Digital Signage for Dummies

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Digital Signs & Displays

FOR

DUMmIES‰

by Steve KaelbleWith contributions from industry experts

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Digital Signs & Displays For Dummies®

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

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Table of ContentsIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

About This Book ........................................................................ 1Foolish Assumptions ................................................................. 2Icons Used in This Book ............................................................ 2

Chapter 1: Why Digital? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5Sign On for Digital Signs and Displays .................................... 5Your Imagination Is the Limit ................................................... 7All Signs Point to Effectiveness ................................................ 9What’s the Cost? ...................................................................... 10

Chapter 2: The Digital Sign and Display Network . . . .11Choose Your Network ............................................................. 11An Intelligent Network ............................................................. 14Going Mobile ............................................................................. 15

Chapter 3: The Sign Says . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17Coming Up with Content ......................................................... 17Posting the Signs ...................................................................... 19The Right Message ................................................................... 21The Right Time ......................................................................... 23No One Wants Stale Content, but . . . .................................... 24

Chapter 4: Signs for Everyone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25Signs Point to Better Health ................................................... 25Tasty Information .................................................................... 27About This Company ............................................................... 27Banking on Signs and Displays .............................................. 29In Case of Emergency .............................................................. 30Displays of Hospitality ............................................................ 31Crowd Pleasers......................................................................... 32Getting There ............................................................................ 33

Chapter 5: Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35Make a Checklist ...................................................................... 35Select the Right Network......................................................... 36Pick Your Partner ..................................................................... 37

Chapter 6: Ten Secrets to Successful Digital Signs and Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

Appendix: Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41


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Introduction

R emember those message boards that used to be out in the front of car dealerships and just about every

other kind of business, with the flashing arrow at the top and changeable plastic lettering underneath? Think about what a revolution it was when someone invented those change-able letters, allowing businesses to create different messages whenever they wanted.

Now imagine having the ability to do that almost instanta-neously: to vary your sign’s message based on what kind of person might be looking at it, or what time of day it is, or what the weather is like, or whether the stock market is up or down. And to make the changes from a remote location —that’s far more revolutionary than those plastic letters (not to mention more attractive)!

Making changes from a remote location is what digital signs and displays are all about. Whether it’s billboard or poster advertising, tying info from any data source to menus, maps, or employee message boards, digital signs and displays are revolutionizing marketing and communication.

About This BookDigital Signs & Displays For Dummies explores this powerful means of communication — what it is, how it works, what it can do, and how to make it effective for you and your busi-ness. It’s an introduction to the fascinating applications of digital signs and displays and a guidebook for getting started.

It begins with basic information and fills in important details as the pages turn. But don’t feel like you need to turn every page if you don’t want to or don’t have time, because the book is organized to fit into your busy day. If cover-to-cover reading doesn’t work for you, at least not today, then by all means feel free to skip around among the chapters that inter-est you most.


Digital Signs & Displays For Dummies 2A word of acknowledgement here (actually, about 80 words): It would not have been possible to create this book without the experience and insights of several digital sign and display industry experts: Jeff Porter, Paul Barnhart, Clive Fort, and Drew Topel from Scala, Inc., a leader in doing very cool things with digital signs and displays; Manolo Almagro, a consultant in sign and display innovation; Marcy Patzer, Vice President at Pro-Motion Technology Group, a digital sign and display seller and installer; and Daniel Rubenstein with Bloomberg, creator of outstanding content for all kinds of media. This book was created on behalf of Scala, Inc.

Foolish AssumptionsWe don’t know your name or your age or your gender (though some of the most advanced digital displays these days could hazard a guess). But in preparing this book, we assume a few things about you:

✓ You have an interest in marketing and communications. It may, in fact, be your role to get the word out about your company’s products, or critical messages out to your employees. Or maybe you’re the boss. Whatever your role, you know the power of solid communications.

✓ You’re in IT and may be in charge of managing certain aspects of a digital sign and display network.

✓ You’re a busy person, and you’re waiting for a sign telling you how to communicate more effectively (sorry, pun intended). If not a sign, a quick, light read.

✓ You have a need to reduce costs of static signs while simultaneously increasing sales at the point of purchase.

Icons Used in This BookTo guide you through the book, we employ some icons:

If your busy schedule necessitates some skipping and skim-ming, at least be sure to check out this paragraph, because it’s a key to the overall message.


Introduction 3

For the most part, we won’t be speaking in that technical mumbo-jumbo that goes into a sophisticated digital sign and display network, but there may be some details that the tech-nical types will relish. Look for this icon to get your fill.

Need some advice for making digital signs and displays work for you? Check beside this icon; you may find it helpful.


Digital Signs & Displays For Dummies 4


Chapter 1

Why Digital?In This Chapter▶ Going digital▶ Imagining the possibilities of digital signs and displays ▶ Measuring increases in effectiveness▶ Counting the costs

T he concept of digital signs and displays seems straightfor-ward enough. It involves signs, right? And instead of being

painted or printed, these signs show up on some sort of digi-tal display screen. Quite simple. What more is there to know?

As it happens, there’s a lot more to know, because as is the case with many technologies, the name does not say it all. Not even close. In this chapter, we discuss what digital signs and displays are, spark your imagination for what they can do, explore their effectiveness, and consider costs.

Sign On for Digital Signs and Displays

To view today’s digital signs and displays as some kind of fancy billboard or poster is like thinking of your smartphone as just a spiffy-looking cordless telephone. You can certainly use your smartphone to ring up your spouse or call a cab, but there’s so much more it can do, and it gets more powerful practically every day. As a matter of fact, digital signs and dis-plays are mobile, like your smartphone, and can send informa-tion to handheld devices.



When we’re talking about digital signs and displays, we’re talking about an ever-more-powerful combination of technol-ogy and relevant content. This is not a billboard with static images, but an information center that conveys up-to-the-minute messaging tailored to the type of customer looking at the display in a specific location at a specific time.

In fact, it’s usually not just one digital display in one place, but a whole network throughout a building or even in multiple locations across the country, controlled from a single loca-tion. Now that’s powerful.

We get into a lot more detail about the kinds of content, the many uses of the technology, and how you can harness this new power most effectively. But first, it’s a good idea to share the basics about digital signs and displays — what this tech-nology is from a physical perspective and in very general terms, how it works.

The most obvious component — in fact, the only component visible to the target audience — is the display. Any number of technologies will work.

It could be an LCD panel touch screen, a plasma TV, an LED message board, a video wall created with multiple displays, a stadium-sized video screen, a mobile device, or even a video projector aimed at the side of a building. It could be horizontal or vertical. The key is that it must be some kind of technology able to accept a digital input signal and, one way or another, display the content of that signal in a manner that captures people’s attention.

The second component of a typical digital sign and display installation is the player. This is a software application that provides the digital signal to the display. It might be installed on a computer, or could be within a standalone box hooked up to the display.

These are the very basic building blocks of digital signs and displays, but typical installations also include a content man-agement tool that, from a central location, distributes con-tent to various players across a network. Using that content manager, the person or people controlling the digital sign and display network can determine what message will show up on which screen at what time, and if the screen is broken down


Chapter 1: Why Digital? 7into multiple zones or frames, play messages within those frames. The content manager basically sets up the playlists that the various players will follow.

Other important components, upon which we elaborate later, play a role in the creation of that content. A digital sign or dis-play installation will often include applications for designing electronic messages that the displays will share with the audi-ence, and it frequently will include links to third-party content sources, such as weather forecast, news providers, or RSS feeds.

Your Imagination Is the LimitIt takes a little imagination to realize just what digital signs and displays can accomplish. In fact, if you’re running a network of digital signs and displays and you’re not really stretching your imagination, you’re probably not getting the most out of your investment.

This is where it gets really fun and fascinating, and where it becomes increasingly clear that digital signs and displays are far more than just billboards projected on screens. Done well, digital signs and displays are highly targeted and effective, incredibly engaging and motivational, up-to-the-minute, often interactive, and really, really intelligent.

We said earlier that digital signs and displays are a lot more than just billboards or posters, but we’re going to run with those simple examples for a moment. A digital display can certainly advertise a product for sale, like a poster in the common area of a shopping mall would do. But it can also add motion or sound to the message, and it can rotate from one product to another to another.

Now consider that the mall may be populated by senior citizens in the early morning hours, there for a mall-walking exercise program before the stores open. For them, a dis-play might advertise for a local senior living community. The clock strikes 10, the stores open, and the mall-walkers vanish, replaced by young parents pushing kids in strollers. The digi-tal signs and displays switch to advertising for minivans and baby cereal. By 4:30 in the afternoon, school is out and the teens have taken over. Ads for soft drinks, smartphones, and next weekend’s movie releases fill the screens.


Digital Signs & Displays For Dummies 8Over in a clothing store, digital signs and displays promote the new fashion arrivals, and even allow shoppers to check on the availability of items in their size or favorite color. You may even spot digital signs and displays in the dressing rooms.

Now, don’t leave the mall just yet, but walk over to the entrance. There, where the big mall map used to be, is a video touchscreen. Push a Search button and a virtual keyboard appears. Type in the store you’re seeking, or tell the device that you need shoes. A map appears, showing you the store or stores you want, photos of the storefronts, and even direc-tions leading you there.

Starting to get the picture? Digital signs and displays are far smarter than static posters or maps. They can interact with audiences, and can change messages when there’s a change in the audience or some external factor such as the weather.

Outside the mall, drop by the bank and get into the teller line. The digital sign and display network tells you when you can expect to be served by assigning a number in a queuing system. You then see another digital sign, this one informing you of the current interest rates in the bank’s money market accounts, while a video offers investment advice and a ticker provides the latest news headlines.

In the airport terminal, a digital display lists flight status, and at the baggage carousel it might show an ad until a flight arrives and it switches to tell which flight’s baggage is show-ing up. Across the tarmac in the overnight express delivery company’s sorting warehouse, a digital sign and display net-work relays safety tips and a message from the CEO. Then it suddenly switches to an emergency notification with a weather update, warning employees to alert their colleagues outside about an approaching severe thunderstorm.

You may have seen digital signs and displays used for menu boards at fast-food restaurants or cinema concession stands. The display can switch between a menu listing and promo-tions for various specials. The ease of swapping messages means managers or marketers can test different promotions to see which is most effective.

At the bureau of motor vehicles, digital signs and displays can tell you how long the wait is (too long, no doubt). But it can also help reduce the wait times by engaging those in line with


Chapter 1: Why Digital? 9instructions regarding how to fill out forms and what types of supplemental documents will be required.

Even this long list of examples is just scratching the surface of possibilities. And technologies continue to evolve to create more powerful applications. For example, it’s now possible to install sophisticated sensors on a display panel that can tell whether someone is standing in front of the display, and even whether that person is actually looking at the sign. That way, the message that was designed to attract the attention of a passer-by can automatically switch to provide more details to a person who has been successfully engaged — without inter-rupting the messaging that got that person’s attention in the first place.

And get this — it’s now possible for these sensors to deter-mine the gender of the viewer, and even gauge whether it’s a younger or older person. It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out how useful that information would be in targeting your variable messages.

All Signs Point to EffectivenessThere are all kinds of ways to measure the effectiveness of digital signs and displays. The technology’s ability to engage target audiences can increase sales of various products, improve brand recognition, reduce wait times, boost cus-tomer or employee satisfaction, and raise worker productiv-ity. And these results can, in turn, boost company revenues and increase profits.

Here’s an example. In the southeast United States, a large movie theater chain replaced its concession menu boards with a network of digital signs and displays. The result is a more engaged (and impressed) customer base, and the company has the ability to control product offerings and promotional strate-gies from the central office. What’s more, thanks to links with the company’s point-of-sale software, pricing and product offer-ings can be easily changed based on inventory and local needs.

In the Netherlands, a chain of wireless phone stores adopted a sophisticated network of digital signs and displays that encourages full customer interaction. The system allows potential buyers to easily find important information about


Digital Signs & Displays For Dummies 10phone choices without having to wait for a sales rep. Promotions and pricing are centrally controlled, and cus-tomer perceptions of the stores are high.

At a manufacturing facility in New York, it was difficult to keep most of the 1,000 or so employees up-to-date because they spend their days on the factory floor, not in front of com-puters with e-mail. The company installed a digital sign and display network to convey company news, safety updates, information about key customers, weather alerts, and (during work breaks) television news. Employee satisfaction and engagement has increased, along with knowledge of informa-tion important to the company’s success.

What’s the Cost?There are no two digital display installations that are the same. The technology, capabilities, number of screens, and countless other variables make generalizations difficult. The important fact to remember is that it’s probably not as expen-sive as you think.

In general, the lowest cost of entry is through a Software as a Service arrangement, or SaaS for short. Depending on your provider, this could mean a monthly fee based on the number of screens — and no upfront server hardware or software costs. It’s an easy way to go, and cost-effective in many cases. On the other hand, if the installation is particularly large and sophisticated, the traditional model of buying equipment and software may be more cost-effective.


Chapter 2

The Digital Sign and Display Network

In This Chapter▶ Designing your network▶ Making it smart▶ Going mobile with your network

“O ne size fits all.” For a lot of things you buy, that’s a really convenient attribute. When it comes to digi-

tal signs and displays, virtually every installation and every network is different in terms of size, capabilities, and cost. If you’re new to digital signs and displays, you can easily start small, and just as easily scale up your network until you’ve got a vast reach.

In this chapter, we talk about building your digital sign and display network, deciding what your needs will be, and exploring some of the amazing capabilities that come from bringing your communication into the 21st century.

Choose Your NetworkPerhaps you’re just getting started, or you’re running a one-location business. Maybe you just need a single screen, or just a few. It really doesn’t have to be complicated.

You see, your digital sign and display network can begin with a digital photo frame, if that’s what meets your needs for now. Talk about simple and inexpensive; it doesn’t get much easier or cheaper. The options that come with this kind of solution


Digital Signs & Displays For Dummies 12aren’t as powerful as some of the other options available, but even a simple digital photo frame sitting on the counter is vastly more flexible and useful than a flyer that you print out and tape up.

As you move up the ladder of possibilities, your hardware needs change. Move up from a digital frame to a video display panel and you’ll need some sort of standard-definition or high-definition media appliance to hook in and pass the program-ming along to the screen. The simplest of these appliances can do a lot, displaying a range of image and video formats on the screen, and they’re still comparatively inexpensive.

For more sophisticated applications, including the ability to drive multiple channels, you’ll want to pick a PC as the plat-form for running your sign and display player. Doesn’t have to be an all-the-bells-and-whistles PC, though the more power-ful the computer, the more cool applications it will be able to support, such as high-definition video, Flash animations, scripting, scheduling, or tying into your ERP or CRM systems.

Whatever option you choose, keep in mind that what we’ve outlined thus far is the end delivery system, the screen that’s displaying your messages and the hardware that’s driving that screen. In a way, it’s kind of like the mail carrier walking up to your door and handing over your letters and packages. Without that carrier providing the final handoff, you wouldn’t get your mail.

But that mail didn’t just appear in your carrier’s mailbag. It arrived there through a delivery network that pulled together the pieces addressed to you from wherever they originated, then passed them to the mail carrier to hand to you. Apply this metaphor to your digital sign and display network, and we’re talking about the need for a content management system.

Where the postal service has a big building full of mail sort-ers, your digital sign and display network has software that handles the content management. This software resides on a server, and it’s networked to the PCs or media devices that are driving your display screens.

But here, too, you have options. You can own the server and own the content management software. As an alternative, you can handle your content management through a Software as


Chapter 2: The Digital Sign and Display Network 13a Service arrangement (SaaS for short), which allows you to access the content management system via the Internet, with-out having to actually purchase the software or the server.

An SaaS arrangement is an especially helpful way to get started in digital signs and displays. Start up is quick, there’s no big drain on your already-too-busy IT department, and up-front costs are minimized. What you pay instead is a peri-odic subscription fee. What’s more, with SaaS, the software is updated automatically at no charge to you, and many such arrangements include automatic backup of your content.

Whether you run your own server or sign a contract for SaaS, your content management system is the tool that actually pulls together what goes on your digital screens and distrib-utes it to the players that are running the screens. With this system, you can, for example, set up an internal employee communications display with three zones: one showing a video feed of a CEO message, one that’s cycling through vari-ous company news items and announcements, and one that’s scrolling through local traffic and weather reports.

The real power comes from the fact that your content manage-ment system can control scores or hundreds or thousands of screens individually. To continue with the previous example, the company announcements and the traffic/weather feed can be site-specific, which is important if you’re managing screens in multiple cities. And maybe the video isn’t a general CEO message for all employees, but instead is a safety training mes-sage for workers on one assembly line, and a detailed financial update that plays for employees in the accounting department.

Also affording flexibility is the fact that a good content man-agement system can drive a wide range of different display types. A single content manager might be sending program-ming to digital picture frames in one location, a video wall in another, factory-floor plasma displays, interactive kiosks, and an LCD projector in a training room.

All these locations must be linked electronically into the content management system. The ubiquity of Internet con-nections usually makes this a snap. Some networks make use of wireless connections as well as wired links, and some even require satellite connections, such as a network of cruise ships spotlighted in Chapter 4.



As you can see, digital signs and displays can be complex or comparatively simple. But now that you’ve read about the possibilities, if even SaaS sounds more complicated than what your small business needs, know that there are options out there that are even simpler. The latest idea is a completely web-based service allowing you to subscribe, login, design your messaging from templates, upload images or video, create a playlist schedule, even pull in outside content such as weather, sports, or stocks. Then, click on a button and your content is delivered electronically to your WiFi-enabled screens, and you’re done!

An Intelligent NetworkWhen you think about it, printed communication has been around for centuries, and although it’s had some really revo-lutionary developments, sometimes decades would pass between breakthroughs. Yes, printing has seen many major improvements since the days of the Gutenberg Bible and Benjamin Franklin’s printing press: automated typesetting, the addition of color, computerized graphic design, and short-run and personalized digital printing. But by contrast, the break-throughs in digital sign and display network technology come at a dizzying speed.

Of course, a networked digital sign and display itself is a game-changer. But the ways you can make your network even more intelligent are remarkable, and sometimes border on unbelievable.

We’ll start with the pretty amazing and build from there. For example, imagine you’re running a network of a couple hun-dred screens from your content management system. Each of the players driving those screens can be programmed with its own metadata, allowing your content to be automatically customized at the point of playback. That makes for more effective messaging and less time spent on your end because of the automation.

Similarly, when your players check in for new content, they automatically grab only the content that is new or has changed, which speeds up the updates. And you can arrange


Chapter 2: The Digital Sign and Display Network 15for emergency messages — including local weather alerts in a city far from where you’re sitting — to automatically override current playlists on the appropriate screens.

Now for some more gee-whiz applications. You can tie digital signs and displays into sophisticated shopper analytics sys-tems. Lots of sophisticated retailers are keeping tabs on shop-per history. What if your messaging could automatically and instantly adapt in a way that delivers personalized messages through digital signs and kiosks, providing the right offer to the right shopper at the right time? Yes, it’s possible with today’s digital sign and display network technology.

And don’t you really want to know whether your messages are reaching the people you want them to reach? How in the world can you accomplish that without hiring someone to sit next to your display and see who’s looking? Well, there’s tech-nology for that, too.

Today’s analytic technology is real-time, automated, and powerful — able to tell you how many people have seen your display, their gender, and their approximate ages, all through facial analysis software. You can find out not only what kinds of people are watching, but how long they pay attention before moving on. It’s quite useful in helping you to gauge return on investment and optimize the sign placement and content.

Here’s another interesting application, this time related to digital signs and displays installed inside buses. You can hook a GPS unit into your network to offer location input that will impact what’s displaying on a screen. In this case, the signs and displays inside the bus know where in town they are, thanks to the GPS, and will automatically display messages for businesses within a short distance of the current location of the bus.

Going MobileMoving from the future into the present is the ability to link sophisticated sign and display networks with other devices, such as mobile phones or iPod Touch units. Customers


Digital Signs & Displays For Dummies 16can provide personalized information through their mobile devices, and the sign and display network can then react to that information as well as each customer’s proximity to the network’s screens.

One maker of consumer appliances and commercial equip-ment has really stretched this capability to fascinating extremes, building a special showroom that includes a sign and display network that appeals to all the senses. Customers are asked to register before they enter the environment, pro-viding demographic and past purchase information along with preferences. They peruse the environment while holding an iPod Touch, which they use for further interactions.

An indoor GPS system measures where each iPod Touch is, with respect to small floor tiles that are also wired into the system. Depending on where the visitor is standing, the dis-play nearby adapts its messaging and imagery to address the visitor’s preferences. The system can even adjust lighting, audio volume, and — get this — the aromas wafting from spe-cial scent-producing devices (laundry room, fresh coffee, and other smells linked to the company’s appliances).

A simpler way to interact with mobile devices is through the use of QR codes, those mosaic-looking barcodes you can scan with your mobile device and be automatically taken to a web-site or tied in to your network platform on CMS. Build a QR code into a digital message and it can lead the viewer to more info about the product, or to a site that collects information about the viewer.


Chapter 3

The Sign SaysIn This Chapter▶ Developing the content▶ Going from idea to reality▶ Developing the message▶ Getting the timing right▶ Keeping it fresh

D esigning a digital sign and display network can be quite an involved process — determining the placement of

the displays so that they’ll effectively aim at the target audi-ence, how many you’ll be using, how they’ll be networked, what other hardware will be required, whether you’re buying everything or going with a Software as a Service arrangement. Finish that job and you can breathe a sigh of relief, right?

Not exactly. To twist the words of Canadian scholar Marshall McLuhan, the medium — in this case — is not the message. You may have built the most sophisticated medium out there, but what makes digital sign and display so effective is the message that your digital medium will be delivering. And it takes an ongoing commitment of time and resources to ensure that you’re doing the message justice.

Coming Up with ContentThe first thing to understand is that a digital sign and display network is its own kind of creature. It may resemble and borrow from other forms of communication, but it’s not video, it’s not the Internet, it’s not print. It’s a combination of many things, and it’s your job to blend and mold these parts into a


Digital Signs & Displays For Dummies 18beautiful symphony, or perhaps a gourmet recipe (and not a Frankenstein monster!).

Sounds daunting, especially if you’re not an artist, but it doesn’t have to be. You can build a digital solution that’s remarkably easy to feed, with tools and templates that make the content uniquely yours without requiring a master’s degree or a big staff. And while much of, or most of, the con-tent you use is likely to be your own messaging, you can also choose to incorporate content from outside sources to ensure that what you’re showing people is exceptionally fresh and relevant to their needs.

Outside content sources are easy to use and implement into your signs and displays. There are many, many sources of information that you can pull into your playlists, including weather forecasts or radar, news headlines, sports updates, stock prices, business news, traffic reports, entertainment articles, health tips, and trivia quizzes. There are sources of video imagery you can select and include in the mix. The pos-sibilities are seemingly endless.

You’ll want to keep things lightweight, because the less band-width you use, the more agility you have with your messaging. Video, while very useful, ties up your network and makes it less flexible, so it may not be the best strategy for your net-work needs.

There are so many ways to incorporate content that you pur-chase from elsewhere. It can simply crawl along the bottom or top of your screen. It can drop into a sidebar format. It can be in a box. It can run full-screen. It can be in just about any font you choose. It’s totally up to you.

Outside content can be highly specialized, too, designed to help you create a particular type of feel or environment. One vendor, for example, specializes in landscapes, and can fill your screen with beach scenes, mountains, jungles, rain-forests, whatever you can imagine, complete with surround sound for soothing impact.

Another possibility entirely: Hire a third-party content vendor. There are plenty out there, and they can bring a new set of eyes to your digital sign and display program, a fresh roster of expertise, and a full understanding of the many things that can be done digitally.


Chapter 3: The Sign Says 19This may be the way to go if you’re envisioning a particularly elaborate and sophisticated digital sign and display venture. Third-party vendors are pros at building the really big picture, bringing a mix of technological and creative expertise to bear.

For example, a third-party partner might design your entire network along with the messaging that it will display. The vendor might have expertise in such technology as distance sensors that trigger changes in messaging, or RFID tags that impact the programming of nearby screens, or interactive kiosks or touchscreen applications.

Posting the SignsYou have a message in your head — or a fully developed com-munication strategy — that you want to push out across your network of digital signs and displays. Just how does that work?

There are some distinct steps that your message takes on the trip from your brain to the digital screen at the end of the network. There’s the creative stage, a scripting process, the content management stage, and the delivery.

When it comes to creative, there are many ways to tackle this. You may have your own creative tools that you’ve been using for years on your print advertising or your video projects. Those can be a great way to get going. Or, your digital sign and display vendor may have a software solution built just for this purpose, a design suite that’s tailor-made for creating digital signs and displays.

What you have at this point are video or image or sound files. They might be JPG images files, or, GIF, PNG, TIFF, or even BMP. They may be a wide range of video file types, including H.264 (similar to Blu-Ray quality), AVI, MPEG2 (DVD quality), SWF, MPG, or WMV. They could be WAV or MP3 sound files. Lots of possibilities; now you need to link them together into an eye-catching format suitable for the screen.

Don’t use DVD or Blu-Ray content. They’re not designed for this purpose. Pick MPEG2 or H.264 and you’ll get the same level of quality.


Digital Signs & Displays For Dummies 20Now scripting comes into play. Again, you may be hooked up with a product from your digital sign and display vendor that handles this task. That product will take your content and make it dynamic, adding whatever timing and transitions and effects that suit your creative fancy. You can add text, new screens, clip art, whatever makes your content pop off the sign. At this point, you can build in interactivity, including buttons a kiosk visitor might press.

Once you’ve built your scripted content, it’s time to publish it over to your content management system. This is the stage where you organize your various scripts, videos, slides, and outside content sources on the screen, form them into play-lists, schedule the content, decide where it should play, and prepare it for delivery to your various screens.

If that sounds difficult, here’s a really welcome concept: tem-plates. If you’ve got a powerful content management system, it’s likely to include templates upon which you can build your program.

In fact, the great thing about a digital sign and display tem-plate is that you’re usually not just building one slide of information with the template. What you’re building is the structure that will organize ever-changing information from various sources and make it look good, without having to indi-vidually create each screen that pops up.

Here’s just one example: You choose a template that has mul-tiple zones (see Figure 3-1). You can put something different into each zone, quite easily. And although you could put a static image in one zone, a single offer in another, and another single piece of information in a third zone, you can just as easily designate each zone as being a certain category of mes-sage, or data from a specific outside source. The template can then call a series of rotating messages from a particular cat-egory for one zone, and simply funnel in data from the outside source into another.

Within the content manager, you’ll use your templates and build playlists that group together various components of your messaging. Then you’ll schedule your playlists, so that the right message is playing on the right screen at the right time.


Chapter 3: The Sign Says 21

Zone1

Zone3

IntegrateCRM, ERP,

POSdata

CEO update

News... stocks... dynamic data!Zone2

Figure 3-1: A system with multiple zones.

Once all your content planning and programming is complete, you send it all out to the players that are running your video screens.

The Right MessageSo what exactly are you trying to accomplish with your digital sign and display network? Are you seeking opportunities for enhanced revenue? (Aren’t we all?) Is that enhanced revenue going to come from greater sales of your products, or perhaps through the sale of advertising on your displays?

Or, are you trying to get people where they’re going? Are you helping people find their way? Perhaps you’re trying to enhance communications with employees, improve morale, implement information training, or make new connections between the head honcho and the front lines?

Why ask these pesky questions? Because you really need to know and think through what you’re trying to accomplish as you create your messaging.

Consider the experience of one of the big burger chains. Of course, the chain wanted to sell more of its sandwiches and other featured items, and wanted to increase sales per cus-tomer who came through the doors. So it replaced one of its


Digital Signs & Displays For Dummies 22static menu boards with a digital display, and used that to flash the menu items it was pushing at the moment. Average revenue per customer increased, because the right message showed up just as the customers were making up their minds about what to order.

Same goes for the grocery store. Odds are you’re going to pro-mote something that’s on special this week. But what? Here’s a thought — make it something other than the low-margin loss leader that pulled the shopper into the store. Make it some-thing that’ll earn you some more money on the bottom line.

Be sure to give your display short, snappy content that grabs the customer’s attention and makes it clear what you want to happen. It needs a call to action, something immediate that sparks action now, not a month from now. Even better, deliver a message that yields action now but also encourages a return later — at a restaurant, show not only today’s special but also tomorrow’s. And one more thing — once you get the viewers’ attention, don’t immediately change the content.

Another thing to consider. How much time do you have to deliver your message? If you’re creating messaging for digital signs and displays in a public place such as a shopping mall, you’ve got very little time to grab attention. Studies show that as people walk by, they’ll glance at your sign for maybe a second and a half. If you don’t successfully grab them in that short time, you’ve lost. Another reason to keep things simple and snappy.

On the other hand, if you’re working on a display for a bank teller line, you may have a little more time. You’ve got a captive audience that actually wants to be engaged for more than a second and a half because there’s nothing better for them to do at the moment. Sure, you still need to keep it simple, but you may be able to offer a bit more text.

To sum it up, you have to think about how people typically behave when they’re in the environment you’re programming. Then plan your message with that behavior in mind. That advice also pertains to the visual design; know where people’s eyes typically go, and be sure your grabber is placed right there.


Chapter 3: The Sign Says 23

The Right TimeDigital content delivery allows you to swap out your content as frequently as you want without having to print and deliver new stuff. So, how do you determine how to schedule your content?

The answer depends on what kind of organization you’re serving and the placement of your communication system. Consider, for a moment, the needs of a digital sign and display network serving a grocery store. The typical grocery changes its sales and specials on a weekly basis, which means you’ll be missing the boat if your content changes only every two or three weeks. In a retail setting such as this, your content needs to reflect what’s on the shelves now, what’s on sale now, what you really want to move out the door now — and that’s going to be different next week than it is right now.

Truth is, though, you still might not be getting the most out of your digital sign and display network if you change out your grocery store messages on a weekly basis. You might fare even better if you think in terms of days, or even times of the day.

To stick with the grocery store example, consider that people who invite friends over to barbecue typically do so on the weekend. So maybe you time your meat department displays to push steaks starting on Thursday, and the content in the produce department suggests guacamole, with a helpful recipe and a reminder to pick up some avocados.

Or break your schedule down even further. For early-morning grocery shopping, displays may remind customers that they can pick up a cappuccino over by the deli. By midafternoon, the same displays may hawk the rotisserie chicken that, by the way, is on sale for a dollar off right now.

Setting up the appropriately targeted and timed promotion can be a snap, if you’ve got the right content management software application. For any particular element, you should be able to easily program when it will show up in a playlist, on which screen, and at which location. It sure won’t do you


Digital Signs & Displays For Dummies 24much good to promote cappuccino in one of your stores that doesn’t have a barista on staff, or snow shovels in your Miami location.

And one more thing — if you have a carefully timed promo-tion be sure the product you’re promoting is in stock. If your digital network is tied into your point-of-sale application, your promotion can automatically change to something else when the product on sale runs out.

No One Wants Stale Content, but . . .

Don’t forget, one of the big reasons you’re implementing digi-tal signs and displays is to gain the ability to deliver relevant content on a timely basis, and keep it up to date. We said earlier that digital sign and display communication isn’t the Internet, but one axiom of Internet content applies here, too: If you don’t keep the content new and fresh, viewers will start to tune it out.

“Oh great!” you exclaim. “Now I’m going to be a slave to my communication system, forced to crank out something new and fresh every day.” Not necessarily. Yes, you need some-thing fresh, but the process doesn’t have to enslave you.

Remember what we said about creating templates and drop-ping various bits of content into different parts of the screen. If you build your template wisely, it can be calling on different content sources continually, and things will freshen them-selves without you having to lift a finger as often.

Also, think in terms of creating modular elements that you can easily revise. If you’re that burger chain, you might create a standardized layout with a place for a sandwich image and a price down in one corner. Creating a new sign element, then, simply requires swapping out the sandwich and adjusting the price, not designing a whole new layout.

To err is human, so don’t panic if mistakes happen. It’s not about putting it up, it’s about getting it down — quickly.


Chapter 4

Signs for EveryoneIn This Chapter▶ Getting healthy with signs and displays▶ Tasting success through innovative marketing▶ Boosting communication with employees▶ Taking signs and displays to the bank▶ Delivering urgent information▶ Hosting and entertaining crowds▶ Finding where you’re going

D oes it seem like you’re spotting digital signs and dis-plays just about everywhere these days? That’s prob-

ably because you are. This increasingly powerful form of communication is finding its way into all kinds of markets, from healthcare and banking to entertainment and manufac-turing, even into police stations, jury selection rooms, and prisons.

In this chapter, we spotlight some of the primary markets where digital signs and displays are finding strong followers, and provide lots of examples of the ways in which the mes-sages are getting across.

Signs Point to Better HealthHealthcare is an extraordinarily complicated business. Generally speaking, customers (patients) would rather be


Digital Signs & Displays For Dummies 26anywhere but in the hospital or physician’s office. They frequently feel lousy, yet they often end up stuck there for long periods of time. They’re there to obtain a service that’s important to their health and well-being, but they may not fully understand what they’re buying.

Put that all together and there are lots of potential mes-sages to deliver. Health-related messages, for starters, educating patients about new treatments or healthy living. Entertainment-related programming, to help them pass the time. Wayfinding messages, to help them find the right place in a large and confusing facility. And for the benefit of the pro-vider’s bottom line, cross-selling messages that promote vari-ous hospital services or generate advertising revenue.

Healthcare is complicated not only for patients and families, but for caregivers and other employees, too. Digital signs and displays in a healthcare environment can be targeted at employees (employee facing), which means they will be delivering important patient safety tips, updates about ever-changing care processes and information-technology upgrades, notices of advancement opportunities, reminders about employee benefits, and other corporate communica-tions that keep employees informed and satisfied.

One multi-location American healthcare provider uses a net-work of displays to help inform patients of the services at other locations. Information about the provider and its offer-ings appears in one of three zones on the displays. Another zone features live cable news, fed directly to the panel from the local cable provider for the entertainment of patients and family members. Across the bottom is a feed of additional information about the provider.

Overseas, a digital sign and display network brings entertain-ment and informational programming to private medical clin-ics, but also allows the clinics an opportunity to easily insert their own information — about services, physicians, floor plans, and the like — into the mix. Another network is for pharmacies, sharing pharmaceutical information and advertis-ing. And what’s good for people works for dogs and cats, too; there’s a growing sign and display network feeding informa-tion, advertising, and site-specific messaging to hundreds of veterinary clinics.


Chapter 4: Signs for Everyone 27

Tasty InformationThe restaurant business is fiercely competitive — especially fast-food and quick-service restaurants, along with food ven-dors such as movie theater concession stands. Sure, good food is important to their success, but savvy marketing and strong customer connections are critical. An increasing number are building those connections and boosting their profits through digital sign and display applications.

The most obvious use is the digital menu board. You’ve prob-ably been noticing these more and more in just about any kind of establishment that requires you to order at a counter. If there’s not a server to explain the menu options and hawk the specials, digital displays are the most powerful option. The displays, which can be controlled either at the location or from a central chain office miles away, keep promotions up-to-date and encourage purchase of those products with the high-est margins.

At the movie theater, menu boards typically switch between standard listings of popcorn or drink prices and the variety of combo deals. Mixed in, the theater may include video of an especially refreshing-looking drink (that’s one of those high-profit products), or the trailer of an upcoming blockbuster.

A chain of old-fashioned drive-in restaurants is experiment-ing with high-tech digital signs and displays aimed at patrons ordering from their cars. The display activates automatically when a car pulls into the stall in front of it. It displays menu options, and the patron in the car can scroll through the choices using a controller nearby. Diners then use the control-ler to place their orders, after which they may switch the dis-play panel to show a live TV feed while they eat — the audio is delivered to the vehicle through a low-power FM radio signal. Another display zone continues to promote additional menu choices, such as dessert. All in all, it’s an intriguing retro restaurant experience with a futuristic twist.

About This CompanyCorporate communications may be directed outside the company — to the public, governmental officials, shareholders,


Digital Signs & Displays For Dummies 28visitors — as well as to the internal audience of employees. Digital sign and display applications are especially useful for the internal communications side of the coin.

Consider the factors that enter into employee satisfaction. Pay and benefits are highly important, of course, as are work con-ditions, flexibility, opportunities for advancement, a feeling of fulfillment. But in situations where morale is waning, one of the factors employees often cite is lack of adequate communica-tion. Digital signs and displays are an excellent solution, espe-cially when the workforce is widely distributed across multiple locations and not usually in front of a computer.

The possibilities are seemingly endless. Corporate commu-nications content on a digital network may include training or orientation information — perhaps in the form of notices about upcoming training seminars, or even through video snippets demonstrating new procedures or expectations. The network is also highly useful for sharing metrics, so work teams know whether they’re meeting their goals, as well as how the company is faring overall and what major new clients have been added lately.

Executives will use digital sign and display networks to dis-tribute video messages across the organization, or even to facilitate live, interactive employee meetings across great distances and multiple locations. And although digital signs and displays aren’t an employee benefit, they can be highly effective in educating employees about the benefits available to them and how to sign up, which can actually increase their satisfaction with their benefits packages.

Corporate communication also can be aimed toward outsid-ers, particularly visitors. Screens in the lobby, for example, might include an interactive, touchscreen company directory and wayfinding guide, general information about the com-pany, and lobby entertainment. Employees gain because effec-tive messaging can reduce interruptions and queries from visitors.

As with other uses, digital signs and displays in corporate communications are highly flexible. A major automaker, for example, operates a digital network throughout its world-wide manufacturing operation. Among the content is a daily


Chapter 4: Signs for Everyone 29newsfeed from headquarters, but before it hits a local screen at a manufacturing plant, communications personnel at that plant have an opportunity to customize the content and add location-specific details.

Another manufacturer has established a comprehensive digi-tal sign and display network to bring manufacturing quality and performance data directly to the assembly lines. As the company has become familiar with the technology, it has added more functionality, including the ability to conduct informal training through video sessions, delivered right to the workers at their stations.

A commercial bakery operation with locations in multiple states uses digital signs and displays for many things, includ-ing helping employees get the most out of their benefits. The company, for example, has distributed video tips for updating 401(k) statements. A team of administrative assistants across the locations is responsible for mixing local content into the corporate feed.

Banking on Signs and Displays What are some of the most popular venues for digital sign and display networks? Bank branches. It’s not hard to imagine why. Talk about a captive audience with lots of money; people lined up to make deposits are that audience.

It’s a very visual indication of just how much has changed in the world of financial services. It was, of course, once a staid, rather humdrum sector, but that changed when banks started getting into increasingly diverse lines of business. Today, tell-ers don’t just accept your deposit; they also try to cross-sell investment products or insurance. Digital signs and displays in the teller line do the same thing, providing not only the latest interest rates but also the details about products you might not have imagined buying at the bank (and not toasters, either).

Bank displays also serve to inform, entertain, and distract. Solid programming helps shorten the perceived wait in the teller line, and might include financial news, weather, or even entertainment. It can also shorten the actual wait time by incorporating a queuing system.



In Case of EmergencyIf you live in the “Tornado Alley” section of the U.S. or in a coastal area prone to hurricane activity, you’re familiar with emergency alert sirens. So what do you do when you hear the siren? More often than not, you turn on the TV to see what’s happening.

Electronic visual media such as TV news are excellent for distributing emergency information. They can show weather maps, evacuation routes, and emergency action bullet points. And they can do so instantaneously. Needless to say, digital sign and display networks are in on this action, too.

For example, the best corporate communication sign and dis-play networks often include a means for distributing urgent or emergency messages, whether it’s severe weather headed for a specific facility, or the arrival of regulatory inspectors. It’s common to equip them with RSS feeds providing up-to-the-minute weather and traffic information.

Providers of emergency services may have their own sign and display networks to coordinate internal information. One emergency management office in Florida, for example, oper-ates a multi-screen system to provide timely information to the 70-plus employees on duty, representing various public safety agencies from across the area. The screens include weather and traffic information, road and bridge closures, the location and capacity of emergency shelters, as well as the details of emergency measures presently being taken or in the plans. Before the installation, workers compiled this kind of information from multiple sources, sharing it as best as they could, often jotting details on dry-erase boards.

Rather than centralizing information from diverse sources, a network in the UK disseminates centralized emergency man-agement and law enforcement information to a group of rural stations. The briefing system keeps local officers up-to-date on criminal activity, departmental processes, new laws, and other important information.


Chapter 4: Signs for Everyone 31

Displays of HospitalityHospitality is a high-touch business, as hotel and casino guests expect lots of attention while they spend their dollars. But that attention is expensive to provide. Digital signs and displays are helping to keep guests pampered and in-the-know, while keeping costs under control.

Consider the concierge, for example. This kind of service has traditionally been reserved for the finest hotel properties, offering guests guidance, advice, and assistance to get the most from their visit —very nice, and potentially expensive. Hotel digital signs and displays can bring concierge services to even more properties, at a fraction of the cost of human concierges. These kiosks can share activity schedules, make restaurant reservations, offer directions, suggest entertain-ment ideas, and acquire tickets. Casino hotels have found digi-tal signs and displays useful for providing gaming instruction, again saving on labor costs but also saving guests from the need to ask potentially embarrassing questions about how to win at blackjack.

Hotel digital signs and displays also can offer meeting room information for business travelers, and promote hotel ameni-ties (especially those that bring in additional profitable rev-enue, such as spas and restaurants). It might include menu boards for the lounge or coffee shop — one major hotel chain found that a digital menu solution at an Oklahoma property yielded an increase in lounge visits and coffee sales.

One of the largest cruise lines operates a sophisticated digital sign and display network, with screens all over its various vessels. Guests and the company both benefit. Some of the screens are outfitted as interactive information centers, with touchscreen access to ship and port activities. Others cross-sell additional cruise destinations, digitally inviting guests back for future excursions. The entire network is managed remotely from a central location, which controls the individ-ual panels wherever they are in the world via satellite.



Crowd PleasersSome of the most elaborate digital sign and display instal-lations can be found in the world of entertainment — such places as stadiums, museums, and public spaces. What these areas have in common are large crowds of happy people, many of whom need to figure out where they’re going, most of whom have money burning a hole in their pocket. These signs can enhance the visitor experience in a big way, and can also generate tidy sums of advertising dollars.

In the stadium and arena setting, digital signs and displays share lots of lucrative advertising while adding to the enter-tainment value and crowd enthusiasm. Sophisticated net-works link video replay screens, scoreboards, and ribbon displays that provide detailed information about the local game, other games elsewhere, and multiple simultaneous marketing messages that support team spirit, the venue, and a host of advertisers.

In Norway, residents enjoy their horse races, and are able to place bets in more than a thousand spots across the country, from stores to gas stations. Historically, betting information was printed and distributed physically to the many remote locations, which was costly and required the efforts of hun-dreds of people to keep the materials up-to-date. Now, a network of more than a thousand kiosks conveys the often-changing information through digital displays. The foundation that administers the gaming benefits from vastly decreased costs, and participants gain from access to the most accurate and timely information possible.

Visitors to Hollywood are greeted by one of the biggest high-resolution displays anywhere, the 6-by-85-foot ribbon wrapping around the corner of a building at Hollywood and Highland. The giant display offers hours of commercial adver-tising opportunities, along with special entertainment news programming. Not far away, near the Kodak Theatre, is a huge display that includes details about events at the venue as well as advertising.

In the museum setting, digital signs and displays can be found behind information desks and ticket counters, providing greater details about rotating exhibits or visitor services.


Chapter 4: Signs for Everyone 33Guests benefit from the ease of finding important information, and the museums benefit when visitors choose to spend extra money on the attractions spotlighted on the boards.

Getting ThereDigital signs and displays are becoming more and more part of the transportation infrastructure every day. Airports, bus terminals, and train stations are great places to reach active, affluent audiences with advertising messages, and travelers also require detailed, timely information about destinations and departing planes, trains, and buses.

Today’s digital sign and display solutions blend these needs seamlessly. They link into transportation databases to auto-matically display arrivals, departures, and schedules, offering real-time information. And they do this alongside advertising that may promote travel products, retail options within the station, or any other business that wishes to reach this par-ticular demographic.

Consider this creative application, now being used in a Middle East airport. Displays in various boarding lounges have separate playlists that are influenced by the destinations of the passengers presently waiting there. The displays in one lounge will provide information and advertising about hotels and tourist activities in the destination city of the next flight departing from that lounge. Travelers in another boarding lounge receive completely different programming, based on where they’re going.

At another airport, a series of vertically oriented screens installed alongside a moving walkway are coordinated and timed so that the message greets and travels along with the traveler in a perfectly timed loop if they stand and stay to the right. The airport is outfitted with huge video cubes built with multiple screens for striking message possibilities. And another digital display installation unites seven high-definition screens, set near but not right next to one another. The con-tent is coordinated to give the illusion that it’s a single canvas.




Chapter 5

Getting StartedIn This Chapter▶ Outlining your objectives▶ Picking your network technologies▶ Signing up partners

D igital signs and displays do so many things better than any technology that preceded it for reaching out and

touching consumers, employees, and the general public.

So how do you get started in digital signs and displays? How do you make the move to replace or integrate it with your present means of communication? Will it be difficult or dis-ruptive? In this chapter, we outline some of the steps you may follow, whether you’re dipping your toe into the water or diving in headfirst.

Make a ChecklistThe first step is to put on your thinking cap. You need to clearly think through what it is you want to accomplish if you want to get the most out of your digital sign and display adventure. So, what are you trying to do?

✓ Make money: Are you intending to use your sign and dis-play network as a direct generator of revenue, through advertising?

✓ Save money: Are you going into digital signs and dis-plays to save yourself the expense of printing up and physically distributing marketing materials?


Digital Signs & Displays For Dummies 36 ✓ Drive sales: Will your sign and display network be there

to drive customer behavior and build sales of your prod-uct or service? Will you be cross-selling, or up-selling?

✓ Engage and educate your audience: Are you hoping to make better connections to specific audiences, such as employees or the general public? Are you trying to help your audience get something done, such as find their way through the airport?

By the way, it’s okay to choose more than one goal. Your sign and display network can walk and chew gum at the same time, you know. The point is to be clear up front what you’re hoping to achieve, because that will help you determine where you’ll be placing displays, what kind of displays you’ll be needing, how many locations you’ll be serving, and what kind of interactivity will be required.

Select the Right NetworkYou’ve got some decisions to make as you try to determine the extent of the network you’re planning. Better take some notes.

✓ Your display locations: For example, are your displays going in a retail store? If so, in a few places in the store, or all over from the entry to the dressing room? And, in how many stores? If not in a retail setting, in a restau-rant? In a bus station? On the bus itself? On the factory floor? In an office? In a museum?

✓ The type of displays: Are you looking for an attractive way to inform, like a decent-size LCD panel? Do you want it to send content to mobile devices of your sales team out in the field? Or are you trying to blow people away with a giant video wall? Or something in between? (Of course, you can plan a little bit of everything.) And again, how many places are you doing these things?

✓ Interactivity: How will your audience be involved? As spectators? As participants? Do you need a kiosk or a virtual keyboard? Will viewers interact with their smart-phones? Will the display interface with customer loyalty cards and shopper buying histories?


Chapter 5: Getting Started 37 ✓ Cool capabilities: Do you plan to measure traffic in front

of your displays? Will you want technology to count visi-tors, capture their eye gazes, determine their gender and age, or keep track of how long they’re watching?

You also need to consider how programming will vary from one screen to another, and whether your content manage-ment system will need to gather information from the dis-plays, not just deliver data to the display panels. That will help you determine what kind of networking technology you’ll need.

Plus, you need to figure out how you’ll be deploying your net-work. Starting small and expanding a little at a time, or pulling out all the stops from the beginning.

The answers to all these questions will help you discern the best way to proceed. You may be fine with an entry-level, Internet-based solution that requires no investment in server or content software, just display panels. You might need stan-dard-definition media appliances driving your screens, or it might be necessary to plug them into personal computers. Or maybe you need a major installation with multiple servers.

Pick Your PartnerWe’re really not kidding — digital signs and displays can be pretty simple to use, and content can be reasonably easy to create. But don’t feel bad if it seems rather daunting. The more ambitious the goals you’ve established, and the more complex the network you’re planning, the more you’re going to need a solid partner to help you get your operation up and running.

The good news is that there are lots of possible partners out there, ready to get you going. Partners can take on anything and everything when it comes to establishing a sign and dis-play network — whatever you need.

Thing is, there are enough potential partners out there that you might actually find the selection process to be a chal-lenge in its own right. What you need is a reputable place to get started. Your best bet is to first explore the technology options, find a company whose products have the right


Digital Signs & Displays For Dummies 38capabilities, and then find out which vendors are on that com-pany’s list of preferred partners. That way you can be sure you’re signing up with a provider that is reputable, knowl-edgeable, and well-prepared to install and set up the technol-ogy you’ve chosen.

What kind of help can you find? Just about anything:

✓ Sales partners: These are companies that deal directly with the manufacturer you’ve selected, designing and installing networks, selling licensed products, and offer-ing training and support. You also might find service partners that don’t actually sell the technology and licenses, but are whizzes when it comes to making it work well.

✓ Content creators: These partners typically don’t sell the technology, but they work with you in the creation of highly effective content. If you’re new to this, you’ll really benefit from the expertise of someone who knows the ropes when it comes to content. Hiring a content cre-ator doesn’t mean you’re out of the loop — you can still create and add messages yourself. But your partner can lay the groundwork so that your part is fast and easy.

✓ Network operators: These are companies that have established their own sign and display networks, and essentially sublease space on them to others, like you. The benefit to you is ease of entry and operation; the smaller details are someone else’s problems, not yours.

✓ Platform partners: These companies are focused on pro-viding the hardware your sign and display network will need. You may or may not need to do business with this kind of partner, depending on what other kind of partner you have enlisted.

✓ Technology partners: This kind of vendor specializes in adding bells and whistles to your network. It might not necessarily sell the primary technology that runs your network, but rather sells hardware or software that can add value to what you do.


Chapter 6

Ten Secrets to Successful Digital Signs and Displays

In This Chapter▶ Honing the message▶ Thinking big, then thinking even bigger

D igital signs and displays can be game changers for your organization. They can boost your marketing efforts,

improve your image, and enhance your employee communica-tions. This chapter gives you a head start with, say, ten ideas to help ensure that your digital sign and display future is happy and hassle-free:

✓ Make your message relevant: No matter how cool your technology is, never forget that content is king, and it absolutely must be relevant to where the customer is and what he or she is doing. One fast-food chain sold toilet paper advertising on its sleek sign and display network. Really?

✓ Give viewers’ eyes a sugar rush: That may look like a flat-screen TV you’re bolting to the wall as part of your network — but it’s not. If your content looks like TV, your viewers will change the channel, figuratively speaking. Make it pop! Give them eye candy! Your content needs to leap from the screen with not only compelling imagery but also a strong call to action.

✓ Include the whole team: Digital signs and displays make it possible for you to be in a central, headquarters-type location and control messaging in dozens or hundreds or thousands of places. Very powerful. But it’s even more powerful if your people on the front lines feel part of


Digital Signs & Displays For Dummies 40the game, too. They need to be on the team, not fighting against it.

✓ Pick the right spot: The old adage in real estate applies just as critically in digital signs and displays: location, location, location! Is your screen at eyeline, or way up by the ceiling somewhere? If you’re in the grocery business and your screen is pushing an ice cream special, is it near the ice cream, or by the checkout stands, where the message will arrive too late to act upon?

✓ Make it easy: It’s wonderful to have a gee-whiz digital system. But what if you need to make a small change? Can you do it? Are you running a special with the wrong price or a message with a typo? Be sure you pick a system that makes it easy to handle those last-minute fixes.

✓ Close the loop: If you want to sell advertising on your system, you have to be able to prove that you really delivered the goods, or you can’t collect. You need affi-davits showing that the ads ran where and when they were supposed to. For that, you need not only to provide content to your signs, you need your signs to return the billing logs. Which means you need a two-way, closed-loop system.

✓ Go for immediate gratification: What you want to go for is immediacy. Like the ability to change out messages instantly and relate them to current events, conditions, and customers. Like the comfort of knowing the sign on the other end will be updated at the right time, and yes-terday’s message will go away when it’s supposed to.

✓ Stand and deliver: You need a network that can handle a hybrid delivery system — some satellite and some ter-restrial. Seems simple enough, but not all systems can do it, so be sure to inquire.

✓ Train employees: You’ve gone to the trouble of setting up a network and it’s working wonders with your market-ing. So why not build it out just a little more and use it for internal employee communications and training, too?

✓ Be ready to grow: Imagine your frustration if you’re ready to scale up and you find that the system doesn’t handle it well. Ask from the start how the network will scale upward. Expect the unexpected, and get a system that will handle it.


Appendix

Glossarybilling log: If you’re selling advertising on your signs, each sign will need to send you a billing log proving what ads ran when and how often. Without this proof, you’ll have a hard time billing a prudent advertiser.

closed-loop system: You can hook up your digital signs via one-way communication (for sending data out to them) or via a two-way connection (so they can send back reports on vari-ous things, including billing logs and viewer data). The latter connection is a closed-loop system.

compliance: This is a simple way of saying “making sure the job gets done the way it’s supposed to get done.” In the case of digital signs and displays, that job is putting messages up at the right time in the right place, and taking them down at the right time, too. Much easier with digital signs, because humans are kept out of the loop.

content management system: This is the software that con-ducts the symphony of your signage network, putting mes-sages together on the various screens, scheduling what will appear when and where, and delivering the content to the digital sign or display player.

CPM: This stands for cost per thousand viewers, which is what you charge advertisers for space on your signage. You say you don’t spell “thousand” with an “M”? Well, they did back in the days when people spoke Latin (though they didn’t have digital signs back then).

digital sign or display player: This device is what feeds your messaging to an individual signage display or two. It might be a standalone media appliance or a personal computer running special software.


Digital Signs & Displays For Dummies 42DOOH: Not to be confused with Homer Simpson’s favorite declaration, “D’oh,” this stands for digital out of home adver-tising. That’s anything aimed at people when they’re away from home — as long as it’s delivered digitally.

Flash: This is a multimedia platform that can add motion and interactivity to such things as web pages and, yes, digital signs and displays. Possibly more powerful than sci-fi comic hero Flash Gordon.

image burn-in: When the exact same image sits in the same place on a screen for a long time, it can leave behind a perma-nent ghost of itself and ultimately ruin the equipment. Good reason to vary the messaging and move the company logo around on the screen now and then.

image formats: Your digital sign and display solution should be able to handle photos and illustrations in a wide range of formats, such as JPG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, and BMP.

kiosk: A digital sign and display network component that is built for interaction. It might include a keyboard or other means for submitting user info into the network.

menu boards: By becoming digital, restaurant menu boards can more actively hawk various items, change prices, and add specials easily.

metadata: It may sound confusing, but this basically is infor-mation about information, or data about data. Metadata is tacked onto your messages — in a way that viewers won’t see — and is what helps your digital sign and display network understand which message runs on which display, and at what time.

multicast distribution: Multicast is a “push” model allowing downloading of signage content to occur in parallel, rather than every site separately. Data can be sent simultaneously to any number of remote sites, often by satellite, without increasing bandwidth, and that means faster delivery for large networks.

narrowcasting: This is the opposite of broadcasting. It means narrowly targeting the delivery of your content (often video) rather than sending it out everywhere.


Appendix: Glossary 43out-of-home advertising: You might see it shortened to OOH. It’s like DOOH without the D. Non-digital advertising targeted at people away from their homes.

point-of-sale system: This is the system retailers use to handle transactions and the records of such sales. POS systems can be linked with display networks so that sales and inventory can automatically drive messaging.

RSS: What does this stand for? Originally, it was RDF Site Summary, but when geeky slang users took it over, they defined it as Really Simple Syndication. An RSS feed brings outside content such as news, weather, sports scores, and the like into your digital sign and display network automatically. (In case you wondered, RDF stands for Resource Description Framework.)

scripting: This is the process through which your digital sign and display messages come to life. Still and video images — along with screens of text, or text over the image — can be combined with transitions and customized timing through scripting. These scripts are then scheduled and distributed by the content management system.

Software as a Service: Also known as SaaS, this is a sub-scription-based concept allowing users to access a content management system (or any other kind of software) via the Internet rather than actually buying the software and the server hardware you would need to run it. It’s a great way to get started in digital signs and displays.

sound formats: Get attention with sound files in such formats as WAV and MP3.

terrestrial distribution: This is not ET phoning home. This is land-based networking linking your signs and displays with your content-management system, as opposed to satellite links. Very large networks might be slowed by terrestrial dis-tribution because content for each site is separately “pulled” from the server.

video formats: Moving pictures make your signage pop into viewers’ attention, so be sure your solution can handle such formats as H.264, MPEG2, AVI, SWF, MPG, and WMV.




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