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…)
1 comment 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:
Add comment March 9th, 2008 Nurlan Urazbaev
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…)
Add comment 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…)
Add comment February 20th, 2008 Brian Dusho
The current economic downturn, call it recession or not, forces marketers to re-prioritize their media spend in favor of more measurable vehicles. Ad Age has talked to some top media buyers and sellers about how they expect to survive through the slowdown. I tried to summarize it below.
Network TV’s share will most likely keep shrinking in favor of cable, which offers lower CPM and better targeting.
Digital categories such as email and search will continue to be strong, regardless of the economy, with search marketing being the most recession-proof channel, because it is more measurable than other media and because it’s so closely tied to sales (especially in case of e-commerce). “Digital, in general, does not feel the effects initially because in tough economic times, there is a flight to measurable media,” said Bryan Wiener, CEO of digital agency 360i, in his interview to Ad Age. (more…)
Add comment February 19th, 2008 Nurlan Urazbaev
Digital signage network operators that depend on ad revenue are leaning towards becoming media companies, rather than being technology providers. Today’s battle for a piece of the advertising pie forces networks to allocate much more effort to finding a viable business model, building their ad space, training an ad sales force and breaking into advertisers’ media plans. Therefore, having to deal at the same time with in-house software or issues related to running an ‘on-premise’ software application is becoming too much of a burden.
In this respect the maturing digital signage industry is following the path of traditional broadcasting, where most of the technical and IT responsibilities are outsourced, leaving networks ‘leaner and meaner’ in their competition for ratings and ad revenue. (more…)
Add comment February 8th, 2008 Nurlan Urazbaev
We receive many questions as to whether Internet connectivity interruptions affect advertiser compliance. The short answer is: in most cases they do not, but other problems that may be disguised as connectivity issues, do.
The reality of running a digital signage network via the internet is that connectivity issues will arise. They might be unexpected network hiccups, planned downtime by the ISP, or stalled routers. Advertiser compliance does not have to be affected if a system is disconnected from the internet. For instance, BroadSign Players are only connected to the Internet when they poll the server for new schedules or content. So, if there is no connection, the player will keep playing the latest updated content according to the latest schedule updates. The worst-case scenario, therefore, is that the player will miss an update while the connection is being restored. However, considering that new schedule and content uploads are usually done well in advance, the likelihood of compliance being affected is very low.
Add comment January 29th, 2008 Daniel Parisien
In the article “So Much for Engagement, Buys Are Still Based on Eyes,” Ad Age writes that ‘ for all the talk about engagement, top marketers and their media buyers still consider reach the No.1 criteria when they are framing their media plans and making their purchases.” This finding comes from Advertiser Perceptions’ “Wave Eight” survey of 2,047 top marketers and media buyers. Less than half of those surveyed ranked engagement among their top five criteria when buying media.
The author seems surprised, but I wonder how engagement can possibly be ranked any higher if no one really knows what engagement is and how to measure it? The same article quotes Steve Lanzano, COO at Havas media agency as saying: “… a lack of consensus about how to define engagement as well as the need for varying engagement metrics for different brands still makes it difficult to make deals on…” I think engagement is one of those buzz words that sound good, but are hard to apply to everyday reality. (more…)
Add comment January 27th, 2008 Nurlan Urazbaev
Steven Platt offered his forecast on “adoption and deployment of digital communication networks” (another term for digital signage networks) for 2008-09 on digitalsignageweekly.com .
The director of Platt Retail Institute states that going into 2008, there is an increased level of activity in deployment of networks, raising capital and mergers/acquisitions in North America, Europe, parts of Middle Eats and China.
At the same time, Platt points out that retail, being the largest sector prospect, is also the slowest one to adopt new technology projects. Since many retailers consider digital signage a non-core activity, investment in those projects will remain slow until late 2008, hampered by the imminent ‘mild recession’.
On a positive note, the analyst is seeing that “…longer-term, retail network successes are starting to outnumber the failures. In time, such an investment will be viewed as core to a retailer’s business.”
Add comment January 17th, 2008 Nurlan Urazbaev
Ad Age interviewed leading industry executives about what they think a recession means for their business in 2008.
The consensus is: “It might not hurt in the short-term, but if things don’t tick up, gird yourself for a tough 2009.”
Martin Sorell, WPP Group’s CEO summed it up as follows: “Looking at 2008, there’s the presidential election, there’s the Beijing Olympics, which will probably be the most spectacular Olympics we’ve seen … and there’s the European football championships. So ‘08 is not the issue; ‘09 is.”
I would point out here that fears of recession are mainly expressed in relation to traditional media, where the audiences have been steadily shrinking even prior to any talk of recession. (more…)
Add comment January 15th, 2008 Nurlan Urazbaev
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 OVAB driving industry standards and awareness. He is also a member of the OAAA and The Screen. Brian has published technology and opinion articles on the digital signage industry and can be found speaking at industry trade conferences worldwide. 
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.