Dynamic digital signage is a phrase often used as a synonym for digital signage, electronic billboards and narrowcasting. It is an appropriate term as well, when you consider how dynamic digital signage really is.

In North America, growth in digital out-of-home advertising has been in the high double digits over the past few years. Businesses in Western Europe have also jumped on the bandwagon. A recent report by Research and Markets showed trends similar to those in North America – revenues from dynamic digital signage are expected to quadruple over the next 5 years, making it the only advertising sector that can expect any real revenue growth in that period.

Digital signage is effective, it’s increasingly affordable and it has an undeniable “cool” factor, largely due to continued innovation by digital signage providers. Retailers have clearly decided that dynamic digital signage is the way of the future. A glimpse at some new trends and technologies will show us what that future might look like, while demonstrating the pioneering spirit of the digital signage industry.

What’s on the Horizon

Expansion is, of course, one of the buzzwords of the future for the dynamic digital signage industry. And it isn’t just in in-store marketing. Consider two unique examples:

• The city of Venice will suspend 5 huge (2,250 ft2) signs in 900-year-old St. Mark’s Square. The signs will serve a very distinct purpose – help generate revenue to offset the costs of restoring the Square. They are not intended to be in place permanently, but will hang from scaffolding during the 6-year restoration project.

• Ernst & Young is using dynamic digital signage in its UK offices to communicate with its employees. Finding that email was inefficient – messages could be passed over too easily in crowded in-boxes – the company decided to try digital signage. They tested it and found that employees were more engaged by video messaging. Their messaging combines text, video and Flash and is used in everything from company news to training videos.

Merchandising has gone digital in a big way. Not only can digital signage be used to convey interesting messages in a unique way, it has unsurpassed abilities to target messages to specific shoppers. Consider:

• One of the latest products in audience measurement is called iCapture. It uses a high-resolution camera to capture faces. Its software processes them and can segment them by demographics. Age is one of the demographics they have recently mastered, which will allow dynamic digital signage content to be targeted to seniors (as opposed to previous efforts which could only distinguish between adults and children). This software joins projects like Nielsen Media’s P.R.I.S.M. and Arbitron’s Portable People Meter to help retailers gather valuable (and anonymous) demographic data about their shoppers.

You might want to file this next innovation under “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”. We all know digital signage affects the visual and auditory senses, but what about the olfactory senses?

• A Japanese company has developed an aroma-emitting device that can be attached to digital signs to emit “mood-heightening” aromas. Using a proprietary “fragrance communication” online service, the signs are programmed to emit certain scents that may draw attention to the signs. In testing, a cosmetics company used the technology to emit the fragrance of roses and reported that awareness of the fragrant signs was double that of standard digital signs.

There has been some debate about the need and efficacy of fragrance emitting signs, but that they were developed at all shows that the name “dynamic digital signage” is certainly justified.

Trade media says metrics for digital signage that can be accepted by media buyers, are becoming a reality. Here is a brief overview of what the press has written on the subject in the past couple of months.

Nielsen is about to launch a new service that will provide monthly audience ratings for digital out-of-home networks in a format similar to that of TV ratings “pocketpieces” (booklets that you can fit into your pocket).

According to MediaWeek, “Nielsen has already issued its first report for Ideacast’s health club network. Sources confirmed other networks have also signed up for the service, among them Gas Station TV, Arena Media Networks and CBS Outernet.”

Katy Bachman, the author of the MediaWeek’s article, continues: “…standardized metrics could be a game changer for a medium advertisers find attractive but that lacks the metrics to give it a fair evaluation.”

“Measurement will bring some order to the whole medium,” said Jim Spaeth, president of Sequent Partners, a research consultancy hired by the Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau to write research standards to be released later this summer.

MediaWeek says Nielsen will issue reports free to agency clients, which it does with its cinema reports. For Ideacast, it takes the business to the next level. “Nielsen has a database of 30,000 planners and buyers, and they’re sending this to their entire database,” said Jason Brown, president, sales and marketing at Ideacast, which has already begun selling with the data. “Our business plan and internal projections are based [on these reports]. It’s now our currency.”

MediaPost wrote that, “… perhaps the most important aspect of the new pocketpieces will be Nielsen’s imprimatur, a stamp of approval that would provide legitimacy and authenticity for place-based networks calling on advertisers and agencies.”

Another advantage, according to Paul Lindsrom, Senior Vice President-Nielsen Strategic Media Research, would be “the ability to flow place-based TV audience estimates into media-planning software from firms such as Nielsen’s IMS unit, or various media and marketing mix modeling systems.

Lindstrom called the plan a “fairly simple, fairly straightforward approach” that would enable place-based TV networks to be planned and bought alongside traditional TV outlets, writes MediaPost.

MediaBuyerPlanner.com explains: “Whereas television and internet audience estimates are taken from consumer panels, Nielsen will gather data for the out-of-home video networks primarily from compiling and modeling third-party data, and combining that with Nielsen research conducted by telephone.”

MediaWeek says Nielsen already has competition in digital signage measurement: “While Nielsen is the first research firm to try to establish currency for the medium, it may not go unchallenged. Several other players, including Arbitron, Knowledge Networks, Edison Research, Peoplecount and MRI, as well as TruMedia and Quividi, have developed research and have worked with OVAB to develop guidelines.

“There are a lot of companies out there [looking to measure OOH video]—two companies may also work together,” said Suzanne Alecia, OVAB’s president. “Our guidelines are a rule book for any research provider to use,”” writes MediaWeek.

Advertising Age pointed out on June 23 that, “While out-of-home video advertising was estimated by PQ Media to take in $1.28 billion in spending in 2007, the emerging media sector did so with no standardized metrics for advertisers and agencies to buy it efficiently. The 18-month-old Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau is working with more than two dozen vendor and measurement partners (including Nielsen, Arbitron, Screenvision and CBS Outernet) to help create a universal measurement checklist for out-of-home media buyers. But even after the metrics receive official approval from the American Association of Advertisers and Agencies, they’re not likely to be employed until early 2009.”

My colleague Brian Dusho and I were part of several rounds of discussions of the OVAB’s Audience Metrics Guidelines, and I can testify that the document absorbed input from all stakeholders: the largest networks, research firms, technology providers, agencies and advertisers. Once endorsed by trade organizations and published, it will be a solid starting point for standardizing the digital signage ad space.

Venco Electronica, an electronics solution provider with more than 25 years in the Spanish industrial electronic market, has announced the integration of TruMedia’s iCapture audience measurement solution into its digital signage screens.

Venco’s DS for Digital Screens division produces turnkey DS solutions, including HD resolution screens, platform, audience measurement, and communications. Venco screens are the first to include a fully integrated audience measurement solution with built in iCapture Camera and SmartBox. Embedded screens are available as 46- and 52-inch hi-definition LCD screens as well as 46-, 52- and 65-inch totems.

“We believe that the success of digital signage hinges on the ability to accurately measure ROI and effectively target advertising to the viewing audience,” said Joan Clotet, managing director, Venco. “Venco prides itself in offering cutting edge DS technology and integrating TruMedia’s iCapture audience measurement solution into our screens was a natural progression.”

“We are pleased to see our solution integrated into Venco’s screens and believe that we will continue to see our solution become an integral part of Digital Signage solutions.” Said Jerry Henzen, TruMedia’s vice president of international sales & marketing.

Like all TruMedia products, iCapture is fully respectful of the audience’s privacy: no images are ever recorded, and no uniquely identifiable data is extracted.

Venco will be demonstrating the company’s new integrated screens at shows all over Europe this coming September including – Spanish Malls Association Congress and Exhibition (17 September), TOTAL MEDIA - first Digital Signage Fair (25-26 Sept), VISCOM SIGN POP and POS (16-18 Oct), MATELEC Electronics and Integrated components (28 Oct-1 Nov)

TAMPA, Fla. – Venco Electronica, a Spanish electronics provider, has integrated TruMedia’s iCapture audience measurement solution into its digital signage screens.

Venco’s DS for Digital Screens division produces turnkey digital signage solutions for audience measurement and communication. Venco screens are the first to include a fully integrated audience measurement solution with built-in iCapture Camera and SmartBox. Embedded screens are available as 46-inch and 52-inch hi-definition LCD screens as well as 46-inch, 52-inch and 65-inch totems.

“We believe that the success of digital signage hinges on the ability to accurately measure ROI and effectively target advertising to the viewing audience,” said Joan Clotet, managing director, Venco.

True Colours Distribution, a digital signage distributor, has signed an exclusive deal with out-of-home analytic measurement provider TruMedia.

Ian Croft, business development manager for True Colours’ digital media team, explains: ‘With the digital signage market moving at such a fast pace, a system for gathering analytic data about a target audience is vital for an advertiser’s ROI. With TruMedia, companies can accurately measure the number of viewers, assess consumer behaviour and determine the level of interest in adverts on digital signs, large format displays, end- caps and in-store product displays.’

Learn how you can obtain audience metrics such as counts, attention span and demographics in real-time using TruMedia’s audience measurement solutions. Join TruMedia’s Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Itzik Wilf, for a review of the company’s cutting-edge technology and learn how you can use this technology to measure your ROI and exciting ways to increase your revenue with proactive marketing. Dr. Wilf will also introduce TruMedia’s newest demonstration module that offers an easy and affordable way to evaluate and experience TruMedia’s audience measurement and proactive merchandising solutions.

Friday, July 25, 2008 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM PST https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/544115676