The three day trip to Las Vegas for the DSE show went by in a whirlwind. To answer everyone’s first three questions, here are the salient points:
1. The show was terrific, both as an event, and for RDM. Other than lunch time and late afternoons, we were slammed. We were able to spend quality time both with current customers and high priority prospects that we planned to see. We were impressed by the volume of walk-ups who came by, as well as by the level of understanding of digital signage that they came with. A great week.
2. I left with more cash than I arrived with. This is always a good thing. The AmEx bill, however, will be pretty big.
3. No jet lag from the time zone change, although I slept well Friday night.
A few thoughts from the show:
• The steady growth of DSE is certainly a good sign for our industry. Chris Gibbs and the Exponation team have built the show well, run it well, and deserve their status as the premier venue for digital signage on this side of the pond. While I was unable to attend sessions, the feedback I got on them was generally quite positive. The exhibit hall was humming for two days, a dramatic change from the desolation of DSE East in Philadelphia, and even from the National Retail Federation annual conference in January.
• Despite the generally bad economic backdrop, people seemed upbeat, both on the vendor and customer side of the fence.
• Some interesting news from Retail Entertainment Design (R-E-D) leading up to the show. First some nice coverage of their work at Tween Brands, and then an announcement of a partnership with PRN. We spent some time visiting their lively booth, and R-E-D does nice work. My sense is that they have taken the lead in their space over rival Channel M.
• Wasn’t able to make Dave Haynes’ initial DOPES get-together, but it is a good idea, and I heard it was a nice time. I did finally get to meet Dave, who despite his affiliation is a genuinely good guy and someone who adds an important voice in the blogosphere and the community. While we were talking, one of the many rogue vendors (definition: lots of collateral, no booth) on the floor pitched us on private label LCDs with PC boards built in. Nice idea, not a new one… get a booth next time and join the community.
• Lots of folks looking for work were at the show, which was not unexpected. There is some very nice talent on the sidelines, and I suspect the best will remain in the industry, at least I hope so.
• Sadly, I did not get to greet Adrian Cotterill, blogmaster of The Daily DOOH, when he stopped by our booth to say hello. I was in the back of the hall stirring up something big (I hope), and despite hustling back, just missed him. Sometimes there are people with whom you need to shake hands with and thank them for their contributions to the industry. Mr. Cotterill is one of those. Next time, Adrian, and I’ll buy the Timothy Taylor's, or the proper beverage of your choice.
• A lot of chatter concerning advertising at the conference. I’d like to see some folks from the emerging OOH agencies speak at the next conference…. I assure you that the hall will be overflowing. We have seen significant activity recently in terms of big agencies and big brands getting active. There will be more to report on that in the coming weeks.
• In a related observation, we spent a lot of time talking with friends at both SeeSaw and Adcentricity. Both companies have had software-related announcements recently, reflecting large investments in the infrastructure to support their models. SeeSaw announced a deal to license their software to CBS Outernet, while Adcentricity unveiled their software platform a couple of weeks before the show. My sense is that both would like to be driving more revenue through the portals, and that both will.
• In yet another related observation, a week before the show we received an email blast from Scala. While graciously acknowledging that we compete (at least when cost is not an issue), they were anxious to show us their Ad Manager module, in hopes of licensing it to us. Thanks guys, but I don’t see us writing checks with your name on it. Ever. I’ll call Rob and Monte first. At least ad management is core for them, you know what I mean? If a standard for the ad management function is to emerge, I would bet it won’t be coming from an add-on module of a larger package. My experience in observing the evolution of retail ERP, where the best point solutions started as solo offerings, tells me it will be the same here.
More to follow early in the week.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Let's Put on a Show!
As the digital signage industry prepares to descend upon Las Vegas for the Digital Signage Expo next week, a related and much more mature industry has received somewhat shocking news. The Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) has taken the bold step of canceling its National Convention, previously scheduled for May in Miami Beach. The OAAA determined from a phone survey that members did not want to invest the time and money in this tough environment to get together around a conference. Seeing the writing on the wall for poor attendance, and seizing the opportunity to lead, the OAAA put the kibosh on the show and refunded all monies collected from attendees and exhibitors. To their credit, the OAAA avoided the temptation to go on with the show, soak the exhibitors to cover costs and hope for the best. In so doing, they demonstrated that they are indeed the voice of their industry.
The outdoor business has been around quite a bit longer than the digital signage industry, and as such, it is not surprising that they have an entity that can step up. Our industry is served primarily by entrepreneur-driven conferences, such as DSE, KioskCom and the Strategy Institute seminar series, and a couple of organizations attempting to establish a leadership mantle, notably OVAB and the Digital Signage Association.
The various conferences offer multiple opportunities for education and solution shopping, and each has its benefits and value. However, at some point we have to wonder how many conferences we need (or can support) in a calendar year, and whether the industry would be best served by bringing them together into one major event, and perhaps one or two minor, targeted events. The pattern in more mature industries, such as outdoor advertising, retail, direct marketing and others, is for the industry association to drive the major events, while entrepreneurs seize the “white space” between shows. We don’t have an industry association quite ready to lead in this fashion, although I would bet on the DSA getting there.
As odd as it may seem in the wake of the OAAA news, our own indicators seem to point toward a busy and productive show next week. Perhaps one result of these difficult economic times will be an acceleration of the evolution of industry leadership and a rationalization of conference scheduling. We’ll be better as a community for it. See you in Las Vegas.
The outdoor business has been around quite a bit longer than the digital signage industry, and as such, it is not surprising that they have an entity that can step up. Our industry is served primarily by entrepreneur-driven conferences, such as DSE, KioskCom and the Strategy Institute seminar series, and a couple of organizations attempting to establish a leadership mantle, notably OVAB and the Digital Signage Association.
The various conferences offer multiple opportunities for education and solution shopping, and each has its benefits and value. However, at some point we have to wonder how many conferences we need (or can support) in a calendar year, and whether the industry would be best served by bringing them together into one major event, and perhaps one or two minor, targeted events. The pattern in more mature industries, such as outdoor advertising, retail, direct marketing and others, is for the industry association to drive the major events, while entrepreneurs seize the “white space” between shows. We don’t have an industry association quite ready to lead in this fashion, although I would bet on the DSA getting there.
As odd as it may seem in the wake of the OAAA news, our own indicators seem to point toward a busy and productive show next week. Perhaps one result of these difficult economic times will be an acceleration of the evolution of industry leadership and a rationalization of conference scheduling. We’ll be better as a community for it. See you in Las Vegas.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Kindle... and kindling
The concept of delighting customers is certainly not a new one. However, the way one goes about doing so can be noteworthy. The manner in which Amazon chose to delight me, and presumably many others deserves mention. In early December, my wife ordered a Kindle wireless reading device from Amazon as a holiday gift for me. Like tens of thousands of other gift buyers, she was informed that it wasn’t very likely that the Kindle would ship in 2008. As a result, I got a picture of a Kindle inside a card. Frankly, I was ecstatic, and settled in for what I knew would be a long wait, convinced that the Kindle would be well worth it. It looked like March delivery was the best I could hope for. Lo and behold, last week I read about the introduction of Kindle 2, the new and improved next generation model. Assuming the worst, I scanned the Amazon site for a number to call and protest having to wait months to receive a Kindle that would be obsolete before I turned it on. Before I found the number, I found this brief passage on the Kindle 2 page:
If you have previously placed an order for Kindle 1, and have not yet received it, your order will automatically be upgraded to Kindle 2. You need to do nothing.
Perfect. No call to make, blood pressure returned quickly to normal. I was delighted: this was better than getting upgraded by an airline. Amazon managed to surprise and delight me, despite a three month order backlog and a technology change. Not an easy task, and they did it without hoopla or hype. They simply did the right thing. I wonder how many Kindle 1 parts and finished inventory got tossed aside in the process. I assume it was not a decision without hard cost. But it was the right one. Kudos, Amazon. Doing the right thing is never a bad decision.
Cheers also to blogger Adrian Cotterill of The Daily DOOH. In a post yesterday, Adrian took on an immensely misguided guest article on screen layouts posted on the site of the Digital Signage Expo. In his customary direct manner and with detailed explanation, Adrian scolded the author for presuming a multi-zone screen as a default, when content strategy and objectives should clearly drive both technology and the layout, given that layout is in fact just an implementation of technology to support objectives. Adrian aptly points out that the default screen layout is and always has been full screen. We have long been supporters of keeping screen layouts simple, and our own plans to expand multi-zone support have more to do with the ancillary benefits of doing so than with a desire to enable busier screens. More on that in a future post. Let me give a personal example that supports the argument for simplicity.
I work out (less often than I should) on an elliptical machine in my garage. I have a TV set up out there, and my habit is to watch ESPN’s SportsCenter while I put in my miles. The SportsCenter program is framed on the right by a sidebar that vertically scrolls through the upcoming story headlines, and a bottom ticker that continuously scrolls sports news horizontally. What I have realized is this: I never watch the anchors at the desk when the camera is on them. Instead, I read the ticker. I will watch the main window when a highlight of interest is playing, and will occasionally scan the sidebar to see if a NASCAR story is on the horizon, which generally requires a channel change.
The takeaway here is that providing multiple options for viewer attention forces a choice and sub-optimizes the impact of each option. You do not have to be a behavioral scientist to figure that out, and it may be something to consider for those who believe that more is better, or that they can “monetize” three or more zones at once. Start with an objective, and then delight your customers in achieving it.
If you have previously placed an order for Kindle 1, and have not yet received it, your order will automatically be upgraded to Kindle 2. You need to do nothing.
Perfect. No call to make, blood pressure returned quickly to normal. I was delighted: this was better than getting upgraded by an airline. Amazon managed to surprise and delight me, despite a three month order backlog and a technology change. Not an easy task, and they did it without hoopla or hype. They simply did the right thing. I wonder how many Kindle 1 parts and finished inventory got tossed aside in the process. I assume it was not a decision without hard cost. But it was the right one. Kudos, Amazon. Doing the right thing is never a bad decision.
Cheers also to blogger Adrian Cotterill of The Daily DOOH. In a post yesterday, Adrian took on an immensely misguided guest article on screen layouts posted on the site of the Digital Signage Expo. In his customary direct manner and with detailed explanation, Adrian scolded the author for presuming a multi-zone screen as a default, when content strategy and objectives should clearly drive both technology and the layout, given that layout is in fact just an implementation of technology to support objectives. Adrian aptly points out that the default screen layout is and always has been full screen. We have long been supporters of keeping screen layouts simple, and our own plans to expand multi-zone support have more to do with the ancillary benefits of doing so than with a desire to enable busier screens. More on that in a future post. Let me give a personal example that supports the argument for simplicity.
I work out (less often than I should) on an elliptical machine in my garage. I have a TV set up out there, and my habit is to watch ESPN’s SportsCenter while I put in my miles. The SportsCenter program is framed on the right by a sidebar that vertically scrolls through the upcoming story headlines, and a bottom ticker that continuously scrolls sports news horizontally. What I have realized is this: I never watch the anchors at the desk when the camera is on them. Instead, I read the ticker. I will watch the main window when a highlight of interest is playing, and will occasionally scan the sidebar to see if a NASCAR story is on the horizon, which generally requires a channel change.
The takeaway here is that providing multiple options for viewer attention forces a choice and sub-optimizes the impact of each option. You do not have to be a behavioral scientist to figure that out, and it may be something to consider for those who believe that more is better, or that they can “monetize” three or more zones at once. Start with an objective, and then delight your customers in achieving it.
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