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Jul
1
A Traveler’s Day in the Life With Digital OOH
Filed Under Advertising, Digital Signage, digital ooh | Leave a Comment
I travel. Ok….I travel A LOT and have recently begun taking the time to smell the roses and video instances of Digital OOH as I go about my merry way. Note that I’m not actually changing my patterns to go SEE Digital OOH, I’m just recording it where and when I run into it in my daily life.
So I was blown away when I assembled what I had recorded over a recent 24 hour travel period which took me from Newark to Toronto To Vegas, on my way to InfoComm 2008.
I ran in to 11 separate ad networks run by 11 separate companies. …and that’s just the stuff I actually spent time recording. There were several times I was on the phone and couldn’t use my Blackberry’s nifty new video features ro bring you the goods.
Note that the video is grainy and I’m a crappy cameraman but you’ll get the idea as you go along…
Video after the break…
Jun
30
It’s So Fun, Being A Legal Alien…
Filed Under Digital Signage | Leave a Comment
While the rest of the world calls ‘em foreigners, the US now prefers to call me an “alien”….Some would say they’re close to the truth 
As of last week, I’m now an official (albeit legal) alien, based out of NY. Quite the process! Nothing like relocating countries to take the steam out of your productivity!
So you’ll forgive me just a little bit for being so negligent on my postings over the last little while. Between moving and work, it’s been quite the month!
I’m back on the proverbial horse so expect more in the coming days and weeks. Thanks for your patience! New cell as well: 212.444.8661
Oh, and:
Jun
4
Outdoor Promotions - Shiny New Vegas Bus Shelters
Filed Under Advertising, Digital Signage, digital ooh | 3 Comments
Alex Belensen and crew over at Outdoor Promotions just fired out a release detailing the launch of their VERY cool network in Las Vegas along the strip. They’ve got 2 types of displays and from what I remember they’re putting in about 100 of them.
The guys there beat out a number of the major outdoor companies to lock a 20 year ad deal with the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC). The 70″ screens themselves were provided by Samsung.
I’ve added some videos after the break and I’ve re-printed the release from Business Wire below.
Jun
1
More Attacks On TV Ad Budgets - But Turning the Titanic Ain’t Easy
Filed Under Advertising, Digital Signage | 1 Comment
Ad Age has an interesting article this week on some work that MediaVest (a Publicis Co) has been trying to do in shifting some of their client ad dollars in to new mediums (Cinema advertising specifically)…without much success.
The article is focused on the Cinema advertising business, which I consider a bit of a cousin to the DOOH business, although National Cinemedia is referenced in the article. Cinema advertising is much older than DOOH, although it met a lot of resistance when it was first launched (folks throwing things at the screens and such). It’s much more accepted now. It does raise some interesting points about the state of the media business and how hard it is to change Brand perceptions on where to spend their dollars. It’s ALWAYS easier to do the same thing as last year than bring new media into the mix, even if it seems smarter…
May
26
For those who have been around the space for a while, Bill Gerba is a mainstay in the digital signage / digital OOH space.
He and his wife just had a new little one: http://digitalsignagenews.blogspot.com/2008/05/another-thing-that-keeps-me-up-at-night.html
While I have a hard enough time getting sleep without one of these, my full congrats to Bill and family. Head on over to the link above and leave your well wishes in the comments.
Congrats Bill!
May
26
NeuroLED on Engadget
Filed Under Digital Signage | 2 Comments
Engadget had a post on a weird piece of tech from NeuroLED:
Not sure of its commercial applications (biggest game of lite brite ever? now dynamic?) but I know there’s a few European clubs that would die for this.
May
12
Adobe to make life easier for Digital OOH content design?
Filed Under Advertising, Digital Signage | 1 Comment
While the article on techcrunch about Adobe’s new “Open Screen Project” isn’t explicitly targeting Digital OOH, they have an interesting project and opportunity ahead of them.
According to the Project:
Adobe is making a big play to make Flash the de facto viewing environment not only for Web apps on your PC, but also on your mobile phone, your TV, and any other screen you can think of. It is announcing the Open Screen Project to make it easier to develop applications across devices—using Flash, of course. David Wadhwani, general manager of Adobe’s platform business (which includes Flash/Flex, AIR, and Cold Fusion), says:
We believe it is time for an industry-wide movement for a consistent way to develop across the Web for PCs, mobile devices, and TVs.
Dave Haynes has written about the potential for Adobe/Macromedia to pull rank on its license and force all those players out there who are illegally using Flash on their players to cough up but this move makes it look like they really want folks to make use of the technology….and making a “write once, run anywhere” version of their software is a darn good start.
Especially in the creative agency world, if you can transcode one piece of content and easily port it from one platform to another, it takes away some of those arguments on why not to use the medium (no $s to port content for a new medium) and makes the lives of folks like OVAB and POPAI a little easier in identifying format/content standards for Digital OOH.
More info after the break:
May
12
E-Ink’s Thinner, More Flexible, Non-Rectangular Solutions
Filed Under Digital Signage | Leave a Comment
Engadget has a nice little piece on E-Ink.
Apparently they’ve released a next-gen version of their thin flexible display technology that allows you to customize the shape into whatever designs you want.
I started playing with e-ink products (and the like) about 3-4 years ago. Folks have been watching E-Ink for a while waiting for A.) prices to come down and B.) additional capabilities to be available in their technology.
Nice to see (Engadget says the same) that they’re starting to bring these capabilities into the mainstream! Great semi-permanent signage opportunities available when prices drop a bit more.
Apr
24
April 2008 Digital Signage Mixer - Toronto
Filed Under Advertising, Digital Signage, Event | Leave a Comment
Per the honourable Dave Haynes (hey! give me (and him) some latitude…I’m in a good mood); the monthly mixers have begun yet again!
DSE, TAB, Mediapost and more (the OutFront conference is tomorrow) have all made it a point to over-do the DOOH conference agenda in the last couple of weeks…and given (from what the agency planners are telling me) we’re all tired of hearing the same thing over and over, it’s about time we have a little cocktail party back on the home front and do it up again like we Canadians do.
The next Mixer is at Alice Fazoolli’s this thurs. An all round romp and good time. Feel bad but I’m out of town for the festivities but if you’re in town, I highly suggest you attend
I’m actually moving to NYC in a month and am thinking we should start the same thing in the City. I’ll pay for apps and food if anyone is interested in starting this round table in New York for May/June? Send me an email or comment below if you want to join/participate
Apr
22
Digital Out Of Home Forum in New York
Filed Under Advertising, Digital Signage, Event | 1 Comment
Tomorrow (April 23rd, 2008) is Mediapost’s Digital Out Of Home Forum at the Yale Club of New York.
It’s nice to see such a great turn out of both speakers and attendees at an event sponsored by one of the major media publications.
Here’s some of the speakers, which form a good round up of both venue operators, media aggregators and agencies:
If you’re in the area, give me a holler.
| Suzanne Alecia | President, Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau |
| Kelly Andrews | Senior Vice President, Research Director, MediaVest Group |
| Andy Batkin | CEO, ProLink Media |
| Mike Bloxham | Director of Insight & Research, Center for Media Design, Ball State University |
| Peter Bowen | Founder and CEO, SeeSaw Networks |
| Virginia Cargill | President and CEO, CBS Outernet |
| Norm Chait | Vice President, Director of Out-Of-Home, MediaVest USA |
| Robert Davidman | Chairman and CEO, EarthQuake Media |
| PJ Ewing | Senior Vice President of Media Sales, Channel M |
| Richard Fisher | President, Premier Retail Networks |
| Mark French | Senior Vice President and General Manager, NBC Everywhere |
| Alice Gold | Vice President, Marketing Insights, OTX Research |
| Rocky Gunderson | Founder, Vice President Marketing & Network Development, SeeSaw Networks |
| Tim Hanlon | Executive Vice President, Ventures, Denuo |
| Todd Hansen | Chief Operating Officer, Posterscope USA |
| Jim Harris | CEO, The Wall Street Journal Office Media Network |
| Dale Herigstad | Chief Creative Officer, Schematic |
| Tony Jarvis | Executive Vice President, Global Research, Clear Channel Outdoor |
| Jeff Jensen | President, Adspace Networks |
| David Krupp | Managing Director, Kinetic |
| Ryan Laul | Managing Director, Hyperspace |
| David Leider | CEO, Gas Station TV |
| Paul Lindstrom | Senior Vice President, Nielsen Strategic Media Research |
| Joe Mandese | Editor-in-Chief, MediaPost |
| John Marson | Senior Manager, Media Planning, Kraft Foods |
| John McMenamin | Executive Vice President, Sales & Strategy, Ripple |
| Lon Otremba | CEO, Access 360 Media |
| Patrick Quinn | President and CEO, PQ Media |
| Dennis Roche | U.S. President, Zoom Media & Marketing |
| Dario Santana | CEO and President, NTN Buzztime Inc. |
| Jim Spaeth | Founding Partner, Sequent Partners |
| Jack Sullivan | Senior Vice President/Out-of-Home Media Director, Starcom USA |
| David Turman | Director OOH, Spark Communications |
| Diane Williams | Analyst, Custom Research Services, Arbitron |
| David Womeldorf | Executive Vice President, Marketing and Products, BroadSign |
| David Yacullo | President & CEO, Outdoor Media Group, Outdoor Media Alliance, Outdoor Imaging |
