TBM - a business leader in the global digital signage arena - currently operates a network of over 1 000 plasma and TV screens across the country, creating a platform for advertisers to share their information with various sections of the population, depending on which audience-specific package is chosen.

Trendsetter in its field, TBM incorporates new technology that provides a basis for revolutionary new communication strategies. Advertisers can now create high-impact campaigns and deliver them virtually instantly via satellite to any of these screens across South Africa. Advertising screens within the TBM network include those at Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban International Airports, airport lounges at these three airports, Absa banks, American Express, Rennies Bank, Virgin Active, golf clubs, advertising agencies and the Johannesburg Metro Police Department.

TBM also operates “private” television stations for government, NGOs and corporate clients, which can be used for various applications including marketing and promotions, staff training, brand building, product/service information, company communication, promotions, competitive advantage, social responsibility, sponsor extensions and strategic alliances.

In addition, TBM also delivers DVD quality full-motion content to plasma screens located within closed networks, acting as a telecommunications service provider for institutions requiring information distribution to both staff and clients. These are known as hybrid networks, and TBM currently operates such a network for Cell C in over 90 retail centres across the country. By the end of 2006, this figure will have grown substantially. During business hours, the network is used for communicating with the clients in Cell C call centres, stores and franchises.

“Currently, South Africa is lagging behind the international market with regards to digital signage,” says Pierre van der Hoven, CEO of TBM. “Marketers need to start realising that Out-of-Home TV is the way of the future - traditional media has become fragmentised, and has lost the power it once commanded.”

Research shows that digital media is four times more effective than conventional television advertising. Significantly, digital media is also seven times more effective than conventional print media, and receive ten times the eye contact of static signage.

“Studies also show that 75% of all purchasing decisions are made in-store at the point of sale, and that 85% of retail customers say that multi-media displays make a difference to where they shop,” van der Hoven points out.

According to recent studies by New York research company Weinstock Media Analysis, who defines digital signage as ’server-based advertising over networked video displays’, technology sales to this market in North America totalled $US972-million in 2003 and will rise to $US2.23-billion in 2008. It is predicted that this region will have over 540 000 screens at more than 76 000 sites by 2009.

In the US, the broadcast network of PRN - the largest TV network in the retail environment - reaches an audience of over 150 million shoppers every week in over 5 500 stores countrywide. It delivers information and entertainment-packed programming in stores where customers spend over US$256-billion every year.

Advertisers in the UK have also cottoned on to this highly effective marketing medium, and over 57 000 networked screens are operational in public venues. This figure has made an astounding leap from only 10 000 in 2004, according to the Samsung Screen Survey of last year. Apart from producing a value-adding experience for mall visitors, screens have also been placed in government buildings, banks, hair salons and student unions.

Three years ago, Tesco TV rolled out 5 000 screens in 100 Tesco stores, which reach 14 million shoppers a week. ASDA, the other major supermarket chain in the UK, has completed a six-month pilot in two of its major stores. Results of the Spar grocery trial were also published in 2005, and showed increased sales of between 10% and 40% for targeted products.

Besides Tesco TV, other success stories in the UK include Toni & Guy TV, with 230 salons in Europe and expanding across Asia; the Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham, which provides information through plasma screens and kiosks; Abbey National, a dual network in 800 stores that does brand advertising and staff training; and the Camelot network, which promotes the national lottery in 500 supermarket and sales outlets.

If South Africa is set to follow North American and European trends - and the signs are already beginning to show - then astute marketers will start to place emphasis on extracting the maximum value from ad-spend, with the added benefit of avoiding a ‘blanket’ marketing approach, opting rather for one that is focused and targets specific audiences.

“Digital screens with moving images are much more effective than static point-of-purchase material,” notes van der Hoven.

“Even though advertisers spend millions getting shoppers in stores, more than half of those shoppers leave empty-handed because static advertising is unreliable, invisible and difficult to manage. In fact, the Point of Purchase Advertising Institute (POPAI) estimates that 30% to 40% of all point-of-purchase advertising is wasted as a result of incorrect and non-displays.”

TBM is poised to play a pivotal role in developing this market in South Africa, and is currently the only South African company that provides all the necessary elements for an OHTV network. “We see a boom coming for the digital signage market in this country, and we’re prepared,” says van der Hoven. “Marketers should be too.”

The UK chapter of POPAI, in cooperation with the Imperative Group, released a report on the use of digital signage and other forms of digital media at retail. I just had the chance to read the document (formally titled Guide to Digital Media in Retail, though they seem to favor the unpronounceable G2DMiR moniker), and thought I make a few comments to anybody who has been on the fence about spending $200 (free for POPAI UK members) on yet another research report.

First of all, at only 26 pages it’s a quick read, which is not a bad thing at all. Having read more than my fair share of reports over the last few years, my estimate is that about 75% of the stuff in there is often hype. The G2DMiR is largely hype-free and statistic-rich. Instead of taking the position of infallible research company, they also took the very nice step (in my opinion) of soliciting case studies and anecdotes from numerous industry experts (at companies including Dunnhumby, Retail Week, Spar, and The Co-operative Group), which gives them an extra degree of accountability (or, they’re all a bunch of liars, though I suppose that’s not too likely

So, for example, I could tell you that “I’ve heard that some retailers see a 20% in sales of advertised products, with a 3-5% lift on the whole category”. But it wouldn’t be very verifiable, and in fact I’d probably forget where I first heard the statistic so you’d be out of luck trying to follow up on it yourself. Or, you could read that very stat in the report, as written by Susan Beetlestone at the Co-operative Group, who manages Europe’s largest digital screen network. Need to cite something to an investor or advertiser? You now have a company name and responsible party.

So should you buy it? I’d say that depends on what your business is, and how far along you are. If you are focused on the retail vertical and are concerned about things like sales uplift and retail case studies, or if you want some details on what the UK’s top companies think about loop length, playback frequency and using audio in your content, it’s easily worth the money.

POPAI’s Outstanding Merchandising Achievement (OMA) awards have been around for a while. Over 50 years, in fact. So it’s no wonder that they’ve figured out what it takes to run an efficient contest that pulls from the top creative minds in the field, and accurately showcases work from the best of the best in the POP industry. The digital signage industry, on the other hand, has really only been around in its present incarnation for maybe five or six years. And the contests that have sprung up to highlight excellence in the field have been changing ever since. POPAI’s own Digital Signage Awards contest is no exception. For better or worse (hopefully better!), the good folks at POPAI have basically left me in charge of the direction that the contest will be taking this year. In the grand tradition of management types and lazy people alike, I want to delegate some of the work. So tell me, what would you like to see in the 2009 Digital Signage Awards contest?

A little bit of history…

While the Digital Signage Awards have only been around for three years, the 2009 version will mark the contest’s second large revision. Why? Well, part of it is that we’re trying to honor feedback from past entrants. Another part is that digital signage continues to be a moving target, making it very hard to hit. As I noted in last year’s article on how to win POPAI’s Digital Signage Awards contest:

Having either watched, judged or participated in lots of digital signage-themed contests in the past two years, my team knew exactly what we didn’t want. We didn’t want touch screen kiosks that happen to show content occasionally. We didn’t want interactive TV programs. And we didn’t want entries from “networks” that still rely on mailing out CDs or DVDs instead of getting content over the Internet. What we did want was a way to showcase the best and most innovative networks and the content that runs on them. Realizing that it was impossible to compare a network (e.g. the way the screens were hung, integration with the venue’s environment, etc.) with individual pieces of content, the first thing we did is split POPAI’s Digital Signage Awards into two divisions: one devoted to the nuts-and-bolts aspects of making the networks great, and the other for showcasing outstanding digital signage content.

With that problem out of the way, the next thing we looked at was the different kinds of networks that we might expect to receive entries from. One of my biggest gripes about other digital signage contests has been that they’re either too focused on one particular vertical market (e.g. retail), or they treat all content from different verticals the same. We wanted a way to highlight the subtle differences that make networks and content for different verticals, well, different. So we further split the contest into five different categories: retail, transportation, hospitality/entertainment, healthcare and government/education/corporate. With these fine-grained categories and divisions, we should be able to accurately judge and showcase entries from virtually any part of the digital signage market.

I stand by our decision to make these changes, and they helped us generate more than double the number of entries compared to previous years. But we still had some naysayers. As soon as the new rules were published, we got requests from people wanting to enter their interactive devices in the running. We got complaints from big networks about little guys with only one screen submitting their “network” for an award. All told, there were over a dozen suggestions for ways to improve the contest, most of which were incompatible with one another (e.g. “too many categories” versus “too few categories”). Since this contest is supposed to be serving the industry, we’ve decided to go back to the drawing board and make more changes.

So what’s the solution?

If I knew what the solution was, I wouldn’t be writing this article right now But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that sometimes there really is wisdom in crowds. And I believe that’s especially true with the group of folks who read this blog regularly. So I put together a little survey below that I’d love your feedback on. (Email and RSS subscribers: if you don’t see the survey, click here to view this article and the survey on the web.) I’m also asking for other comments and feedback — just write them in the usual spot below. (Again, email and RSS subscribers, you might have to use the link above.) So, if you have a particular opinion about why one approach to the Digital Signage Awards is better than another, I’d like to know about that too. Ask your friends and partners in the industry to read this article, take the survey, and leave their comments too. After all, the more feedback we get at this point, the more complete and encompassing the contest will be. So c’mon — it’s only eight questions and will take you less than two minutes to complete. Let us know your opinion, and help us make a contest that can truly highlight the best and brightest in the business!

Content from Help us improve POPAI’s Digital Signage Awards contest provided by WireSpring. Copyright © 2000-2008 WireSpring Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved.

This is pretty much a cut-and-paste from the announcement two months ago, but if you, a client, a partner or some other interested party you know about is starting to explore the exciting world of digital out-of-home media, POPAI’s holding another “Digital Signage 101″ webinar on August 7th.

Specifically designed to help newcomers see past the industry hype and focus on the projects, business cases and best practices that have been successful in the real world, POPAI’s Introduction to Digital Signage webinar is a great way to spend an hour of your time — and only $50 — to jump-start your understanding of what works and what doesn’t in the digital signage world.

Dale Smith at Peerless will be leading the way, covering topics including:

• An introduction to the digital signage market with some basic market history and analysis,
• A look at some of the most common usage scenarios,
• An explanation of the components used in typical digital signage networks,
• A discussion of the benefits and drawbacks of using digital signage, and
• An examination of some of the most common pitfalls and problems that occur, and ways to avoid them in the first place.

TORONTO and MONTREAL–(Marketwire - June 10, 2008) - Artisan Complete has launched the first installation of its groundbreaking nCAPSULE digital merchandising solution, featuring best-of-breed digital signage software from BroadSign and the first retail deployment of facial detection software from CognoVision.

The nCAPSULE is a remotely programmed digital floor display that offers push-button interactivity using BroadSign™ Suite and automated audience measurement analytics using CognoVision’s Anonymous Impression Metric (AIM) technology.

“This is a major step for our company and for our clients,” said Stephen Ghigliotty, Account Director at Artisan Live, the digital arm of retail communications provider Artisan Complete. “Artisan has always designed and manufactured great retail displays… By working with BroadSign and CognoVision we are now able to see exactly how they are working to get the attention of shoppers.”

The first nCAPSULE was launched at the flagship Birks jewelry store in Toronto for the Movado Group and its Concord brand of luxury watches. Its sleek and elegant look is enhanced by high-definition content delivered through BroadSign’s Software as a Service (SaaS) platform.

“Integrating BroadSign’s campaign execution system with CognoVision’s automated audience measurement tools allows any digital signage network to offer an unprecedented level of service to their advertisers,” said Rick Engels, CEO of BroadSign International. “It also provides a high-tech shortcut to measuring the advertising ROI, eliminating the usual significant time delay and reducing the need for traditional big-budget surveys.”

“The nCAPSULE is an exemplary embodiment of bringing together industry leaders to create an all encompassing, fully integrated digital media solution for retail,” said Haroon Mirza, Director of Business Development of CognoVision Solutions Inc. “The combination of CognoVision’s AIM audience measurement system with BroadSign’s digital signage suite provides an exceptional platform for advertisers to deliver, measure, and optimize their campaigns.”

Together, Artisan Complete, BroadSign, and CognoVision are spearheading the movement towards maximizing the effectiveness of digital signage.

About Artisan Complete

Artisan Complete is one of North America’s largest providers of retail communication solutions, offering creative and production services for static, digital and interactive POP signage and display. Through the manufacturing capabilities of Artisan Print+, the design and marketing services of Artisan Retail and the digital expertise of Artisan Live, we offer comprehensive in-store marketing solutions for brands, retailers and their agencies. With award-winning digital content services and an expertise in the constantly evolving technology landscape, Artisan provides a single source to marketers looking to extend their message onto new media at retail. Visit us at www.artisancomplete.com.

About BroadSign International Inc.

BroadSign International Inc. is a leading worldwide provider of hosted solutions for managing digital signage networks. BroadSign™ Suite is a ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) platform that resolves the challenges facing modern digital signage networks: the need for acceptance by the mainstream advertising community, time to market and the need for full campaign execution functionality, accountability and true scalability. The software enables operators to target out-of-home audiences, sell network airtime; reliably play back scheduled content on each screen and account for campaign performance. Essential support and maintenance services are included in the per-player monthly license fee. BroadSign combines extensive expertise in digital signage software, media, advertising, and information technology and is a member of the Out-of-home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB), OAAA, the Digital Signage Association and POPAI. Digital signage networks in 25 countries use the BroadSign™ Suite. The company’s corporate office is located in Minnetonka, Minn., USA and Operations, Support and Development facilities are in Montreal, Canada For more, visit www.broadsign.com.

About CognoVision Solutions Inc.

CognoVision Solutions Inc. is an innovative provider of automated real-time audience measurement solutions. CognoVision’s sophisticated video analytics solutions measure audience viewing information for out-of-home advertising on media displays, including: digital signage, TV displays, posters, kiosks, window displays, product displays, and endcap displays. The company’s solutions have been built from the ground up for the specific purpose of audience measurement, and are not derived from homeland security algorithms. CognoVision’s AIM system has been designed to completely respect people’s privacy. No personally identifiable information is ever collected, and no images are ever recorded.

Two Senses and Unlimited Possibilities by Gesellschaft für innovative Martkforschung (GIM) and POPAI

POPAI Germany and GIM teamed up to develop a globally relevant and sound analysis of the digital signage market, of the existing concepts and projects as well as the market participants and their forecasts for the coming years.

The result — the first worldwide study on digital signage — will provide operators, prospective operators, observers and decision makers, with a comprehensive guidebook for all parts of the market, can serve as a reference with a place on the desk of all who are close to the market the world over.

Members Only — $990 until Aug. 1 then $1,125. $2,600 Nonmembers.