Feb
8
Less Technology = More Money
Filed Under Advertising, Digital Signage
I’ve been having a blast recently with some of the work I’m doing with a couple of ad agencies. I love their business and the fire and passion they have for what they do for their clients. It’s refreshing to see and it’s not something most people would be aware of if you don’t work inside their walls as a trusted source. They are, by definition and necessity, very guarded about their work and their clients.
The agency business is in a lot of trouble right now, for those of you who don’t know, but they are looking for ways to come back to life. We, as an industry could play a large role in helping them do this if we can grow up as an industry in time. As it stands right now, we’re hindering them, not helping them.
The work I’m doing for them is in the Digital Signage area and other pieces are from my old alma mater, software/web development/marketing. In some conversations over beers, I’ve had great debates on Digital Signage and been able to really communicate the benefits and also understand where their heads are at. Some brief notes on the “issues” front – I’ve got a much bigger essay I’m writing on all of this for later on:
- The first thing killing our industry is recognition: Bring up the word “Digital Signage” to anyone outside of our realm and, invariably, the recipient assumes you mean either something related to Internet Advertising or something relating to LED OOH billboards. This will change over time, but we’ve been around as an industry for a while now and the mobile marketing industry, despite being TINY: http://digitalads.wordpress.com/2007/02/05/the-right-industries-and-the-wrong-industries/ still gets more headspace airtime than us. The debate rages on about what to call it, and as Dave says; it looks like they’ve chosen to standardize on “Digital Signage” as the vernacular for our biz. This doesn’t exactly help us…it makes us sound like techies…marketers don’t like techies. I know….I’m both
- The second thing is the focus on technology: Ladies and Gents, I can tell you right now, no one cares what your technology is except for other techies. Sure, the right technology for the right situation matters, don’t get me wrong. While 1% of the world lives and breathes technology, 99% don’t. They want technology to be hidden. It’s the old “microwave effect”….make it as easy as a microwave. Ever tried to have a conversation with a CEO or VP Marketing about Technology? See that glazed look in their eyes? Google “Digital Signage”: http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=digital+signage&meta=…what do you see? The first three paid listings I saw contained the words “Hi-Def”, “Networks” and “Inexpensive Digital Sign”. Other words were “cost effective”, “hardware”, “software”. Try Googling Online Advertising. You’ll see words like “Revenue”, “maximize”, “brand”, “results” – see what I’m getting at? If you were an ad guy looking into Digital Signage solutions for your clients, wouldn’t you run away and assume it wasn’t worth looking into at this time? I remember when you used to do searches for online advertising and it had the same words as our industry come up
- Lastly, The “Pilot” effect. We’ve all heard this one. You guys would be stunned if you knew how many times the ad guys were approached by Digital Signage companies telling them about the latest Pilot project for Nike and how sucessful it was.
Says Pat Hellberg, Director, Brand Media Design Group, Nike, “I will be discussing enhancing your brand and your retail environment through digital signage. Over 3 and ½ years ago we started the Nike retail network with a pilot project in stores. Now we are in over 260 locations, some of those locations owned by Nike’s retail partners such as DICK’s Sporting Goods and Finnish Line… Simply put, what we create has to have the look and feel of Nike otherwise we’ve missed the market. I’ll talk about how we missed and how we hit the mark and tell you some of the lessons we’ve learned about making digital signage more effective.”
ugh – If I was in the pharma/drug testing business and told you that our latest cancer drug works great but we’ve only tested it on 1 or 2 people, would you sign up? Would you sign your brother up? Despite the fact that Nike has rolled out a 260 location networks, we’re all still talking about the “problems” we face/faced instead of the “solutions we have”. No one likes problems.
Start talking solutions and real business and stop talking technology and problems and we can start to make a dent and more money will start to flow out of the places that matter.
There’s lots more insight I have on this topic but for now I’m having fun with it and will leave it to your immagination.
Cheers!
Tags: digital-signage
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3 Responses to “Less Technology = More Money”
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I continue to be disturbed by the number of people sniffing around this space who don’t have much of an idea beyond:
1 – “I want to put screens …”
2 – “here …”
3 – “and I’ll sell advertising time on them.”
And the first thing they’re doing is looking for gear.
Ay caramba!!
Unfortunately, they’re doing a huge disservice to the industry. You’d think the barriers to entry would be higher than those of the Internet business but apparently not – everyone has a supplier in China, right?
The more we let people like this “sniff” around, the harder it’s going to be for the real players to make gains. I guess we just wait for consolidation, right? I don’t think so!
The play needs to have a lot more more value. I’m still interested that there isn’t a “company” that is setting up as “consultants” in this space….Be everyone’s best friend and make objective recommendations for the situations instead of the individual products. Like you said about the blog thing Dave, everyone seems to be hawking something…objectivity is key.
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