Tuesday, January 06, 2009

The morning press - digital signage news for January 5

Here are some of the more interesting industry new items from the past few days:

Focus Media loses Sports Media unit to competitor - Bejing-based flat-screen advertiser Good Media took over its fitness-center advertising competitor Sports Media, formerly owned by Focus Media. Ding Bingwen, former Sports Media president and new Good Media chief operating officer and board member, said Focus and Sports Media split over lack of profit guarantees. Considering that the digital signage units in Focus's portfolio are the more sound (and profitable) of its operations, it's unusual to see the firm shedding them right now -- especially when there's a deal in the works between Focus and SinaVision to merge the two companies' digital out-of-home advertising units.

Staples to revamp in-store marketing - News America  Marketing, who are most commonly known for their line of shelf talker advertising products for supermarkets and drug stores will apparently be assisting office supplier Staples with some changes to their in-store advertising lineup this year.  Hey, the approach is effective and cheaper than TV advertising (though they've gotten plenty of mileage out of their "Easy Button" campaign), so why not?

The Economist's guide to ad sales in 2009 - Advertisers and marketers are in for some hard times to be sure, but The Economist has stepped in and put together a short presentation on precisely why it's a bad idea to automatically cut back on marketing when budgets get tightened. The one-line summary: brands drive sales, and marketing drives brands. It's 57 slides, but you can read it in 5 minutes. I highly suggest you do (here's the link for folks who don't see the embedded slideshow).

Ads on Edge
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: branding recession)


Tags: ,

Looking for more digital signage info? Check out WireSpring's Kiosk and Digital Signage blog for in-depth industry analysis and even more news about the digital signage industry. While you're there, feel free to read up on our digital signage software and services

No comments: