Focus Media gearing up for expansion?

Focus Media, the largest digital signage network... well, just about anywhere, has this to say:

Focus Media Holding Limited , which operates the largest out-of-home advertising network in China using audiovisual flat-panel displays based on the number of locations and number of flat-panel television displays in its network, today announced a follow-on offering of 6,787,829 American depositary shares ("ADRs"), each representing ten ordinary shares, at a price to the public of $43.5 per ADS. 1,500,000 of these ADSs will be issued and sold by Focus Media, and 5,287,829 of these ADSs will be sold by certain shareholders of Focus Media. Focus Media will not receive any proceeds from the sale of ADSs by these selling shareholders. In addition, the selling shareholders have granted to the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 627,560 ADSs within 30 days from the date of the prospectus.

My guess would be that they're either fueling their growth by deploying a bunch more screens, or else they're about to start converting their DVD-powered network over to a network-connected, computer-powered one (whicih would take a bit of cash, considering how many scree

MediaTile introduces "Turbo-Content" for digital signage networks

I don't know if that means better out-of-the-gate acceleration, or higher top-end speed, but Turbo Content must be good, right?

All kidding aside, this actually does look like a neat service:

MediaTile's exclusive Turbo-Content starter kit offers more than 28 vertical-based programs to choose from. Program examples include Extreme Sports, Entertainment, Health, Life Style, Kids, Weird and Wacky, Science and Technology, Weekly Sports, History and Space and many more.

"Turbo-Content is an instant content starter kit that delivers another breakthrough for any business facing the complexities of creating compelling and visually stimulating content for a digital signage network," said Keith Kelsen, President and CEO of MediaTile. "Combined with MediaTile's cellular-digital-signage solutions and our recently unveiled 'Digital-Sign-In-A-Box' offering, the addition of pre-packaged content will dramatically simplify the creation of a narrowcasting network. Retailers, advertisers and narrowcasters can add Turbo-Content to their existing digital promotions to get in-store promotional networks up and running in record time."

I don't know about "revolutionary," but the lack of fresh content, both up-front and ongoing, is a major problem for many smaller networks that don't have a lot of corporate backing or resources for content creation. Here's the complete press release.

IMPART gets $6M loan for digital signs

If you were IMPART, what would you do with $6 million in working capital? They do build physical kiosk and digital signage enclosures, but probably not $6M worth. They do a lot of large-format outdoor advertising, but $6M can buy a lot of vinyl and printing ink. And then there's their digital signage group... well, $6M would pay for a nice-sized network of screens, and some content to boot. Unfortunately, the press release doesn't give us a lot of insight:

Commenting on the financing, Joe F. Martinez, IMPART Media Group, Inc., Chairman of the Board and Chief Financial Officer, stated, "This transaction is representative of the seminal events we deem necessary to fuel our aggressive expansion into the emerging out-of-home digital advertising sector." Martinez continued, "We believe this transaction will enable IMPART to pursue key strategies to position the company and our products for tremendous acceptance in demographically-rich advertising venues similar to the airport deployments of our iPoint Networks(TM) product line."

The financing consists of a $6,000,000 revolving debt facility at an interest rate of WSJ Prime plus 3.0% subject to a floor of 7% for three (3) years from the date of closing with no financial covenants. In addition Laurus was issued 750,000 nominally priced warrants. Laurus further agreed to a one year lock up on the sale of any shares acquired upon exercise of the warrants, as well as a limitation on the number of shares it may sell during each 22 trading day period to less than or equal to twenty-five percent (25%) of the aggregate dollar trading volume of Impart Media's common stock during such periods. GunnAllen Financial, a full service brokerage and investment banking firm, served in an advisory capacity to IMPART Media Group for this transaction.

So we know that they wanted the cash badly enough to give away 750,000 warrants (nominal cost usually means a penny or even a mil apiece), so what are they going to do with it?

Since I've never encountered IVT before, I don't have anything witty to say about them. Instead, I'll just pull from this press release:

Interactive Video Technologies, IVT, the premier supplier of scalable software for webcasting, is pleased to announce our latest module for Digital Signage: MediaPlatform Television, or MPTV. MPTV is an optional module of MediaPlatform that gives clients the ability to create and manage "channels" of scheduled content for display on HDTVs or computer screens. These channels can be viewed on plasma screens at full screen and high resolution. Scheduled content can include playlists of content with set durations or at set times. Additionally MPTV includes the ability to preempt a channel with "urgent" content, messages or live video. Organizations wishing to deploy digital signage applications at corporate, retail, manufacturing or branch sites may want to tap into the expertise provided by a webcasting company with a uniquely long heritage, Interactive Video Technologies. With many years of experience and a feature rich, easy to use product, clients can rely on a system that is fully supported by a well-known organization. MPTV can be centrally managed and supported with screens at any location worldwide.

So from what I can make of it, it's basically another Scala-model digital signage software package with a designer tool that builds out channels.

LSI and 3M Digital Signage form partnership

According to this press release,

3M Digital Signage addresses the foremost issues of companies considering digital signage: network and provider accountability. Together, 3M and LSI bring established track records of adapting new technologies for increasingly complex brand-building and communication challenges.

A menu of capabilities include:

• Pilot planning, research design and execution to validate and optimize network return-on-investment
• Network design and project management, including hardware procurement, installation and systems integration, and hardware management programs
• Command and control services including content hosting, scheduling and playback with proof-of-run reporting; network monitoring, diagnostic reporting, and maintenance and support programs
• Content consulting led by Human Factors Ph.D.s, original content creation and re-purposing of existing digital assets, and easy-to-use content management software

Considering the cost and complexity of deploying a digital signage network, I can certainly see a value in this type of relationship. In reality, though, once LSI has a few deployments under their belt, it would make sense for them to generalize their offerings and partner with other vendors.

Sainsbury's to expand digital signage network

Unlike the previous article about Tesco halting their digital signage network expansion, UK retailer Sainsbury's plans to expand their existing 140-store network:

The network, which is operated by Firebrand Media, has generated market-beating sales uplifts for brands tested, delivering an average sales increase of 20% on advertised brands. Confidence in the performance of the network is such that the screens are now being extended to the Sainsbury’s Local fascia, focusing initially on London stores in particular.

Dipo Oyewole, Firebrand Media’s Commercial Director, explained the basis for this offer: “As the only in-store TV network within the grocery sector that has been extensively rolled out, and which continues to grow, the extension of the network to London and the South-East will further cement our appeal to advertisers planning national campaigns. In terms of our performance, we have raised our internal targets, and now target 20% sales increases as a performance level that we would like all brands to achieve, although it should also be remembered that a sales increase of 10% would be regarded as extremely credible in almost any other marketing context, whether relating to in-store or traditional above-the-line activity.”

Especially cool is the 20% sales increases, if that really is the case. But I've heard a lot of similar numbers from customers who use the same model of advertising products sold in store.

More news of Tesco problems

I wrote a blog article on the interactive kiosk and digital signage weblog about Tesco's digital signage deployment struggling, and apparently Brand Republic has some additional information for us about that:

[Chris O'Donnell, managing director of OneZeroOne, the digital division of outdoor specialist Kinetic] claims the first, and most fundamental problem, was that Tesco and JCDecaux treated the in-store screens as if they were a TV medium in their own right.

There was a propensity to encourage advertisers to use Tesco TV to run broadcast-style ads. These did not work because of the location of the screens, which are suspended from the ceiling. It has subsequently been shown that simpler advertising messages with static branding have proved more successful.

Additionally, the article cites other content-related problems as well as some culture issues between Tesco, media house JC Decaux, and the ad agencies selling the spots. They note that there have been some recent successes changing the way the space is sold, bundling the digital signage screen time with other traditional forms of in-store POP advertising.

Digital View partners with capital firm to provide digital signage leasing options

I suspect we'll see more of this sort of thing (from this press release)...

Responding to a growing marketplace demand for digital signage, Digital View has teamed up with Arrow Capital Corporation to provide retailers and marketers with a broader array of financing and leasing options to help facilitate their move to digital signage.

“There’s a tremendous amount of interest in digital signage among retailers and brand marketers, who are eager to engage and communicate with customers in retail environments and other public venues such as banks, financial institutions, restaurants and entertainment in new and intriguing ways,” explains Stu Armstrong, COO of Digital View. “Our partnership with Arrow Capital gives our clients a viable alternative to an outright purchase. For many retailers and brand marketers, this helps make it easier for them to include digital signage within their overall marketing and communications programs, by reducing capital outlays, managing costs and providing some very attractive leasing options.”

Hughes gets into the digital signage business

Because there simply aren't enough companies involved in digital signage systems yet, "Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes) today announced its Managed Digital Signage Service, the first of several new services planned in 2006 under the company's Digital Media Services umbrella. This offering will facilitate the trend in the retail industry towards increased use of electronic in-store branding and promotion," according to this press release.

Satellite providers have increasingly been getting involved in digital signage, as it's one of the few new applications that can really take advantage of IP multicasting, which is a hallmark of satellite-based data distribution systems. Hughes is really going whole-hog, though, as their managed system will include:

* Installation and operation of the entire in-store media network;
* Provisioning of high-definition video screens;
* Media optimization and resolution reformatting; and
* Playback affidavits.

They haven't announced any customers for the new service yet, but claim to be running the networks of several large players in Europe already.

Lyle says 2005 a good year for digital signage, but still room for improvement

Lyle Bunn, of BTV+ fame, wrote this nice article in the form of a report card for the digital signage industry in 2005. He scored the different parts of the industry as follows:

A Analysts and Events – Valuable business planning information provided.
C+ Media Buyers – Savvy performance under poor direction.
B Technology – Improving price/performance and inter-operability
F Media Planners – Need to stay ahead of client’s awareness of digital signage.

B+ Overall – Growing supply capability, display inventory and revenues.

I'm not a particularly huge fan of analaysts or events, but it's hard to argue that they're flooding the marketplace with data and commentary, and right now, given the relative lack of other high-quality information sources, that's a good thing.

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...