The colorful world of sound.
Christian at Just Out-of-Home recently posted an article about audio on OOH content, and I applaud his post because he is correct: This is one of those topics of OOH that seems to be ignored when thinking about the message.
Instead of replying to Christian’s post, I would like to give you my guidelines on audio, the same guidelines I give to every content provider on Best Buy’s network.
Our main channel, the HD program, resides in the home theater department for the most part. It is modulated throughout the store, so other areas my have the appropriate connection to access the channel. But it has a visual reach beyond the physical department space.
In a retail environment, even in a home theater department, the television wall is usually tuned to the closed circuit network channel. An effective presentation is designed to give the viewer the opportunity to compare TVs, not necessarily compare audio. (If the customer wants to learn about audio, he or she can visit a studio room with the receivers and speaker sets.)
In the case of audio, I suggest that the audio on any content only complement what is shown on the screen. It should not, under any circumstances, be considered a vital method of information.
There are two reasons for this:
The first is the store control of the audio. We have a standard operating procedure. But, we can’t keep them from altering the audio for any number of reasons. As Christian noted, the employee(s) may be bored with the program, or there may be other TVs tuned to something else that an employee really wants to watch; or, combined with the rest of the store ambiance, it may just be too noisy.
The second reason is that viewers of the program may not be standing right in front of the screen and therefore will not hear it. Our HD program is tailored for the home theater department, but it has visual reach across the store. If you’re more than 30 feet away, you won’t hear it anyway.
As a provider, you have the opportunity to speak to a set of traffic that doesn’t step foot in the department, so don’t limit yourself to only those standing within a few feet.
This is also a great point of education for the creative producers and agencies. The agency perspective, as correctly pointed out by Christian, is that digital signage “is TV” and is akin to the creative mediums utilized by broadcast.
I always tell providers to Best Buy’s network to watch their content with the audio turned off. If any part of the message is missing, they need to redo their spot. How it is reconfigured is case-by-case, depending on the desired message. But this way you can be sure that the audience got the message, and nothing was lost.
As a post script, I have seen technology that automatically changes the audio volume in a local setting depending on noise. For example, the louder the noise around you, the louder the audio from the TV, to make sure you get the message. This is worth investigating for your venue, but I caution against taking too much control away from the employee. It’s not ideal for them to be altering the programming in any sense, but their control over the ambient factors (lighting, TV, sound, temperature, etc.) gives them a tool to create an individual experience for each customer if they so desire. I would recommend bringing your employees in and talking about these types of control before implementing. You may be surprised to hear what they have to say.
By the way, the speakers in the photo above are a do-it-yourself project, courtesy of Instructables.
Ah, thanks for continuing the conversation/keeping it going Paul! I think this is a topic that is not discussed much or thought out well and is more “expected” than anything else. Visual communications give the audience a choice to whether watch or not, so content strategy in the visual sense is definitely critical and has more of the feel that it Must be thought out well. We know this philosophy is still not even at the optimal level still in the industry.
But with audio, such is not the case. You definitely can “force feed” the content to the audience, and I see this as a huge potential detriment to the network value and the business overall. Because of this potential, I believe one must be very careful in their consideration of audio content. If it’s relevant and good (just as it is important for visual content), then visual + audio content can be the most powerful means of communication. But if this combination is not thought out well; the audience (and I include employees in this group) will gain a negative perspective on your network very quickly. Let’s not even go into the effects of this on the potential sales.
Definitely good to see the POV from a Best Buy point of view, as it makes the message even more real and relevant. Great post Paul! and thanks for the read.
P.S. No comments/replies are ever required on my site. :) Thanks for the continuous visits.
I agree, Christian, that there is little better than an effective combination of audio and video, and certainly do not wish to downplay audio’s importance. My point to this is to never assume that the viewer hears what you’re trying to convey. If you turn the audio off and don’t get the message, then re-do the video. You can still keep the audio.
[...] on the Noise!” post, where Paul Flanigan of Experiate.net wrote a excellent reply in his post on this issue as well. In general, let’s just say that the issue of “Audio” is all [...]