KioskCom & The Digital Signage Show

One plus one should equal one.

One plus one should equal one.

This was my first show since I left Best Buy and formed the Preset Group, and I was thrilled to catch up with many friends and finally meet so many colleagues I have followed for so long: Bill Yackey, Adrian Cotterill, Lionel Tepper, Ken Goldberg, Steven Ghigliotty, and Rob Gorrie, among others. Leaving a corporate political juggernaut, I was excited to invest time in the industry rather than turn my tag and avoid the booths.

KioskCom was solid. Previous impressions made me wonder whether this would be a show worth attending. In the past it would seem that KioskCom and The Digital Signage Show were trying very hard to figure out their place in the rapidly growing conference/show sector of the industry. But the tireless efforts of Lawrence, Liz, and the rest of the gang resulted in a complete package for attendees. Most of the press walking away after two days agree that this was the best show yet. I applaud their efforts.

Here are a few things that I learned:

Begin With The End In Mind
Anthony Albanese, Chief Strategy Office for Outcast Media asked us, “What is your point of difference in the eyes of your customer?” While I know that the customer is always the most significant factor in an effective strategy, I did not know how many companies out there are finally embracing this philosophy. Regardless of your role in the industry, the common currency is the customer (and/or the “customer experience”), and he or she must be treated like the king. Perhaps “Customer Is King?”

Single Digit Is The New Double Digit
Patrick Quinn, President and CEO of pqmedia, provided numbers from his forthcoming trends report showing single digit growth over the next two years, much less than what we have enjoyed in the past. While I don’t think this comes as a big surprise, what is great to see is that our industry continues to see positive growth in a down economy while other forms of communication continue their decline. Very encouraging.

Give Girls What They Want!
Leslie Armour, President of Youth Marketing Group, gave a spirited talk that exploited the theory of messaging to the one with the money. In one example, she talked about Fred, and how Fred’s merchandise is flying off the shelves at Justice stores because, “the girls are screaming for it but Mom hates it.” The in-store network can target the consumer, not the shopper. This is a basic shift from the business model often utilized in grocery and CPG outlets who target the money, not particularly the end user (e.g. Your child may love Pop Tarts, but Mom is the one who buys them).

I’m Still Not Convinced
I gave a talk during the closing session about how we as an industry continue to rally around the solution of integration, but we ourselves are still fragmented enough that buyers are struggling to get a complete and cost-effective solution. One audience member described how he arrived looking for a kiosk solution, but the adoption of digital signage by so many kiosk organizations forced him to think about digital signage as part of the package, and forced him to have to walk the floor and work harder than he wanted. “I’m not as confident walking out of this as I would like to be.” We still have a long way to go.

Leave NYC Before Everyone Else Does
I had to catch a 6:00 a.m. flight from NYC to Minneapolis for an early morning meeting. Thinking of the city that never sleeps, I left my hotel near Times Square at a little after 4:00 a.m., and was sitting at the gate by 4:40 a.m. It took only 15 minutes to get from Manhattan to LaGuardia. Nice. Seen on the pilot’s bag as he headed for the plane: “I miss Pluto.”

I hope Lawrence asks me back next time. I think this is a show with a lot of potential.

  • http://www.digitalsignageexpo.net Richard Lebovitz

    I enjoyed reading your comments but am confused about your remarks in the section titled “Give Girls What They Want!” If the girls are screaming for it but Moms hate it, wouldn’t you be marketing to the shopper (the girls, or the end user) rather than the mother (the consumer, or the one with the money)? You say, “The in-store network can target the consumer, not the shopper.” I can see that as a shift, as my understanding of the basic premise of digital signage is it provides information to the shopper at the point of decision-making in the store. But of course, why couldn’t it be used for either approach, depending on the venue and the customer? It’s still about relevancy.

  • Paul

    Richard,

    Thanks for the note. First, I left a link off the post, but have put it in there, a link to one of Fred’s episodes. That would help show how this is less than appealing. I have also put a link to the Justice store website to provide more background on the consumer, the Tween.

    I think our definitions are different. My definition of consumer is the end-user, the tween who loves Fred and wears the shirt. The shopper is the one with the money, the mom that gets dragged into the store to endure a screaming kid on the TV and watch the reaction from her child.

    You are correct, it’s all about relevance. In this case, I’m seeing a shift in a different environment. To elaborate, a grocery store has messaging targeted directly to the shopper (the one with the money). The shopper might also be the consumer, but in families, the shopper also buys for consumers that are not present (Mom buying Frosted Flakes for her 12 year-old son at home). In the case of Justice stores, the shoppers can be moms and tweens. The interesting thing to me is to see how a network must cater to two radically different demographics: The Mom (almost always the shopper in this case), the one with the money but without any interest in the fashions of the tween demo and the Tween (sometimes the shopper because sometimes she has money) with a raging interest in fashion.

    To be able to cross promote effectively is…well…very effective.

    As a matter of fact, this very presentation has driven me to write a little more about this due to some other stuff I have seen that show the power of the Tween in brand engagement. Fascinating stuff.

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