When three people forward you an article in the course of thirty minutes, it is generally a good sign that the article is being widely read and distributed. And in the case of the MediaWeek article on Schering-Plough’s intent to place a $10M digital out-of-home advertising campaign, it is not surprising. To learn that Schering is doing what Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark and Unilever promised to do a year ago, is great news indeed.
Since that analyst meeting last year when the Big 3 CPG companies explained their intent to reallocate advertising and promotional spends toward alternative media, including OOH, a groundswell of interest in the medium has risen. We can attest to the fact that the Schering ads will not be running in a vacuum. Some major deals are brewing in the advertising space, and the agencies are getting involved. On the industry side, ad placement specialists such as Adcentricity, SeeSaw and Immersion OOH have appeared, attracted investment capital and developed relationships with networks and advertisers. With aggregators, internal ad sales forces and agencies all working hard, there is some channel conflict, but plenty of action. Clearly, national ad sales will be the single most important indicator of our progress as an industry. Despite the setbacks we have had in the measurement standards arena, I believe that networks and advertisers will work together to accommodate the need for good data, and establish a standard that will work for everyone, even if it is not a gold standard CPM.
As for me, I am off to buy some Dr. Scholl’s inserts, some Claritin and some Coppertone for the Florida sun. I’ll support those who support digital OOH!
Monday, January 26, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Big Show Invokes Higher Authority
Some observations from the National Retail Federation (NRF) annual conference (a/k/a “The Big Show”) in New York, which ran this week:
- Attendance was noticeably down. I have attended this event for 21 consecutive years, in good markets and bad, and when I did not have to wait in line for my badge on Monday morning, I knew it was going to be light. No one ever knows what actual attendance is at trade shows, as the official releases do a good job of blending exhibitor attendees numbers with paid delegates, obscuring the facts to their advantage. The buzz on the floor was that attendance was off 40%, and that there were in excess of 60 exhibitor no-shows. I did find some physical evidence that NRF had insight into the state of mind of the potential attendees:
- Despite the light traffic, it was apparent that the folks who attended did so with a sense of mission. I spoke with many journalists who reported that the vendor community had noted a higher quality of interaction, offsetting the lack of quantity. While that may sound like spin to some, based upon my own interactions, I would argue there is truth to the assertion of higher quality.
- Digital signage was well-represented on the exhibit hall floor, with several dedicated companies from the industry represented, including of course RDM. There were also a number of traditional retail technology companies throwing out digital signage buzzwords to attract attention. It won't be long until we make it to the portfolio map on the retail CIO's wall at the current pace of growth in awareness.
- You can see from this AdAge web video, a number of vendors seem to like terms like “digital signage” and “on demand content” instead of the more descriptive terms “kiosk” and “interactive application”. While on one hand, our quest for semantic resolution is in serious peril, we can take solace in the fact that the words that describe the business of serving digital media over a network are all the rage.
- While there was certainly a sense of gloom at the conference, there were some fairly interesting new products and technologies on display. My take is that there will be a certain level of replacement cycle buying out there, as well as some previously-budgeted strategic application purchases as well. Historically, retailers have continued to invest in down economies. Our requirement as an industry is to elevate the discussion past buzz words and to a strategic level. I had many great conversations about what is next, and I can report that retailers “get it”. Concepts like convergence and integration have their place, but in the end, the value proposition of networked digital signage has to include brand building, customer engagement and corporate advancement.
- Attendance was noticeably down. I have attended this event for 21 consecutive years, in good markets and bad, and when I did not have to wait in line for my badge on Monday morning, I knew it was going to be light. No one ever knows what actual attendance is at trade shows, as the official releases do a good job of blending exhibitor attendees numbers with paid delegates, obscuring the facts to their advantage. The buzz on the floor was that attendance was off 40%, and that there were in excess of 60 exhibitor no-shows. I did find some physical evidence that NRF had insight into the state of mind of the potential attendees:
- Despite the light traffic, it was apparent that the folks who attended did so with a sense of mission. I spoke with many journalists who reported that the vendor community had noted a higher quality of interaction, offsetting the lack of quantity. While that may sound like spin to some, based upon my own interactions, I would argue there is truth to the assertion of higher quality.
- Digital signage was well-represented on the exhibit hall floor, with several dedicated companies from the industry represented, including of course RDM. There were also a number of traditional retail technology companies throwing out digital signage buzzwords to attract attention. It won't be long until we make it to the portfolio map on the retail CIO's wall at the current pace of growth in awareness.
- You can see from this AdAge web video, a number of vendors seem to like terms like “digital signage” and “on demand content” instead of the more descriptive terms “kiosk” and “interactive application”. While on one hand, our quest for semantic resolution is in serious peril, we can take solace in the fact that the words that describe the business of serving digital media over a network are all the rage.
- While there was certainly a sense of gloom at the conference, there were some fairly interesting new products and technologies on display. My take is that there will be a certain level of replacement cycle buying out there, as well as some previously-budgeted strategic application purchases as well. Historically, retailers have continued to invest in down economies. Our requirement as an industry is to elevate the discussion past buzz words and to a strategic level. I had many great conversations about what is next, and I can report that retailers “get it”. Concepts like convergence and integration have their place, but in the end, the value proposition of networked digital signage has to include brand building, customer engagement and corporate advancement.
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