Social networking sites are getting a lot of attention nowadays, due to their explosive growth. I agree, it’s a huge phenomenon; all of a sudden - everyone is on either Facebook or MySpace, or both, my family included. USA Today published an article today, saying that social networks will assume the role of TV networks, and marketers will benefit from placing ads on these sites.
Sounds fantastic, but I think something important is missing here. Let’s see. Have social networking web sites accumulated massive numbers of users? - Yes, they did. Do those users constitute the demographics most desired by advertisers: young, affluent, educated people? - No doubt about it. Now, will the social networking sites become an effective advertising vehicle? - This is where I am not so sure. (more…)
May 12th, 2008
Brian Dusho
I’ve consulted on hundreds of digital signage deployments and implementations globally over the last 5 years and a specific recurring structure has emerged with regards to technology, content and workflows for managing these networks. The purpose of this article is to identify the basics of a digital out of home network for newcomers who wish to skip the learning curve or for those that wish to focus on the core elements that make a digital signage network a money making success.
The sea of decisions that must be made before spending the capital to deploy a network can easily lead an operator towards focusing on technology instead of focusing on building an effective communication medium.
My team and I (BroadSign Solutions) have had the benefit of repeatedly following the digital signage learning curve vicariously through the hundreds of entrepreneurs that have evaluated BroadSign Suite for its application to their business. This includes many of the members of OVAB and other industry leaders and pioneers. While there are many variables involved and decisions to be made to develop a digital signage network, there are not so many that they can’t be listed in a blog article, such as this. (more…)
May 2nd, 2008
Daniel Parisien
DOOH Forum by Media Post, April 23, 2008, the Yale Club of New York, NY, NY.
This was probably the most authoritative conference on DOOH. It gathered some of the best brains from the digital signage and mainstream advertising industries. The Forum was the first event on digital signage organized by Media Post, with the Wall Street Journal as the main sponsor. There was almost no tech-talk. The focus was mainly on how advertisers and agencies are changing their view of this fast-spreading medium, the barriers to its broad adoption by media buyers, and the increasingly important role DOOH is playing as an alternative to the stagnant TV. The DOOH Forum was followed the next day by the Outfront conference - reflecting on how traditional media (namely, network TV), is adapting to the changing realities.
The DOOH Forum was also the most sold out conference I have ever seen. All the seats at the tables were taken early, then the organizers had to make extra rows of chairs in the back, and when those were filled, the balcony got packed to the limit.
You can see the list of speakers and the agenda here.
Here are some highlights and observations from the discussions:
- Several speakers (including outside analysts) named DOOH as the’hottest medium’ today, and it is spreading even faster than internet in its early days, because of its ability to reach consumers when they are away from home, its unintrusive nature, and its proximity to point of purchase and point of decision.
- After a few years of soul-searching, two terms seem to have stuck to the wall to describe the industry: ‘digital out-of-home’ and ‘digital signage’. Some still insist on using the term ‘place-based media’, but Google Search doesn’t return many results on that one.
- Agencies are now under pressure from both ends - advertisers and DOOH networks - to include digital signage in the media mix, so they are finally starting to embrace it as part of an “integrated approach” to marketing strategy, or “360 degrees marketing”. The issue everybody is struggling with is the metrics currency: what is the currency unit they should use while planning, buying and reporting on campaigns. At this point it takes agencies several times more effort to allocate a few million $$ to a DOOH campaign compared to quick and easy multi-million-dollar TV buys. The issue of commission is also not resolved in favor of DOOH yet, and that makes agencies reluctant to use it overall.
(more…)
April 28th, 2008
Nurlan Urazbaev
Last week the Traffic Audit Bureau (TAB) - the US Out-of-home media auditing organization - unveiled its new ratings system for the industry. Not only is the system a milestone for the outdoor ad business, but it also breaks new ground for media ratings as a whole, writes MediaWeek. Here are some excerpts from the article by Katy Bachman. My comments are at the end.
“Nearly five years in development, the Eyes On ratings will replace the decades-old practice of relying solely on traffic counts to put a value on outdoor ads. The ratings will, for the first time, provide discrete demographic data pertaining to around 400,000 units. The service will go a step further than TV and radio ratings to incorporate the number of persons likely to see an ad as they pass a display.
“It’s a dramatic improvement in outdoor measurement. Quite frankly, it puts us in a position of having a better measurement system than any other medium,” said Paul Meyer, president and COO of Clear Channel Outdoor.
Eyes On has broad support among outdoor media companies, agencies and advertisers, which worked closely with the TAB to design a ratings system uniquely suited to the outdoor medium. (more…)
April 21st, 2008
Nurlan Urazbaev
The Out-of-home media, along with internet, is doing well, despite the drop in overal ad spending. Media Life Magazine’s Diego Vasquez quotes ZenithOptimedia Worldwide, “whose most recent forecast for U.S. spending has out-of-home spending growing by 11.2 percent this year, to $7.83 billion.”
According to Vasquez, next year ZenithOptimedia expects the OOH industry to grow at a similar pace: “11.3 percent, to $8.71 billion, and in 2010 it will grow another 11.5 percent, to $9.72 billion.That’s against 3.7 percent growth this year for the entire U.S. ad economy, which is down from the 4.1 percent growth ZenithOptimedia forecast back in December. It’s forecasting even slower growth in 2009 and 2010, by 2.1 percent and 2.2 percent.ZenithOptimedia is forecasting that worldwide out-of-home spending will grow 9.4 percent this year, 8.0 percent in 2009, and 8.3 percent in 2010. (more…)
April 21st, 2008
Nurlan Urazbaev
Spending on alternative media hit $73.43 billion in 2007, a 22% increase over the previous year, and will continue to grow, reports Ad Age, quoting PQ Media’s Alternative Media Forecast: 2008-2012, released last week. The research firm tracked 18 digital and nontraditional segments, with a combined 16.1% of total advertising and marketing dollars in 2007, up from 7.9% in 2002, yielding a compound annual growth rate of 21.7%, writes Ad Age.
The forecast predicts a 20.2% increase over the next year, to a total of $88.24 billion, and a compounded annual growth rate of 17% for 2007-2012, reaching $160.82 billion. By then, alternative media will represent 26.6% of all advertising and marketing dollars.
Digital signage, or, ‘digital out-of-home advertising’, as it is called in the report, got a special mention from PQ Media. Here’s an excerpt from Ad Age’s interview:
‘Where the money is going…’
The upswing is as much a result of the effectiveness of new media in a fragmented market as it is from a lack of confidence in traditional media, said PQ Media President Patrick Quinn. “Traditional ad budgets have been going down, but spending has remained stable. This shows where the money is going,” Mr. Quinn said.
“There is a lack of standards in these new areas,” Mr. Quinn added. “Digital out-of-home advertising is getting recall rates as high as or higher than traditional mediums, but there are few studies on this. They’re going to need more and deeper metrics: The bar is being raised across the board.” (more…)
March 31st, 2008
Nurlan Urazbaev
As of this upfront season, the US division of Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) - one of the largest media communications companies, will only be buying media that can produce more advanced metrics.
According to MediaWeek, “Starcom USA will no longer do business with unrated networks that are not measured by companies or rating services that can offer documented data on viewership.” (more…)
March 24th, 2008
Nurlan Urazbaev
According to the recently released Arbitron study of digital billboards, the ads displayed on them drive traffic to local businesses, radio and TV stations and brand web sites, have a high recall and successfully reach the elusive and desirable 18-34 year-old consumers, among other demographics.
The study, commissioned by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, was conducted late last year among 402 persons and seven digital billboards operating in Cleveland, Ohio.
Some significant findings of the research include:
Most of the OAAA’s newsletter this week was dedicated to digital billboards. OAAA president and CEO Nancy Fletcher writes that “Digital outdoor can provide opportunities for industry growth little imagined only a decade ago.”
The Federal Highway Administration ruling last fall that digital billboards were ‘permissible’ unleashed a flurry of new installations, pilots, studies and local regulations. Nancy Fletcher summed up the recent developments in the field as follows:
“People Like Digital
Consumers and advertisers are strong advocates of digital outdoor. Arbitron just released a report saying digital billboards are noticed by most drivers and appreciated as attractive and useful, particularly with younger (and harder to reach) audiences. See page three for Arbitron highlights or download a copy at www.digitalooh.org later this week. (more…)
March 3rd, 2008
Nurlan Urazbaev
The end of analog broadcasting is exactly a year away in the US and everyone
from The Commerce Department’s, National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA) to Best Buy are looking at ways to help the 14 million
US households that still depend on an analog signal. Vouchers will be mailed
out to households so they can purchase discounted government-approved
converters. According to USA Today this will be “the boldest technology
conversion ever attempted” but something is troubling in this picture. When
the transition to digital was planned no one in their wildest dreams could
have predicted that by the time of the switch TV would be in such a poor
shape, with its audience fragmented, shows undermined by the recent writers’ strike and the annual upfront ad sales event in question. (more…)
February 20th, 2008
Brian Dusho
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Brian has spent the last four years working with retailers, advertising/ media companies, and technology companies to develop successful business models in the digital signage industry and assisted in the formation of several of the industry trade organizations. He is an active member in 
Nurlan is director of marketing for BroadSign International. He has been with BroadSign since day one and brought along a lot of media expertise from his diverse career that ranged from a reporter to a radio executive, entrepreneur and owner of a media consulting company. He is a staunch proponent of standardization and ROI measurements for digital signage advertising.