More or Less Fragmentation in Digital Signage “Prooving” Efforts?

Filed Under Advertising, Digital Signage

While my esteemed colleague (is that too formal Dave? ) over at Screen Media: http://screenmedia.wordpress.com/2007/01/25/ovab-trying-to-standardize-the-new-wild-west/ beat me to it (he’s right about the beers), I’ve got a bit of a different side to a great event held by Alchemy last night.

[Rewind: I ran into Alchemy about a year ago at a Strategy Institute event in New York and really liked their work and where they were going on the content side of the Digital Signage business]

Event recap:

Great turn out
Smart People
Fun chats
Lots of palm pressing
Industry moving forward

Dave can tell you more on his blog (above).

The digital signage industry is slowly, albeit painfully, moving towards mainstream / adoption / acceptance / etc by brands, agencies and consumers alike. At this pace, another 2 years or so and we’ll really be rolling - yes there was a touch of sarcasm there.

Last night was a couple of announcements on initiatives on both sides of the border in the Digital Signage space with regards to industry groups (CDSA and OVAB), association development, policy governance, standardization, etc. Fun stuff.

My tiny worry here is: Do we really need another association? Where is everyone going with this and what are they really going to do for 1.) The industry 2.) Your Company, that can’t be fit into existing spaces. Read On.

Don’t get me wrong, associations and lobby groups are powerful entities and help propel the wants and needs of various groups up and down the supply chain from brand to hardware supplier, not to mention help facilitate some great relationships. The industry needs its champion groups and I fully support them. Who am I to say which one (or multiple) should or could be the be all end all of the space to speak for all of us?

I’ve been involved in many of them over the past 10 years, both as a member and on the board of directors or leading committees over the years from my time in the Internet / Web / Online Advertising / Mobile industries, including; IMAT, CATA, Smart Toronto, AIMS, Liberty Village New Media Group, CMA, etc.

I may be a bit daft but here’s where I’m left scratching my heads a bit; Based on what was said yesterday, the main thrust of the “intent” of both organizations is to support and convince the ad biz (agencies – and through them the Brands) that the industry is worth spending money in. Be that through communications or research or promotion, what have you.

Here’s the thing; this industry is an interesting pairing of pieces of industries supported by POPAI (Point of Purchase Advertising Institute - a global association founded in 1936) and OAAA (Outdoor Advertising Association of America - founded in 1889 and no that’s not a typo).

Yes, these are big monsters, but they already have an established voice, and a powerful one at that – even if POPAI and P&G (PRISM) are warring over how to measure effectively in-store. I know we all feel like we need something new and that the “old guard” in these associations just doesn’t understand us or our business and won’t promote us as much because we’re a “piece” instead of a whole, but I have to wonder aloud if “growing up” sometimes means working within the system instead of outside it. Now if my mother ever heard me say that she’d fall over - I don’t think I’ve worked within any system I’ve been placed in - ever. Do we stand to gain more or less if we fragment our common voice with those that are so similar?

An important point here is I don’t stay awake at night reading progress reports or understanding the warring factions in each of these groups. I get to sit here on my high horse, from a distance and dissect (to date) so no, I really don’t know the relationships between all the different parties involved and maybe we really do need our own camp to set up tents in. All I know is that there’s a lot of lobby effort, research and promotion of our space going on in those two associations alone – and there’s another 5+ associations that are doing the same thing – for us.

Sample Question from last night:

Q: “How is your association dovetailing efforts, understanding and results with the P&G PRISM initiative and the POPAI Digital Signage Standards Research Initiative?

A: “…………….we’re in early stages of building up the committees to evaluate and discuss this”

That’s a perfectly acceptable answer. However, what worried me was more the “……..” than the answer. Of the folks I brought up this topic with on the Canadian side, it was almost like they hadn’t heard of either initiative, or if they had, they didn’t know the details or sound like they had read much past the title. It’s hard to play the game if you don’t have a full deck.

I’m not a cynic of the industry - in fact I’ve seen such demonstrable results that NOT participating in this space would be irresponsible for MarCom guys and Media planners. But I will voice my opinion when not asked. I vocalized some questions last night and got enough hesitation that I got a little disconcerted. That’s all. If someone can fill me in on what I’m not seeing, I’d appreciate it. There are much more “in the know” people than I.

Last point to juxtapose the situation: CATA is one of the big powerhouses in Canada on the association side. They are very tech/IT centric but have created a huge association that acts as an industry lobbyist and has shown demonstrable effect in working for its members. I’ve never run into an association like it. Somehow, they were able to unite ALL of the different factions, even emerging factions back in the DotCom heyday, into their fold. The bigger they get, the more they represent and the more customers (Brands) listen to their direction and forecasting and also become members. How do we do that?

I don’t know what I don’t know so if you’ve got a counter opinion on the above, I’d love a response because this is just an opinion piece.

Congrats to Dave Laird By The Way

[UPDATE -FEBRUARY 8, 2007: It seems I’m not the only sarcastic cynic in the Digital Signage business. Bill Gerba would seem to agree with me: http://digitalsignagenews.blogspot.com/2007/01/out-of-home-video-advertising-bureau.html. And here I thought I lived on my own private island.]