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Jul
16
Apparently I’m not the only Gorrie who is a sucker for punishment and enjoys doing his own thing. My father (www.gorrie.com - 122 yrs of retail displays) and my uncle are both 30+ yr entrepreneurs. But it goes further back than that! Wired Magazine had an article on my great, great uncle, Dr John Gorrie. I’ve known about him for a while now (family indoctrination don’tcha know…) but he’s not exactly a household name.
Dr. Gorrie invented the original Ice Machine back in 1850. He’s the reason for the cool frosty mugs-o-beer we all enjoy. Apparently he liked his brew and had a flare for the dramatic too:
He arranged a dramatic demonstration of his machine for a social, rather than medical, occasion. It was a muggy July in Florida. Ice from the North had been exhausted. Gorrie attended an afternoon reception given by the French consul to honor Bastille Day.
The doctor first complained about drinking warm wine in hot weather, then suddenly announced, “On Bastille Day, France gave her citizens what they wanted. [Consul] Rosan gives his guests what they want, cool wines! Even if it demands a miracle!”
Then he signaled for waiters to enter with bottles of sparkling wine on trays of ice. Mechanically made ice in the sweltering Florida summer: It was a sensation. Smithsonian magazine dubbed that party the “chilly reception.”
Unfortunately, he was a miserable businessman so I’m hoping I’ve learned a thing or two since then 
So…nothing to do with Digital OOH I’m afraid, but I got a kick out of it.
Funny enough, Ken Goldberg from Real Digital Media called me on this very thing about 3 months ago…apparently, near his town, there’s a statue to good old John’s honor in a town near him.
Jul
16
Will Gas Prices be a Burden or Boon For Digital OOH
Filed Under Advertising, Digital Signage, digital ooh, metrics | 2 Comments
Sometimes, there’s just a strange confluence of events that end up culminating in me writing about things.
My business partner, Jeff Atley, had a conversation last week with a gentleman who owns an oil field (why? I know not.). This guy mentioned in passing that gas prices could go up to $4/litre as soon as January and possibly up to $7/litre sometime in ‘09/’10. Now, the US is used to $4+/GALLON right now (which translates to about $1.30 per litre) so, to put that in perspective, that would be over $12/gallon for gas.
So I was going to write about it anyway as it has impacts on consumer patterns and therefore advertising purchase patterns, but then I saw this article on CNN, detailing the meteoric rise in Public Transit and the inability for cities to service the demand. Ridership is up huge. According to the APTA, in the first 3 months of this year…:
[Consumers] took 2.6 billion trips on public transportation during that period, an increase of 85 million more trips compared with the same period last year.
Jul
14
OAAA/AAAA DOOH “Proof of Play” Redux
Filed Under Advertising, Digital Signage, digital ooh, metrics | Leave a Comment
Both Dave Haynes and Bill Gerba have commented on the OAAA/AAAA DOOH Report Requirements in the past but I wanted to take a brief moment and look at them myself. The original release from the AAAA is here. The reporting post centers on “Digital Billboards” but I think may be able to be scaled out a bit.
I’m amazed sometimes at how people like to reinvent the wheel when a lot of work has already been done in the standards space…sometimes to much deeper levels. Between COMB, POPAI, OVAB and others, there’s lots to choose from.
Many organizations/associations have been trying to come to terms with what a valid POP (Proof of performance) looks like over the last few years.
I’ve written in the past about how POPAI’s standards committee has assembled a full proof of performance standard spec for the industry. It’s a VERY healthy read and spec that goes into a lot of depth.
Jul
11
Entertaining DOOH Content on NY Taxi
Filed Under Advertising, Digital Signage, digital ooh, humor | 2 Comments
As much as we all love talking heads from the news room with “kitchy commentary”, I take so many cabs in NY, I see the same loop over and over again. It gets dull …and I’ve already read my news (the stuff that interested ME) that morning anyway.
So it was nice to see some content that was actually entertaining yesterday evening in the cab! Looks like NY10 got a sponsor (Dave Middleton show and Loopt at http://www.loopt.com/) and they went bonkers with their intro sponsor wheel, which was …maybe 3 minutes long?
Two things I want to call attention to:
1.) I like this content. It was entertaining and at the very least DIFFERENT. Is it really that hard to come up with something other than repurposed and retranscoded wheels from TV? You’ll find the talking heads at the end of the video if that’s your thing. The sponsor also had some social relevance (again, to me) and they had a clear call to action that could be completed RIGHT THEN, via phone. They are, of course, a mobile service.
2.) You will get an idea of what driving in an NYC taxi is like. Sorry for the vertigo. Hey - you try holding the camera steady going 40 around corners with no suspension!
Video:
Jul
11
Tough Day On 8th Avenue - Screen Down!
Filed Under Advertising, Digital Signage, digital ooh | 1 Comment
As much as it’s nice to know that whatever system is powering the screens over the Port Authority on 8th is protected, apparently when this particular firewall wakes up with some error message (this particular message read “Your firewall definitions are out of date!”) and shuts down the software.
The result? A nice black screen with an error dialog. I wonder how much they’re going to have to give up in “make good” ad plays…
Not sure who manages this particular screen but tough love.
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…
