business have gone through some recent shuffling and they are banking on digital signage to help them through the transitions.

One of the features they love about MediaTile's approach is MediaCast, our digital signage software. Because it is entirely web-based, they can now give more people access to contribute content to the network. And with Composer, our embedded content creation tool, they can now take advantage of flash templates so that content contributors can focus on the message and not the

Absofreakinglutely.

I admit. I'm a pretty active user on Facebook. I keep my personal account updated, post photos and videos, manage a few Fan Pages (including MediaTile's), and so forth. But it struck me today at what a great resource it can be for digital signage content.

Hear me out. Whether you're in retail or corporate communication, you're always trying to share your customers' stories, whether it's with other customers, your employees or hopefully both. But gathering these stories can be tough.

Well guess what? Facebook is awesome at this. I'm a fan of all of our digital signage customers' Fan Pages and see their updates in my news feed from time to time. One of our customers simply asked people what they liked about their service. This simple question received great answers.

They can now share these stories, not just on their digital signage, but across all of their platforms. The content is absolutely invaluable. True user-generated content is raw but also equally powerful. And it's content that customers and employees provide readily and freely if asked.

So not only can digital signage promote your social media platforms, but these social media platforms can also be a source for content. I believe in the business world they call this a win-win.

When you start getting involved in this crazy social media world, you never know what's going to happen. Today I have the privilege of speaking this afternoon at the National Hardware Show (@hardwareshow) on a social media panel. (The hashtag for the event is #nhs2010.) The event doesn't have anything directly to do with digital signage but we are seeing more and more retailers starting to embrace digital technology.

Understandably, retailers have some concern over how social media will impact their business. There are examples of where it's helped and where it's done some damage. But in my mind, there's nothing wrong with concern. Concern means that risks are being evaluated. But concern can be dangerous when it interferes with real opportunities.

There are tremendous opportunities for retailers to take the user generated content that comes from social media sources like Twitter and Foursquare and turn it into relevant content for digital signage and improve communication with customers. Electronic signs also provide retailers a unique way to extend their internal branding efforts.

So we'll see how today goes. I was feeling very good about today's session until I went to their website and was confronted with this guy.


I hope people aren't walking around with sledgehammers. That could get messy.

One of my favorite under-the-radar movies is The Paper. It has a star-laiden cast of Michael Keaton, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Marisa Tomei, Randy Quaid and so on.

Anyways, the movie is 24 hours in the life of a New York newspaper. (Think 24 the TV show before there was a 24.) There's one scene toward the end where Michael Keaton's character is trying to get a quote out of cop about a murder case. The cop finally says, "He didn't do it." It's exactly what Keaton wanted but couldn't believe the cop said the quote.

This week, I had my "He didn't do it" moment. I visited with an Ohio hospital group this week about installing MediaTile digital signage to help with their employee communications. We were mapping out locaitons, content ideas, strategy plans and so forth when the director of communications said:

There's not a lot of readily available research being done in corporate communications so I take what I learn from the retail world and apply it.

At last week's Digital Signage Contest Strategies Summit in Las Vegas, I had the chance to hear Michael Twitty, Director of Shopper Insights for Unilever Americas, discuss the pros and cons of signage placement in retail stores. His focus, given that he works for Unilever, is primarily on consumer packaged goods (he called them CPGs - I had to look it up) but the advice he had is sound no matter what the installation is.

He said that in somewhat tight environments, you shouldn't put anything below somebody's waist or above their eyes if you want them to notice your message. This includes digital signage.

Now clearly there are times in the corporate communications world where you will want to put screens up high for "the world" to notice, but I do screens in break areas, elevator banks, lobbies, etc. that are put way up high and in the corner. I did it. It seems like a good place.

I fall victim to this at home. Whenever I hang a picture, I always put it up too high (I'm 6'4"). It's eye level for me. . . but not for many others.

So when you look at what the retail world is doing and they have revenue and profits tied to proper placement, don't you think corporate communicators should take heed? Placement may not be as important as content but it's still very important to get it right.

Michael Twitty knows what he's talking about.

Cellular and SaaS-based Digital Signage solutions have finally come of age.   Over the past quarter, I’ve attended CES, Digital Signage Expo 2010, The Digital Signage Show, KioskCom, and NAB, and it was clear that cloud computing is definitely on everyone’s radar.   And most everyone is seeing the silver lining of this solution – the inherent reliability, simplicity, scalability and security that it provides.

Customers, strategic partners, vendors, and managed service providers are much clearer on the pros and cons of a cloud-based digital signage solution.  The beauty of 3G, and now, 4G cellular and SaaS solutions is that the network naturally scales to support more media players as they are deployed while providing the built-in reliability and security.  Unlike client-server architectures and LAN-based solutions, computing in the cloud is "off premise" and "off network", enabling network operators and vendors to allocate increasingly more of their time to be focused on the content running across the network, as opposed to running and maintaining the technology behind the digital signage network. 

Interested in learning more about Cellular and SaaS?  I penned an article that was featured in the latest issue of Digital Signage Magazine;   look for the special supplement, "Wireless Networking and Content Delivery." 

Keeping it Simple,

Earlier this week, our award-winning HumanKiosk was given a pat on the back from Digital Signage Today. The article highlighted how new technology will change engagement through digital signage.

Keith Kelsen authored this article and is also the author "Unleashing the Power of Digital Signage – Content Strategies for the 5th Screen." Pulling a bit from the article, Keith writes:

I am always impressed by the impact of technology on media and then the impact that will have on us as viewers and media creators: Even how we define "viewer" is in flux right now.

Looking back at the technology advances of the last year and where these may lead us, we can see where "viewer" will become "participant" in the near- and long-term future.

In the near term, displays have delivered on the HD promise, but where do we go from here? What about the connected technology that creates a whole new form of engagement?

When I speak about connected technology I am talking about multilevel, multidynamic, multidimensional connections. These areas have and will create largely new, connected display systems that will transform our viewers into engaged participants.

In one type of connected displays, we have a digital signage network that allows us to change content, update ads, and receive feedback in what I call "Linear Connectedness."

With our HumanKiosk, there is true two-way interaction and communication with the viewing party. Not only are they able to interact with the content, but they have the ability to provide real-time feedback. Very powerful stuff.

For those attending NAB this week in Las Vegas, the Human Kiosk is on display in the Verizon Wireless booth (#SU8502). Check it out.

Wow. You know when you go to conferences and you may not get much out of them but you're still overly complimentary? This is not the case at all. Day 2 of the Strategy Institute's Digital Signage Content Strategies Summit was awesome. And those aren't just my words, but the feedback from other attendees.

Aside from being a consumer myself, I don't have any experience in the retail world and truly am not aware of the challenges they face in the digital world. After yesterday, color me enlightened. Just follow the hash tag #DSContent and you can see all of the messages I shared from the @MediaTile Twitter account.

The day was a good balance of what the possibilities are with digital technology along with many of the obstacles that still exist. Here are a few of my observations...

• Kevin Flatt and Mark Renshaw, Leo Burnett and Arc Worldwide, showcased the future of what digital can be in the retail world, using a great analogy of who's driving the bus. Apparently agencies are the drivers who know where they want to go but often get lost and NEVER ask for directions.
  
• Paul Flanigan, The Preset Group, led a panel of Michael Twitty, Unilever Americas, and Jim Lucas, Draftfcb. The information spewing out of Michael was amazing. I practically couldn't type fast enough about how brands are viewing digital in the consumer packaged goods world. This will lead to future blog posts.
• And we finally had our first Foursquare mention with Stephen Randall, LocaModa. Stephen did a great job showcasing how digital signage and social media content can play quite nicely in the same sandbox. His point that "you must view that your digital signage message has a range of 20 miles, not 20 feet," really hit home with the audience.
• And then there is Bob Stowe, Wendy's. Bob added an important element to the conference, highlighting the challenges faced when working with large corporations. Many wonder why quick service restaurants have been somewhat slow to adapt to digital signage. Bob outlined all of the players that get involved and the challenges with each. Though I don't think he'll be getting the key to the city of Detroit anytime soon. He mentioned that one of their stores stays open 24 hours solely due to security concerns. Yikes.
• Rudy Dearborn, MGM Mirage, outlined the history that his casino has had with the technology along with some of the unique content challenges. What was peculiar is that they use Mac Minis to drive displays and had to have custom mounts built, along with a custom digital signage software application. BUT they do a great job of utilizing existing resources and data to keep content fresh and relevant.
• And last but not least, our very own Simon Wilson and David Ozer, iPOWOW!, presented on the importance of getting instantaneous viewer feedback of what they are seeing on the screens. The audience didn't appear to be a big hunting crowd, so the example of how Hunter Specialities is using touch-screen technology in endcaps to promote their products. All kidding aside, the digital signage has given them a 30% sales uplift. That's no laughing matter.

So, all in all, a great show. But during the networking lunch, one of the attendees asked me how much of our business was in non-retail. Quite a bit in fact. He was curious why there was no attention paid to corporate communication networks.

I told him that's my challenge. That's why I do what I do. That's my crusade.

Day 1 at the Strategy Institute's Digital Signage Content Strategies Summit was a good one. Even though I am very corporate communication focused, attending events like these are very helpful. It gives me a chance to learn what the retail industry and agencies are doing or have tried in the digital signage space. The first day was very agency-driven but that's not a bad thing. These are the people we need to have engaged in the market.

The comment that kept bouncing around in my head was mentioned by Pat Hellberg at The Preset Group. He led a panel of creative designers and while they were getting set up, he said, "Content is easy. But good content is the challenge." This sentiment applies to not just digital signage, but every medium.

I'd really like for corporate communicators to take note of this phrase. Digital signage software makes it easy to simply throw up content on to screens, but that's not what you need. What you need is really good content up on your network.

This is no different from an employee newsletter or intranet. You load them with crap and nobody is going to pay attention. Plain and simple.
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The chairperson for the event is Keith Kelsen, former CEO of MediaTile and author of Content Strategies for the 5th Screen. This is the first book dedicated to digital signage content and was launched at Digital Signage Expo. I'm proud of the work Keith put in writing the book and hope he has continued success with it.
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On a side note, I was surprised not to hear one mention of Foursquare, Gowalla or any other geolocation social media tool. I am far from an expert, but I think there is a huge integration possibility between these tools, digital signage and the retail industry. Maybe the digital signage shows how many check-ins there have been, who the mayor is, or what (if any) discounts you can get.