Digital signage by any other name...
One of the dangers of digital signage is the risk of being a gimmick instead of driving traffic. It can be a costly challenge. Customer engagement should be compelling, not gobbling up space from a lack of anything else to do. I have seen costly mistakes start with, “Hey, let’s just hang a TV there!”
Recently I went to the Mall Of America in Minneapolis, that retail mecca, on a Saturday when it was three degrees below zero outside. I was not alone. The place was packed.
I walked by the Columbia Outerwear store. On their front window, they had an interactive touch screen placed directly on the glass window of their storefront.
Further investigation was required…
Immediately I saw that this was a very cool application in the wrong context. The glass touch area was big, clear, bright, and definitely stood out. But that’s about where the pros ended.
There are several challenges for this interactive sign. I think bringing these into discussion and thinking about solutions help us understand where we can move from something people just look at to something people connect with.
Challenge: Traffic Jam? This was on the front glass of the store for the mall traffic to see. The problem was that I stopped to look at it and immediately had the feeling I was now making a mall full of foot traffic walk around me. I had an incredible urge to keep moving and not stop.
Solution: Don’t put interactive signage in high-traffic areas or tight access areas (like aisles in retail stores) where the flow will be disrupted.
Challenge: Stopping Power? The top two-thirds of the screen were a video that had a stuttered, flash-video effect instead of a fluid, higher-definition and clean look. The bottom third was the call to action. The call to action was so small that moving by at a brisk pace would keep most people from even noticing that it was interactive.
Solution: Make the call to action, especially on an interactive, big and centered. Make the video clean and sexy. Traffic walking by at a higher speed will never pick up on the small copy.
Challenge: Content? I couldn’t figure out why I should touch the screen. The video showed guys in really cold conditions like mountains and seas. Beyond five feet from the glass, I could not hear anything. Was this to learn about clothing, or buy reality-adventure movies?
Solution: Make the context blatantly apparent. If you’re going to sell clothes, put clothes on the screen. Remember, the attract video is only the hook. The deep dive comes after someone has chosen to touch the screen. Another thought given the geography: In the Midwest, we know what cold looks like. This isn’t much different than what we see every day during the winter months. (It’s probably colder here than on those mountains.)
I stood 25 feet away for about 15 minutes and I watched hundreds of people walk by. Not one person stopped or touched the screen.
Deeper investigation would probably reveal several things that all of us in the industry could subjectively consider great or not-so-great. But until you have the connection, there’s not much to talk about.
I think this potentially engaging interactive falls short because the strategy around context needs more thorough understanding. Setting aside the ability to physically move the screen to another location (the store did have a corner window angle in the mall that could put this on a side window out of direct traffic flow), I think some slight modification in their video would give them a big boost in traffic exposure and interactivity.
I certainly hope it does not cost them much…
