Improving Communication

- 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.

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.

Out of personal frustration that the major digital signage events and associations pay very little attention to the growing amount of corporate communication networks, I have decided to do something about it.

With the help of Chris Bias and Eli Lilly & Company, I will be hosting the Digital Signage for Corporate Communication conference on August 10 at the Lilly Corporate Center in Indianapolis, IN.

The day-long event will provide attendees tips, tricks and techniques for running an internal digital signage network and improving communication. And as an added benefit, I hope the day will provide great networking for those involved. I hear all of the time from clients that they want to know who else is responsible for running an internal network.

And maybe the best news of all for some of you, the event will be FREE for MediaTile customers as a thank you. Non-MediaTile customers will also be able to attend at a nominal fee. The event will not be a sales pitch so we'd like for anybody running a corporate communication network will feel comfortable attending.

Lilly runs one of the largest corporate communication networks so part of the day will include a tour at the Lilly Corporate Center. So whether you've had a network for a while or are just starting one, you'll get to see one of the best in the world.

So block out the date and please stay tuned for registration information. I hope you'll be able to join us in August.

One more thing to potentially plan for is that Steve Crescenzo, an internal communication guru, is running his Corporate Communications 3.0 workshop the following day in Indy (August 11). It will be a great two days of corp comm learning. As a favor to me, Steve will also swing by our digital signage conference to share some of his wisdom.

It will make for a grew two days in Indianapolis.

(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.

For the next few days, I'm traveling across the New England area with a client of ours who's been piloting digital signage for the past three months. They looked to MediaTile to help them augment and improve their employee communications efforts.


One of the challenges this company has faced over the years was caused by numerous acquisitions. Employees at these specific sites do not have any specific or noted loyalty or ties to the larger corporate brand. Their hope was communicating dynamically through digital signage would improve their internal branding efforts.

The way the MediaTile approach works is the larger corporate entity can embed their messages on screens everywhere whilte still granting local control to communicators. It's one of the few vehicles that can be corporate, regional and local - all at the same time - each with their own control and input.

We're also going to find out which messages resonate more than others, which messages have a larger impact, and which messages are more engaging. We want to hear what the employees really think. The goal is to to determine if this technology is improving communication to their field force.

If I have any updates or revelationsalong the way, I'll be sure to share them.

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

I've never had the chance to attend the National Restaurant Association Show so yesterday was my first time. Our digital signage technology is tucked away in the AT&T booth (#5666) in the Technology Pavilion.

Yesterday I was pleased and surprised at not just the sheer volume of attendees looking at digital signage for to improve communication with customers (including menu boards) but more importantly the variety of companies. There was everything from smaller "mom and pop" restaurants looking to jazz up their customer communication all the way to some of the largest food retail chains in the country.

But some of the best conversations I had was with colleges and universities, who are looking to use digital signage for menu boards and share nutritional information but to also have the signage in place for crisis communication if needed.

All in all, those I talked to liked MediaTile's approach to digital signage. They liked the simplicity of our Digital Sign in a Box (32" on display), as well as the robustness and ease-of-use our software provides. Clearly, this was not their first exposure to signage and past hiccups seemed to be the complexity of installs. We simply don't have that.

I heard over and over, "We just want it to work." Ours works.

We're pretty proud of our relationship with Elite Racing and driver Jason Meyers. And we're even more proud when they pick up a big win, like they did this past weekend at the Virginia Motor Speedway.

With the victory, Jason is now in third place in the World of Outlaws driver standings, only 20 points behind the leader. I had the opportunity to meet Jason a few months back when we were both in Las Vegas (I was there for Digital Signage Expo and he was there to race). He's a phenomenal driver and, even more importantly, a great guy.

We are a huge supporter of Elite Racing and, ironically enough, they love our digital signage. As they they travel around to races, they have our signage set up to promote what they are doing as a racing team and improve communication with racing fans.

Check out Jason's post-race comments.

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.

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,

Amazed. Thrilled. Ecstatic. Proud.

Just a few words to describe our response to the HumanKiosk winning the first place award for emerging technology in the enterprise mobile marketing and advertising category at the International CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas.

The HumanKiosk is more than just digital signage. We truly believe it will revolutionize the relationship between brands and customers. 4G cellular technology can deliver a live two-way conversation, helping customers get questions answered immediately and resolving many pain points for brands. The HumanKiosk can directly and immediately improve communication between customers and brands. It takes content for digital signage and make it LIVE.

For those who aren't familiar (I wasn't), the CTIA Emerging Technology (E-Tech) Awards program celebrates and promotes the most innovative wireless products and services in the areas of consumer, enterprise and network technology.

Each year, nearly 300 applications are submitted and reviewed by a panel of recognized members of the media, industry analysts and executives. Products are judged on innovation, functionality, technological importance, implementation and overall “wow” factor.

So considering all of this, you can imagine our enthusiasm over the recognition.

If you would have asked me what I thought of digital signage, that's what I would have said just 4 or 5 years ago. Well, first off, I wouldn't have even known the term "digital signage."

But if you had asked, "What do you think of the network of TVs you use for internal communications?" I would have said I hated it.

Though it wasn't because the tool was effective. It was actually amazingly effective for employee communications. The problem was that the software used to manage the network was such a pain in the you-know-what. Way too restrictive and way to IT-reliant. Digital signage wasn't a communication network; it was an IT network.

And this wasn't just one system. This was two. And two separate vendors. Create content on one PC and upload it a file folder that existed somewhere. Then go over to another PC and put the software on that computer to the folder. Clap three times and then hit submit.

What a nightmare. Now though so many things have improved with digital signage and software is just one of them. With MediaCast, our SaaS-based solution, you can manage your digital signage network from any computer with an updated browser. Upload your own content or create messaging right inside the system.

But it's funny to me to think that just a few years ago I was not a fan of digital signage, but now I'm one of the industry's loudest cheerleaders. Sometimes it comes down to having the right tools in place.

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.
______________________
photo by LadyDragonFlyCC

Here's an example of a digital signage promotional campaign gone awry at a local veterinary hospital:



Someone clearly spent some marketing budget on a digital sign that they intended to promote their product at the shelf for an up-sell opportunity in the waiting room. Naturally I am instinctively drawn to see what is being promoted by whom and how in a scene like this, but I was disappointed to find the unit powered off - you can see the rectangular supply laying atop the counter without a power cord.

While there are any number of plausible explanations for this scene, I was immediately stricken by some distinct possibilities that afflict other electronic sign options. The first (most obvious and common) was that the unit was unplugged by an employee of the facility or their cleaning service and it simply was not plugged back in. In truth it could be any reason, but regardless, it boils down to two questions: why was it unplugged, and why hasn't anyone noticed?

To the former, sometimes it's simply that the additional power outlet was needed for something else. But sometimes it's more sinister: employees are annoyed by the audio, or "feel bad" about leaving it running when they close up shop for the night. Through its native remote management and scheduling automation, the Mediacast System addresses these issues by permitting the display network operator to make adjustments to volume levels as well as to schedule operational hours so that the display visibly turns itself off, thus lessening the temptation for employees to pull the plug on the unit.

(As a side note, while the appropriateness of audio in content is always a consideration for effective business communication in any given deployment, if audio is necessary, it is best to follow-up with the employees at the establishment to ensure that it is not irritating which could leave a lasting, negative impression of your brand!)

Another possibility is that the content became out-dated - perhaps there was a recall on something being promoted, or the product was discontinued, or there was some other rights issue with the media... any of a dozen reasons that the media has to stop playing, and now. For other electronic sign platforms, there is no way to remotely manage the content at all; they require an operator to physically come to the site and change out a memory stick or disc, etc. So until they can come out to the site to change out the media, when it comes to issues like those mentioned, their only recourse is to pull the power.

From day one the Mediacast System has provided a purely remotely managed store-and-forward content distribution method with the assumption that our customers have better things to do than constantly visit their display locations to change media. Using the web-based Mediacast Digital Signage SaaS, you upload your content to the portal, then remotely distribute it to the Internet-connected display network - take control without stepping foot into the remote sites.

The other nagging question is why, after several months (and missed opportunities) of sitting like this, has nobody noticed that the display is offline? The answer in many cases is: because nobody is watching. The Mediacast system provides a flexible alert notification system that dispatches emails to selected individuals if a display goes offline. The idea is to dispatch a technician or other field representative to the site so as not to prolong a simple problem.

The automated monitoring also keeps an active status on the displays so that even if the email is missed initially, operators logging into the portal system on a regular basis as able to see displays that have a problem.

(As an annecdotal side bar, we once had a display go offline for a customer running a network in a major consumer electronics retailer at the end-cap of one of the aisles. The assigned technician phoned up the appropriate department and inquired about the unit; when the store employee checked on it, they found that another employee had disassembled the end-cap display and was preparing to install a different vendor's display in the same location. This turned out to be miscommunication internally on the part of the retailer and the end-cap was properly restored, but it shows the value of expedient response; had the materials been boxed up and sent off to the back of a warehouse in a busy environment like that, they might never have been located and recovered.)

As you can see, it is only a matter of time before this vendor's counter top becomes general purpose storage because the dead screen doesn't look like it needs to be visible. The only thing I'm left wondering is how much time is needed for the sorry thing to finally decompose and disappear like so much dust in this otherwise quiet and solemn environment.

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.