Digital Signage for Education

This week I’ll be attending CETW (Consumer Engagement Technology World) in New York City November 9-11.  CETW is one of the more interesting shows, as it highlights elements from three distinct, yet converging worlds:  the world of interactive digital signage, kiosk-based self-service systems and the mobile communications.  The common thread:  “customer engagement,” which is right in line with our thinking and our new campaign “get personal.”  The HumanKiosk solution is the fusion of live, video call routing to on-demand experts, and interactive signage so we’ll be right a home with all comers to the event.

You can find me supporting DFI Tech, one of our HumanKiosk hardware partners, in booth #334  - so stop by and see the latest generation of the HumanKiosk solution and our MediCast Video Presence solution that powers this end-to-end system. If you can’t make it to the show, please have a look at our short video on YouTube,  or visit our site to learn more about this revolution in customer service and support in point-of-sale and point-of-service environments.

The day before the show, I’ll be attending the DSA (Digital ScreenMedia Association) advisory committee meeting. As the industry’s largest digital signage trade association, it will be great to see everyone and learn about the new activities underway to further promote our industry and support its participants through advocacy and education.  If you’re a customer of digital signage it’s free to join, so if you haven’t yet done so, please visit their site  http://www.digitalscreenmedia.org/join-users-deployers – you’ll have access to a wealth of industry information as well as experts at no charge.

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All this month, we've been sharing 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. And given the rather spooky month October is, we thought it was a great time to share this information. It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun. 

We know it can be intimidating launching a network, but that's why we're here. We try to take as much fear out of the equation as possible through education and awareness (hence, this blog). We are open to having as many conversations or demos as needed to help you get your project off the ground. 

So in case you missed any of our 31 reasons or want to stroll through memory lane, here they all are:

1.  Networking
2. Cellular
3. WiFi
4. LAN
5. Scalability
6. SaaS
7. Unlimited users
8. Cost of installation
9. Complexity of installation
10. Variety of file types
11. Scheduling
12. Digital signage hardware
13. Content management
14. Content expansion
15. Component players
16. The Cloud
17. Touch screens
18. Training
19. Digital signage content creation
20. Custom-branded templates
21. Video
22. Security
23. IT involvement
24. Custom training
25. Support
26. Content best practices
27. Screen placement
28. Project management
29. Return on investment
30. Enterprise deployments
31. Roles and permissions

We hope everybody has a safe and fun Halloween. We'll leave you with this spooky message. 

In light of October being a rather scary month, we thought we would highlight 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. We hope you enjoy them.

Reason #25: Support

Nobody likes having to call support. But from time to time, it's an inevitability. And we try to make it as easy as possible. For one, we never charge for support. You can email us or call us several times a day if you want. No fee. 

And here's the not-so-scary part. We WANT you to get in touch with us if you're having problems. Because not only do we know that our customers are on track, but it also helps us improve our digital signage software and hardware. Customer feedback is the biggest part of our product roadmap. 

Support is available weekdays, 8am EDT to 8pm EDT. But we're also proactive. Every week, our support team sends out helpful tips to not only educate our customer base but also give them some new ideas on how to use our software. 

So don't be afraid to call or email support. That's why we have it. 

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Reason #13 and 14: Content Management and expansion

Keeping your digital signage content unique and fresh can seem like a daunting task. Many digital signage content management solutions almost require you to learn a new language to update what’s on your screens.

Don’t our friends in IT have enough on their plates?! They don’t need to handle all your content change requests too. MediaCast allows administrators to upload existing media assets and quickly schedule them to play down to the screen or even the zone.There are some basic guidelines that will help steer content management and expansion:

-       Purpose: Know what you want your message to be and what the objective of your digital signage network is. Examples may be to enhance the consumer experience while entertaining or maybe to educate the viewers on human resource announcements. It is important to have a clear understanding of what your digital signage network is aimed to do to ensure your created content can achieve those goals.

-       Know your viewers: For content to be effective, it needs to be created for a specific targeted demographic. The audience and location of the screens will dictate what content you display.

-       Interaction: Once your targeted demographic of viewers notice your digital signage screens, they need to be engaged and interact with the content. A content strategy identifies design tone, messaging, playlists, and length which intern drives use. Viewers that are attracted, engaged and immersed in content will be more likely to recall the information.

-       Call to action:  Now that your content has attracted, engaged and immersed your viewers that last step is a call to action. An effective digital message will not leave a viewer with any doubt as to what comes next. Content should communicate how they should respond or act next.

These basic guidelines will be a good springboard to help you initially create your content and direct you in its on going evolution.  The MediaCast content management system has the flexibility to allow you use existing content, create new on screen assets, and modify what type of media resource your can use from any remote location. Content can be new, recycled, or have new features/functions added at your convenience. It’s up to you to piece together your digital signage “Frankenstein” and when it’s done right, none of the towns people will be tempted to light it on fire or plunge a pitchfork in to it.

In light of October being a rather scary month, we thought we would highlight 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. We hope you enjoy them. 


Reason #3: Wi-Fi powered digital signage

For those of us on the go, we see public Wi-Fi networks everywhere. This was not as much the case just five years ago, but now it's almost an expectation from customers that Wi-Fi be made available to them. We see them in banks, hospitals, restaurants and so forth. 

And for those companies or organizations who want to add digital signage for their customers, the screens can simply latch on to the existing Wi-Fi network. We pre-build the hardware with the necessary SSID information and they connect directly into MediaTile's servers over the Wi-Fi network. 

Much like cellular, these are also simply plug and play. Hang the sign or player on the wall and plug it in. Our two biggest markets for Wi-Fi enabled digital signs are healthcare and education. These are two environments where Wi-Fi network are not only prevalent but also pretty powerful. Next quarter we're helping a community college launch its network, completely running on Wi-Fi. 

Wi-Fi allows a company to build a digital signage network without any physical tethering to a network. And because our system isn't a streaming environment, companies don't have to worry about the signage network being a drain on their Wi-Fi. 

I get to do something today which I think is quite unique. We've been talking to a company for months now about deploying digital signage to help with their employee communications. They are a global manufacturer and are trying to come up with new ways to communicate timely information to their manufacturing workforce. 

This company has asked me to come to them to make a presentation. (This is not unique.) But the meeting is their annual global HR conference (the unique part). They don't want me to present about MediaTile; they want me to educate them on how digital signage can improve communication to employees. And this is what I like doing. 

I know that not every digital signage company out there is perfect for every company. However, digital signage can be a great fit for every company. I'll be sharing with them the benefits of repetitive communication and how developing a robust content strategy will properly engage audiences. 

It's a great opportunity that I'm not taking lightly. It's a great chance to educate a company department that can greatly benefit from a signage investment. 

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"How do I measure digital signage internally?" has been an age-old question without an easy answer. I faced this challenge back when I managed my own network at Rolls-Royce. It's a lot of anecdotal feedback, mixed in with focus groups and surveys, and sprinkled with gut feelings. 

Every month, the fine folks at Digital Signage Expo asks an industry-related question its Advisory Board. This month's question focused on properly measuring digital signage. 

“What do you believe are the best practices in measuring viewership? Is employing a marketing analysis firm to determine viewership worth the cost?”

Most of the responses related to ad-based or retail networks but a few of the answers were from network owners who manage internal screens and I was very happy to see this. Here are their thoughts. (None of them are MediaTile clients.)

Ron Danielson, Vice Provost for Information Services & CIO

Paul Bennett, Manager, Creative Services IT

James Velco, CTO

The John Marshall Law School

There's nothing Earth-shattering in these answers, but it does reinforce (in my opinion) the need to come up with some sort of measurement that corporate communicators can point to. I like that the John Marshall Law School is looking at using interactive as a way to get some data on network use and awareness, as well as AFLAC looking at QR codes, which can be tracked.

You can read all of the answers provided by Advisory Board, but there's a great and simple piece of advice provided by Kimberly Sarubbi, president & CEO of Saddle Ranch Productions. 

"Test, adjust, optimize." This is exactly what digital signage network owners should be doing regardless of where their network is. 

What are your thoughts on measuring digital signage that isn't ad- or retail-focused?
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Flickr image, StevenHarris

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You have clients interested in digital signage but they may not be sure how to apply this technology to maximize their return on their investment. Please invite them to our webinar on Thursday April 14 at 2pm Eastern and hear first hand from Lynn Riggins, a MediaTile customer and recent speaker at the Digital Signage Expo on the Best Practices in Corporate Communication, on how her organization - The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission - has successfully leveraged our digital signage solutions for employee communications and improved efficiencies.

This is a great opportunity to either introduce your clients to the digital signage technology platform, MediaTile, or just to further educate them on the benefits of cloud-controlled digital signage.  There are limited seats available for this webinar so it is meant to be for your clients only, please refrain from signing up yourself. MediaTile ensures that any and all information shared will remain strictly confidential.

Next week, the Digital Screenmedia Association is hosting a Digital Signage in Healthcare webinar. It's free to sign up for the October 12 webinar and I highly recommend doing so if you have the time.

We're proud that one of the highlighted companies during the webinar is Dominican Hospital. Mike Lee and Dominican have been a client of ours for more than a year now and have incrementally grown their digital signage network. They use it for employee communications, as well as updating patients and visitors. We have a full case study on their network available for download (PDF).

If you're interested in learning more about digital for healthcare, I recommend downloading the case study and registering for the webinar. They are both great opportunities to learn from the best.

MediaTile is a proud sponsor of the Digital Screenmedia Association. Its is to advance the growth and excellence of the global digital signage, interactive kiosk and mobile community through advocacy, education and networking. If you're interested in joining, it's free for qualifying organizations.

Apparently, I ruffled a few feathers with a previous post, but I stand by my statement that I do not think enough is being done to help educate corporate communicators running digital signage networks.

Officially today, those running internal networks can sign up for the Digital Signage for Corporate Communication conference. The cost to attend the event is very nominal, only to cover the expenses of putting on the day-long event. I don't care if you're a MediaTile customer or not. But if you want help and guidance on running your internal digital signage network, you should make every effort to attend.

I want to be clear that this event is NOT a MediaTile sales pitch. This is entirely about pulling together a network of like-minded corp comm pros who are looking to make digital signage a viable communications vehicle within their organization.

Eli Lilly & Company, who runs one of the largest corporate communication networks in the world, will be the host of the conference. We have outside speakers coming in, like David Trounstine (MediaTile's Creative Director), David Weinfeld (Principal at The Preset Group) and top-rated internal communications speaker Steve Crescenzo (Crescenzo Communications). Let's make August 10 a great day.

So if you know of other corporate communicators running a digital signage network, please share the information with them.

** MediaTile customers: please contact your sales rep for a discount code to attend the event. **

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. 

This is our first time at the National Restaurant Association's annual show and we're excited about it. AT&T invited us to be in their booth (#5666) and we're thrilled to be a welcomed guest. Please stop by the booth to learn more about how our digital signage can help your business.

We've laid our claim to cellular digital signage and we're confident that NRA attendees will be impressed with what we have to show them.

I am far from a restaurant business expert (aside from liking to eat at them), but from what I've been told, there are many IT constraints inside the restaurants. But with signage connected on the cell networks, restaurant owners can update customers on the latest specials while also helping to educate employees on the latest promos.

If you'd like to learn more about the show, you can follow them on Twitter (@NRAShow2010) or following with the hash tag #nrashow. I'll provide as many updates as I can when I'm out on the show floor.

As I wrote last month, the MediaTile sales team is committed to providing free educational opportunities and we're doing this through a series of free webinars. The next is this coming Thursday. Here's this month's topic.

Digital signage is an effective and increasingly common way to reach buyers.  After making the investment in the right technology, brands need to take a closer look at the content on the screens to make sure that the investment isn't lost. 

Successful digital signage has what we at MediaTile like to call "contextual relevance."  Is the message reaching the right person at a time?  Can we find a way to cause an action from the consumer?  In that magical moment, brands have a huge opportunity to sway an audience. 

The magical moment of contextual relevance is where brands can affect the ROI.  Understanding the audience is  a good first step.  MediaTile has invited Neal Keilar from Met|Hodder to share content methodology.  Join us for this free digital signage webinar on Thursday 3/25 at 2 PM EST. 

The message will be very retail-, brand- and agency-focused, but sometimes those are the best way to even learn how to craft internal communications messages. See how the "big boys" are doing it and then mimic. In a weird way, they are competition for your employees' attention.

This never became more apparent than at this year's Digital Signage Expo. What once appeared to be a very siloed industry has now had walls knocked down. We have media and digital signage providers interacting. Competitors are even commenting on each other's blogs and referencing each other's content. This is sort of a Kumbaya / watershed moment for the industry.

This is what social media is all about. Not only extending the reach of our content but also creating new avenues of sharing this content. And because the industry is still very much in its infancy, we are primed to use social media as valued vehicles.

Blogs. Twitter. Facebook. Foursquare. They are all in play and were all used in coordination for the first time at DSE. All you have to do is check out the Twitter hash tag #dse2010 to see not only volumes of content but the QUALITY of content. (Adrian Cotteril of DailyDOOH mentioned this in a blog comment in one of my earlier posts.)

I hope to see the industry continue to improve communication and collaboration at these events. It can only help further educate audiences on digital signage.
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photo by LadyDragonFlyCC

I didn't attend Digital Signage Expo in 2009 but I was here back in 2008. It's amazing how much the show has changed AND improved in those two years. Exhibitors are more prepared and, most importantly, attendees are much more educated.

I had a great time leading the Corporate Communication Lunch & Learn and I hope the attendees got more out of it than a boxed lunch (though it was pretty tasty). What I enjoyed was that it wasn't just corp comm pros who attended. There were IT professionals, purchasing representatives and general managers there just hoping to learn how to best implement the technology at their companies to help with communications. We even had some university representation, which was great.

One of the highlights was having the chance to finally meet Mark Allen from The Marlin Company. Sure we could be labeled competitors but we are both out there trying to educate everyone on the benefits of digital signage and employee communications. And because of that, we are each others #1 fan.

And I think our booth (#1427) looks awesome. When many other companies' booths (which do look nice) look very industrial while ours is very natural - all natural wood and technology. It looks great. We've been blessed to be joined in our booth by representatives from Sprint and iPOWOW!. They've been a huge help during the show.

I hope everybody has a second day that was as good or better than the first.

Those of us who find ourselves spending most of the work day online (in one capacity or another) are aware of the power and effectiveness of social networking - but just as important is the power of traditional networking.  Industry organizations such as the Digital Signage Association (DSA) provide like-minded professionals an industrious and business-neutral forum for education, networking and advocacy. 

The DSA brings together vendors and users alike- everyone from display manufacturers, resellers and distributors, to content creators and network operators across all vertical markets.  Members and sponsors (including MediaTile) work together to move the industry forward, share best practices and business opportunities, and increase awareness about digital signage.

Whether you're a brand manager, a corporate communications manager, or a display vendor, the Digital Signage Association has an event, a whitepaper, or a behind-the-scenes initative designed to grow your deployments and ensure your success.

We wanted to give a shout-out to the DSA for everything they do and for giving us a voice. Check them out, or better yet:

Last week, I was in Chicago for the Strategy Institute Building Your Digital Signage Business. This is the fourth Strategy Institute conference I've been to and it was another solid conference.

If you are interested in a conference "play by play" both myself and David Drain tweeted throughout the show. You can follow along at #BuildDSBiz.

Though there was a sort of a good news/bad news situation with the show. The good news? MediaTile had a 32" Digital Sign in a Box set up there which generated a lot of questions through the two-day show. The bad news? I couldn't always pay full attention to each of the speakers.

Here are some of my thoughts and observations on the show...

• I was really interested to hear from Tom Campbell, Healthy Advice Networks. I had heard so much about their digital signage network but never really knew the details. He said they use a reverse "Field of Dreams" approach. Meaning, they let the customers (doctors & patients) dictate if a screen is put in place. Health Advice has been around for several years but it was surprising they use dial-up to deliver content to the screens. But if that's what works, then it's working well for them. 
   
• Later on, Pierre Richer, NEC, spoke about overcoming some of the current industry challenges. He said that the current glut of content management systems (CMS) is making ad buys harder. I'm guessing it's going to stay this way until there is some great consolidation within the digital signage industry. I don't see anybody stepping aside to help other vendors.
   
• Later in the afternoon, the debate around SaaS versus a hosted solution took place. I've blogged about it several times here before, but both Greg Argyle, GoGo Cast, and Sanjay Manandhar, Aerva, spoke about the pros and cons of each choice. It seemed to me that the choice might simply come down to a company's culture or appetite for SaaS. if they use it in other areas, then they'll likely use it for digital signage.
   
• Bill Collins, DecisionPoint Media Insights, closed out day one with a highlight of 2009 developments. I'm still a little peeved at Bill for calling corporate communication networks "vanilla" (at the Digital Hub Initiative) but I'm sure I'll get over it.
   
• OVAB's ears must have been burning during the show. They were mentioned so often attendees could have turned it into a drinking game.
   
• I feel one of the more informative sessions was led by Tom Kunka, University of Illinois, and Michael Hoffberg, Villanova University. Both gave a brief review of their networks and it was interesting to see how each school has approached digital signage differently but both appear to be successful with their implementations. And even in the education market, the debate of SaaS versus hosted software rages on.
   
• The conference switched to content, but from unique areas. Manolo Almagro, Show & Tell Productions, focused on user generated content (UGC). I think this was extremely helpful for the audience because there are so many sources for this and Manolo did a great job at highlighting the key sources and provided tips on how to best use them.
  
  Then one of our customers, Chris Bias, Eli Lilly & Company, reviewed his global communication network that he's installing at Lilly locations around the world. At a corporate level, Chris is able to deliver the broader messages to employees around the world, but then give local administrators access to add in their own unique local messaging. This feature is key for any company looking at a larger corporate communication install.
   

As I wrote earlier, I would have liked to have been able to pay more attention to all of the speakers, but I also had a chance to meet a lot of new people and answer their questions about the MediaTile solution. At last year's conference, which also took place in Chicago, we were one of four companies exhibiting. This year, we were the only one. I'm not sure why we were the only one, but others missed out I think.

I scoured around looking for other conference recaps and found this one from AdSemble's Matt Olivieri, who was also in attendance.
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P.S. On a side note, I'd like to personally thank and congratulate Keith Kelsen on his new ventures. I've known Keith for several years, first as a customer when I was at Rolls-Royce and Keith was MediaTile's CEO. He is now moving on to bigger and (maybe) better and I wish him all the best. Four years ago I told him MediaTile had the perfect corporate communication solution and he gave me a chance to prove that. For that, I will be forever grateful.

It was truly an honor just to be included in the inaugural Top 50 Indiana Blogs list last year. But this year, the organizers add in an extra wrinkle and turned it into a competition.

Frankly, I was proud to just get votes let alone win the whole shabang. Sure some people voted for the blog just because they know me but I'm hopeful it raises awareness for the entire digital signage industry.

Case in point. I was at the local PRSA luncheon yesterday and somebody came up and congratulated me. An eaves dropper then chimed in, "I saw that you won but I have no idea what digital signage even is. What is it?"

And that's the beauty of blogging provides. It's a chance to put up discussion points and conversation ideas for others to digest. It's a safe way to educate consumers on a topic without being in their face.

I have a lot of fun with my blog, but it's also a lot of work. But as long as people keep asking me, "So what is digital signage?" then it's worth every second.

Thank you for your support.

Today's guest entry is contributed by Pegi Patwardhan.

(Pegi started as an advertising executive in 1998 at a b2b technology agency, responsible for all media used in the marketing mix (online, email marketing, direct mail, magazine, events).  Her focus has always been finding ways to shorten the sales cycle for her clients - and has found MediaTile an excellent vehicle for making that happen.)

Banking and digital signage together makes sense.  Customers have a need to know and
learn about their finances. The bank team needs to have current information.
MediaTile has recently added another chain of banks to its list of happy clients.   (Due to  confidentiality agreements, I can't name the bank yet).

What I can talk about is why they chose to go with MediaTile.  Corporate headquarters was looking for a way to deliver specific, targeted messaging to each of its branches, while maintaining consistency in its branding effort.  They also wanted to offer their customers more of a professional experience. Multiple POP displays and printed materials were cluttering branch lobbies and surfaces; by switching to MediaTile, they were able to update their lobby with a sleek and professional, modern look.

Overwhelmingly, banks cite their concern for security as the number one reason not to use digital signage in their facilities. The security of the bank's network is paramount.  However, MediaTile's built-in cellular networking feature eliminates the need to tie into any on-site infrastructure, insulating the signage network from sensitive customer data.

What can digital signage bring to banks?  It can personalize and support core knowledge for everyone who visits.  With MediaTile, banks can also educate customers on their other products and service offerings in a fresh and enticing way. It can offer relevant and timely advice.  It can reassure everyone, with up to the minute information.  That is the service, the value and the purpose of digital signage.

While visiting a range of channel and cellular carrier partners last week in the UK and the Benelux region I was able to spend a day at the Self Service Expo and Digital Signage Show Europe at Olympia in London.  One of our value-added solution partners, Box Technologies, was exhibiting there, so I spent a day chatting with network operators and prospective customers as they came across the Box stand.

I also met with Bill Yackey, Editor of Digital Signage Today, who was speaking on both days of the show covering some great statistics and trends for the industry as a whole. Bill has a very comprehensive write up of the show and event on the Digital Signage Today web site.

For those of you who have visited London in the last few years you will know all about the new Traffic Congestion Charge – in effect a toll charge for entering central London by car.  A masterful ruse to raise money for local government projects all in the name of reducing pollution and the British carbon footprint – trouble is less people are coming into London as a result and business generally suffers - Hence the phrase of the moment in London; “the Traffic Congestion Charge effect”. 

Meanwhile, back at the 2009 Signage Show, the number of digital signage exhibitors was down on 2008, traffic flows reduced, and general activity levels more subdued. Well the view through my rose-tinted spectacles was somewhat more positive.  I saw solid traffic-flow across the exhibition stand, well-qualified and educated prospects, great questions, and folks ready to buy and deploy. 

According to my colleagues, this was true on both days, not just the day I spent at the show.   What was also interesting was the proportion of value added solution providers rather than network owner/operators who were looking for technology partners. These ranged from creative agencies, and merchandising firms, to managed service providers and network management firms.  No longer is this an industry whose channel is dominated by AV integrators.  The emphasis of the value chain or ‘solution stack’ has definitely shifted upstream to consulting, content, and service.

So no doubt the general economic condition has had an impact on our industry with the UK being no exception - but the quality of customers and vendors has improved as a result of this shake out – not only can they afford to pay the Traffic Congestion Charge but they are also ready and willing to buy.

Keepin' it Simple

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Photo credit, SimonDoggett