Target deploys in-store TV network

The In-Store Marketing Institute is carrying this article about Target's deployment of Channel Red, a new three-channel digital signage network being deployed to their 1,400 stores. They claim that:

Content on all screens includes a heavy rotation of the chain's media advertising along with what appears to be customized imagery. Screens in the music and video sections air trailers and spots for new releases. Screens above videogame displays run ad messages and samples of new titles. The TV wall runs ads from brands sold in the electronics department and image spots highlighting Target's community activities.

...

Unlike most other recent in-store TV deployments, Target is managing the network in-house -- which befits its overall strategy of maintaining full control of the store environment.

Interesting point. Does this signify the beginning of an age where retail stores are also media destinations, or is that just too far away from their current model for them to accept?

Tesco in-store TV not doing so great

This could be discouraging, given that the Tesco in-store TV installation was always one of the examples cited by people talking about established digital signage networks. According to this article at Brand Republic:

According to insiders, the chain is considering taking the channel out of its revenue generation team and plans to put greater emphasis on activity such as trolley stickers and window banners.

The original intention was for Tesco TV to divert revenue from TV advertising. But its sales house, JCDecaux, was forced to slash its rate card by 30% in early 2005 following poor take-up.

Major advertisers are understood to be unhappy about the network and have cited the placement and intrusive nature of screens as problems to be addressed.

It would be quite interesting to know what kind of ROI Tesco is getting (if they can figure it out at all), and what kind of studies/experiments they have done (if any) to determine how to best use the in-store networks.

Viewsonic shows off embedded digital signage player

Further taking the "C" out of CES, Viewsonic and Freescale demonstrated an embedded digital signage player which uses a Freescale chip to display digital content on Viewsonic screens. Not exactly groundbreaking stuff, but there is certainly a lot of room for improvement in the embedded player space. Here's their blurb:

Designed for large-scale video wall installations in enterprise, retail, hospitality and healthcare environments, ViewSonic's solution eliminates the need for a local PC or video converter box, typically required in other digital signage offerings. The solution also supports multiple screen zones, enabling video, Web pages and PowerPoint content to be mixed and matched within various zones of the large-screen display.

ViewSonic has chosen Freescale's MPC8270 PowerQUICC(TM) II communications processor, based on a PowerPC(R) core, to provide the embedded intelligence for the network display solution. By leveraging the integrated control- and data-plane processing capabilities of the PowerQUICC device, the solution can provide remote display monitoring and control across enterprise and retail networks -- without the cost and complexity of using personal computers to drive each display.

Of course, what they don't say is that often that PC can handle much more sophisticated content schedules, dynamic layouts, etc. But that wouldn't help their advertising much :) You can read the rest of the press release here.

IMPART and Dole Foods do digital signage

It's digital signage! Or maybe it's interactive kiosks... it's hard to tell when you're talking about 42" touchscreen plasmas (or LCDs, or whatever). According to this press release at PR Newswire:

IMPART Media Group, Inc., an innovator in the content, creation and management of out-of-home digital advertising and information networks, announced today that it has signed a contract with Dole Foods for it's new, patent-pending, iPoint Network(TM). The Dole Nutrition Institute (DNI) will use the out-of-home advertising and information system in grocery stores to connect consumers with their integrated healthcare, wellness and grocer initiatives. DNI was founded to promote health and prevent disease by "Feeding the World with Knowledge" and will initially place the iPoint system in four grocery store chains, located around the country to help shoppers' access useful information about family nutrition; details of Dole Food nutritional benefits; recipes and other healthful tips.

It will be interesting to see a) if this approach drives sales (I would expect that it would, at least initially), b) if the signs can produce a positive ROI (it will depend on content acquisition costs, equipment costs, and maintenance costs -- budgeting for a digital signage network can be pretty tricky), and c) whether grocery stores will request that multiple vendors use the same kiosk, or whether they will allow anybody who wants to to install a digital device instead of regular floor-standing or shelf-mount POP displays.

Smart Sign Media to build outdoor digital signage for Simon Malls

Radio Ink is syndicating this blurb about a potential outdoor electronic billboard project with Simon Malls:

MediaPost Publications reports that Smart Sign Media is working with Simon Brand Ventures to provide outdoor digital signage to many of Simon Malls' 300 shopping centers across the United States.

Smart Sign's partnership with Simon will provide exterior signs strategically situated at major thoroughfares adjacent to the malls, specially equipped with technology that will detect FM radio signals from passing motorists. The radio signals will adjust advertising messages to specific consumer demographics. The network will also enable consumers to interact with advertisers to receive promotional offers and coupons via mobile phones.

"These technologies will generate the high-impact effect that we think will clearly differentiate this medium from what is currently available in the outdoor advertising arena," commented Tom Langeland, president of Smart Sign Media.

Considering how much those screens can cost, there must be a pretty healthy budget for this digital signage project. I wonder what kind of ROI Simon expects to get from them...

Scala Nordic AS Signs 3-Year Exclusive Agreement with NorgesGruppen

From this press release:

Scala Nordic AS announces signing a 3-year exclusive agreement with NorgesGruppen for delivery of the Scala InfoChannel® digital signage software platform to the NorgesGruppen group in Norway.

NorgesGruppen is Norway’s largest trading enterprise. Its core business is grocery retailing and wholesaling. Through its chains, the group holds 34.8% of the Norwegian grocery market. The agreement is estimated to have a potential value of NOK 12 mill. (USD 1.75 mill.) over three years.

NorgesGruppen will rollout its first in-store digital signage network in its MIX chain. MIX contains 950 stores/kiosks with 100 of the MIX stores implementing two Digital Signage channels per store and the remainder implementing one channel. Due to the unique dynamic, real-time, rendering at “the point of playback” of Scala’s InfoChannel platform the content displayed at each store can be dynamically tailored to the local requirements of each store. It is anticipated that over the period of the agreement NorgesGruppen will deploy Scala’s digital signage solution in over 2000 locations.

The goal of the network is to improve the communication between the store and its customers by combining brand advertising with in-store customer information to enhance the customer shopping experience.

I don't really have much to add here, but you can read the rest of the press release at the above link.

Digital signage firm Limelight renames itself Impart

According to aka and others:

Limelight Media Group yesterday said it was renaming itself Impart Media Group in order “to capitalize on the name recognition and goodwill established since 1984 by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Impart, Inc.”.

In effect, the company appears to believe that the Impart brand is stronger than the Limelight one; Impart has had more than 2400 clients in its two decades of existence.

They also upped the ante with a reverse stock split, completing the shell-merger + ailing company acquisition + reverse split trifecta. Limelight was originally a digitial signage software firm, but later got into the business of building and owning networks. Given the cost of deploying a digital signage network nowadays, the reverse split was likely done to make them a more palatable option for institutional investors.

VM+SD releases In-Store Digital Media Survey

VM+SD has released a very interesting survey on the current buying habits of retailers with regard to digital signage networks and other implementations of in-store digital media. They conclude that,

The educational curve for [in-store digital signage] ISDM is speeding up. Convergent's Hutcheson said he's moved from introducing retailers to the benefits of ISDM to explaining how retailers can bring it into their stores.

"They get it now, but they're scared to death on how to do it," he says. "Digital signage is not just TV screens in a store. It's a content-managed network with highly customized content."

As the price of equipment continues to drop, and more retailers become comfortable using this latest technology in their store environments, the sky's the limit on how ISDM will alter the retail landscape.

The survey is very interesting, and highlights the need to feed the network with valuable content in order for it to deliver its maximum benefit.

Digital Signage and Brand-building article

Lyle Bunn of BTV+ fame brings us yet another whitepaper that attempts to illustrate the strong ties between digital signage and traditional merchandising and advertising techniques. Here's a brief clip:

Digital signage focuses on revenue acceleration in the retail environment using digital technology. So the management of organizations who make their money from consumer spending such as retailers, brand managers, ad agencies, marketing service providers, franchise and chain store operators, must look carefully at the competitive impact of digital signage. It will work for them or against them – it is not neutral.

The great rewards are realized when all disciplines gather around the opportunity together – including brands, creative, display owners, location providers, research, ad sales and technology providers. Because digital signage does something new, that is delivering dynamic images to the at-shopping experience, traditional approaches to creative, display, measurement and pricing are not adequate.

The communications areas of marketing display, staff training and business collaboration have generally developed independent of each other (from both organizational and objective standpoints). But the common characteristics of these business communications applications are that:

• Content originates from a single location.
• This content is delivered to many (all) locations.
• The minimizing of cost related to the downlink is very important in containing on- going operating cost.
• The communication is primarily display based, and can include an instructor or a spokesperson, as well as visuals such as video, static or animated graphics.
• The content should compel a behavior. Whether training, education or merchandising, the intention is to motivate a behavior in the interest of the organization.

Of course that list holds true for any kind of merchandising technique, but given the enormous amount of content that a digital signage system can require to stay "fresh" for a number of years, it's of critical importance that vendors and media suppliers understand these key items before attempting to add content to the system.

OSU launches dining room digital signage

"Visual Graphic Systems, Inc. (VGS) together with Digital View, Inc., recently installed digital signage in several dining facilities at Ohio State University’s main campus in Columbus. The 20-inch LCD screens, which presently display a revolving series of campus images and information, will eventually incorporate daily menu specials, news feeds and even local sports highlights," according to this press release. Perhaps this deployment points to a new QSR-oriented digital signage offering from the two companies, as this quote suggests:

He adds that one of the most compelling selling points of these systems for foodservice providers and QSRs is their ability to reduce the perceived wait time for customers in line. Digital View provides the hardware and software to power foodservice ads on the campuses of Ryerson University in Toronto and the University of Toronto.

Or it could be that they added a key term like that so the article would be picked up by search engines. Who's to say :) But as anybody who has budgeted for a digital signage network can tell you, they can require a substantial investment, so it would be interesting to know what the ROI model is here, if any.

Digital signage coming to a cereal box near you

Seems like electronic ink is making a lot of headlines these days, though I have to admit that this latest incarnation of a jaunt down the cereal aisle sounds a little scary to me...

The cereal aisle at your local supermarket may soon resemble the Las Vegas strip. Electronics maker Siemens is readying a paper-thin electronic-display technology so cheap it could replace conventional labels on disposable packaging, from milk cartons to boxes of Cheerios.

In less than two years, Siemens says, the technology could transform consumer-goods packaging from the fixed, ink-printed images of today to a digital medium of flashing graphics and text that displays prices, special offers or alluring photos, all blinking on miniature flat screens.

Miniature displays in color could appear on consumer-goods packaging, including medicine vials, in 2007, with a resolution of 80 dpi, Gerlt said. Three or more images could flash consecutively, creating a crude animation effect or cycling through multiple messages. By 2008, the resolution could double, said Gerlt.

Wired's article on the matter is pretty interesting at highlighting potential commercial uses of the technology, but ends with some commentary from those who would prefer not to be bombarded with thousands of moving image ads as they shop for groceries.

Zandar powers church digital signage

I think this is a press release, but the formatting is throwing me off. But if this doesn't read like a press release, I don't know what does:

Zandar Technologies, a leading technology innovator and pioneer in MultiViewer systems, has been selected by a Baptist Church youth center in New Mexico, USA, to help creatively communicate its message to its congregation.
...
Located in the foyer of The Fuel Building, part of the church's new $2.2 million complex, the Zandar FusionPro 1RU MultiViewer is an integral component of a digital signage system, designed and installed by Positive Projection Systems which integrates with the church's larger display system comprising 6 projectors, 3 plasmas and 27 television screens. The content played on the system includes live camera feeds, recorded footage, advertisements, music and videos.

I believe that this installation is all under one roof, which begs the question of why a digital signage system was used instead of a more traditional video muxer/scaler. Now, if the church was simulcasting the same content out to multiple satellite locations, that would make more sense to me.

ScreenPlay & ICON Join the OOH! TV for digital signage

According to this press release on Yahoo!, "[m]ajor advertising industry players ScreenPlay, Inc. and ICON Advertising Solutions have teamed up with OOH! TV, executives at the mobile entertainment network announced today."

Both ICON and ScreenPlay have extensive experience in out-of-home advertising, and ScreenPlay maintains one of the largest DVD-driven digital signage networks around (not true networked digital signage, but around the time that they started, it wasn't exactly practical).

OOH seems to be a startup, and here's the info from the press:

OOH! TV is a global distribution and entertainment platform that enables virtually any content owner to gain exposure and provides useful and entertaining content to individuals outside of their home. The Company utilizes cutting edge technology such as broadband TV, cellular, Wi-Fi, and digital signage to create an affordable and open experience that is end user driven. Through the network's agreements to broadcast in public venues nationwide, any content owner can gain worldwide distribution and any end user can customize and carry their experience with them.

PowerhousePlus Deploys StarBak Digital Signage

From a press release I picked up at Yahoo!:

PowerhousePlus, the nation's premier membership community for homeowners, announced today that it has deployed the digital signage module of StarBak's Integrated Network Video (INV) solution in shopping mall kiosks deployed throughout southern California. StarBak Communications® is the leading provider of integrated network video solutions that allow organizations to simply and easily create, manage, deliver and display video-based applications over IP networks.

A while back StarBak (of Windows Media licensing fame) had something on their web page about a digital signage offering based on some kind of remote management tools for TV set-top boxes, but I can't find anything about it now... looks like the page has been pulled. Since anybody who has calculated a budget for a digital signage rollout can tell you it's quite expensive, using commodity hardware like set-top boxes has been one way that some companies have tried to lower the cost of such systems. Unfortunately, these devices are often underpowered and don't offer the flexibility of a dedicated software package running on a high-end PC.

RDM to provide a demo for NRF's X06 Store of the Future

I couldn't resist the acronym soup. I don't even know what X06 is... probably something to do with 2006 (which is almost here, you know). Anyway...

Real Digital Media (RDM) today announced that it has been selected by the National Retail Federation as a sponsor and the sole provider of networked digital signage to the X06 Store of the Future at the upcoming NRF Annual Conference and Expo. The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association, and their Retail Big Show is the largest annual showcase of the newest and most effective products and technologies to improve retail businesses. The show is hosted at the Jacob Javits Center in New York, January 15 – 18.

It must be very exciting to get selected as a sponsor. I think it goes something like this: "congratulations, you lucky guy. This year we've decided to take your money instead of somebody else's!"

Read the article here.