Bright Lights, Dynamic Content
The electronic billboard market in the United States grew in excess of 150 percent (CAGR) between 2006 and 2009, and continues to grow. Are you getting a piece of this "digital" pie?
While dining at a Chicago-area restaurant last month, my sister experienced a first: A wine list was handed to her in the form of an Apple iPad. "Interesting," she thought. "It's easy to change and they don't have to reprint it." A graphic designer friend of mine, meanwhile, spotted digital menu...
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"While over 96 percent of billboard locations will continue to be printed billboards in the US market through at least 2015, electronic billboards will become more ubiquitous," IT Strategies' Boer wrote. "The driving factor is the ability to provide more advertisements in the same space, increasing the revenue utilization of that space, followed by a reduction in labor costs. Factors holding back more placements and conversion from printed to electronic billboards will eventually not be hardware cost and return on investment [ROI], but mainly outside factors, such as regulatory and community opposition."
Commuters, Shoppers <3 Interactivity
It's not just Valentine's Day that got people in the mood as they traveled by train through London, England, last month. Unilever's Dove beauty brand also spread a little love and happiness throughout the usual frenzy at Victoria Station, which has a daily footfall of around 350,000 people. Beginning February 13, commuters saw a different question each day on the large-format Transvision screen, inviting thoughts and reflections on the beautiful women in their lives. Visitors were encouraged to text or tweet their responses, which then were displayed on the screens for all to see. The brand engaged commuters to answer questions such as:
- Who is the most beautiful woman in your life?
- What makes you feel beautiful?
- What puts a smile on your face?
Dove brand ambassadors spread the love even further by sharing small gifts relevant to each day's question, surprising and delighting commuters throughout the station. To celebrate Valentine's Day, commuters were asked, "What do you love about your Valentine?" and were presented with a beautiful white tulip inviting them to share the flower with the women who light up their lives.
The campaign, booked by Kinetic and Mindshare, created by Billington Cartmell, ran on JCDecaux's Transvision screen through Feb. 19. The campaign was delivered via Grand Visual's OpenLoop platform, which allows clients and agencies to manage live social media feeds from their desktop and publish them instantly across digital out-of-home formats.
"We hope the engagement and interactive nature of our campaign will bring a smile and a moment of Dove's warmth to Londoners during their daily commute," said Unilever's Jocelyn Hsieh, senior brand development manager on Dove Global. James Byard, account director for Kinetic, added, "As well as being a great demonstration of the dynamism available in the out-of-home medium, Dove's campaign is a great show of what can be achieved when a creative is so relevant to an environment."
For use inside stores, Reflect Systems, Inc. released its ReflectView 6 rich-media software suite last month, making it easier for businesses to customize, manage, and transmit content seamlessly on any scale, said the company. The upgraded version features developments in content and channel tagging, preview capabilities, and distribution. ReflectView was originally introduced in 2005 and has since been employed by more than 20 major brands, businesses, and retail chains, including BestBuy, Target, GameStop, and Verizon Wireless Its digital media network has been used to manage more than 250,000 screens throughout the United States and Canada, powering in-store media ranging from digital signage for merchandising to interactive applications.
New to ReflectView 6 is an in-depth tagging system that allows users to apply descriptive tags and rules to individual files, playlists, and channels, resulting in more efficient content management, according to the company. The tagging system ensures the right messages are experienced in the right way and helps to streamline the content-management process in a number of ways:
Usage rules create safeguards that prevent unfavorable combinations of files, playlists, or channels such as landscape files played on portrait video screens or standard-definition files displayed on high-definition channels. A tiered rule system also allows users to see whether a particular file is "recommended," "allowed," "not recommended," or "prohibited" for a particular channel or playlist and sort accordingly. Descriptive tags make it easy to search for content that meets specific criteria.
ReflectView users now have the ability to preview content (videos and playlists) in the ReflectView Publisher as well as through a link-sharing feature that allows individual content files and full playlists to be accessed from desktops, laptops, tablets, and "smart" mobile phones—and experienced in the same way as at a website. This new feature has been designed with efficiency in mind as multiple viewers can preview and comment on content quickly without the hassle of access restrictions or content quality concerns.
