Content Country-Formatnewsletter-Format Article for Newsletter

You Are Here: Home Page -> Formatnewsletter -> Format Article for Newsletter

Newsletter Article

Here is Digital Signage: Metrics, Human Nature Remain Final Obstacles to Success formatted for a newsletter with 65 characters per line.

Return to Digital Signage: Metrics, Human Nature Remain Final Obstacles to Success

Digital Signage: Metrics, Human Nature Remain Final Obstacles to Success

by Davidicus

A new iSuppli report finds two significant obstacles remain
before digital signage advertising can takes its place among
other bona fide media buys by advertisers and ad agencies: a lack
of variable audience measurement techniques, and a quandary on
the part of ad agencies about how to get paid for placing digital
signage ads.

The report, "Digital Signage Ecosystem Report," by Sanju Khatri,
principal analyst for signage and professional displays for
iSuppli, outlines the opportunities for digital signage networks
as well as the challenges that must be transcended before they
realize their potential.

In a press release promoting the study, iSuppli identifies the
problems and how they are related. According to the research
company, "advertising agencies are very comfortable in the
traditional arena of mass media and print advertising, and are
not compelled enough to insert digital signage into the plans of
their clients. More importantly, these agencies don't necessarily
know what their commission will be with digital signage."

iSuppli goes on to explain that without an effective way to
determine the number of consumers being reached by digital
signage networks there is "no effective means" to show
advertisers that the dollars they are spending on the medium are
reaping a quantifiable reward. In other words, determining the
return an advertiser can expect from an investment in advertising
via digital signage networks is currently impossible. This lack
of a way to measure ROI impedes the growth of the medium.

According to iSuppli, those participating in the market have
begun partnering with organizations like Nielson, Arbitron and
POPAI to develop metrics to make determining ROI doable. However,
there seems to be little agreement about what exactly must be
measured.

While the lack of audience metrics and the difficulty ad
agencies have in determining how to get paid shouldn't be
underestimated, there seems to be an overarching issue at play
here -one that if addressed could reshape the conversation.
Specifically, the entire notion of jamming the digital signage ad
network medium into the box used to define and sell other media
-in particular television- seems a bit misguided and stifling.

Granted, there is an incredible temptation to lump TV and
digital signage together. After all, on the face of it
-literally- they look identical. But the differences quickly
become apparent when you get past their physicality and begin to
consider much less superficial issues, such as how an audience
consumes messages each conveys, the types of information,
entertainment and commercials each display, where each physically
resides and how much time viewers spend with each.

Simply attempting to count noses in an effort to support an ROI
model built on the 60-plus year history of commercial television,
seems to miss the point. Digital signage advertising networks are
a new, different medium. They deserve their own unique formulas
for determining ROI.

One component of that equation has to be propensity of a digital
signage ad network "viewer" to actually buy something. Isn't a
smaller audience with dollars in its hands and a desire to buy
something in the very near term more valuable to advertisers than
home after home of passive TV viewers who increasingly are
skipping through their commercials with a remote control and a
DVR?

In terms of the comfort level of ad agencies when it comes
digital signage ad networks, who cares? Look at what Google has
done in a matter of a few short years to ad buys. Single-handedly
Google may have done more to call into question advertising
business as usual than anything that's happened in recent
memory.

Perhaps decisions about ads on digital signage networks would be
better left to corporate marketing folks with expertise in
point-of-purchase promotional displays. Certainly, that business
resource has vast experience in determining the ROI of
promotional messaging at the point of purchase when compared to
an agency concerned about television.

To a certain degree, digital signage ad networks may have
themselves to blame for these hurdles. Selling something new is
often difficult, so it's understandable that there's a powerful
temptation to draw analogies with the familiar when making their
pitch to agencies. When it comes to digital signage and
advertising agencies, the familiar is naturally television. To
extract itself from that limiting, stifling box will require
digital signage advertising networks to do much more than address
metrics and commissions. It will require taking control of
defining the medium as it's own, distinct entity and value.

David Little is a digital signage enthusiast with 20 years of
experience helping professionals use technology to <a href="
http://www.keywesttechnology.com/home/">expand their marketing
messages with alternative media</a>. Visit
http://www.keywesttechnology.com and find how you can expand your
marketing horizons.

Syndicated by Top Gazebos - www.topgazebos.net

Quick Content Search:
Content Country

Welcome Guest

Author Country

Publisher Country

Essentials